Conservatism

The Bankruptcy of Conservative Political Paternalism

by Richard M. Ebeling February 16, 2021

Political paternalism – the belief that those in government possess more knowledge, wisdom, and ability to plan, guide, and direct various aspects of people’s lives better than those people themselves – comes in many forms. The American “progressive” movement is euphoric with being, once again, close to power with the new Biden Administration in the hope of intensifying and ...

The Patriot Party Platform

by Laurence M. Vance February 8, 2021

Within a week after moving out of the White House, Donald Trump announced the creation of the “Office of the Former President.” According to an official statement dated January 25, “The Office will be responsible for managing President Trump’s correspondence, public statements, appearances, and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to ...

Conservative Hypocrisy on Foreign Aid

by Laurence M. Vance January 5, 2021

After initially threatening to veto it, Donald Trump signed into law a $2.3 trillion, 5,593-page spending bill that no member of Congress had read. The “Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021” (H.R.133), which is a combination of twelve annual funding bills, COVID-19 relief, and pounds and pounds of pork, passed the House in two separate votes ...

Conservative Principles

by Laurence M. Vance December 1, 2020

Back at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis in the United States in March of this year, two Democratic representatives (Tim Ryan of Ohio and Ro Khanna of California) proposed that the federal government give at least $1,000 to every American making less than $65,000 a year. Three Democratic senators (Michael F. Bennet of Colorado, Cory Booker of New ...

What Do Republicans Stand For?

by Laurence M. Vance September 11, 2020

Since this is a presidential election year, and the Republican Party wants Americans’ votes, it is fitting to ask the question: What do Republicans stand for? Writing in Politico Magazine, chief political correspondent Tim Alberta hit the nail on the head: “The supposed canons of GOP orthodoxy — limited government, free enterprise, ...

How to Tell RINOs From Elephants

by Michael Tennant August 19, 2020

Conservatives frequently dub Republican politicians they deem insufficiently committed to “free enterprise, private property, and limited government” Republicans in Name Only, or RINOs. But are they really phony Republicans? “The Republican Party was always, from its inception, the party of big government in America,” Thomas DiLorenzo observed in his book Lincoln Unmasked. As the successor to the Whig Party, the ...

Republicans Are Now Good For Exactly …….. Nothing!

by David Stockman April 13, 2020

Nancy Pelosi, Chuckles Schumer and the rest of the Dem wrecking crew surely have the Trumpified GOP by the short hairs. The latter are clueless about the real imperative, which is to halt the senseless shutdown of the US economy ASAP. So like deer caught in the headlights of public fear, outrage and hurt by the Covid Quarantines, they have ...

Why Don’t Conservatives Tell the Truth about Food Stamps?

by Laurence M. Vance January 13, 2020

About two years ago, the Trump administration, through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, announced new guidelines that allowed states to impose work requirements for able-bodied persons to receive Medicaid. Now it has strengthened work requirements for the food-stamp program. Predictably, just as two years ago, Democrats and liberals are outraged. The federal food-stamp program (officially called SNAP, the Supplemental ...

Ice and Fire

by Laurence M. Vance January 1, 2020

The relationship between conservatism and libertarianism is a tenuous one. However, such was not always the case. Fellow travelers of both groups were united in opposing Roosevelt’s New Deal. The work of the late economist Murray N. Rothbard (1926–1995) on the “Old Right” is indispensable here. After World War II, the political right was generally opposed, not only to ...

Conservatives and the Looting of Americans

by Laurence M. Vance September 16, 2019

The ideas of Thomas Robert Malthus (1766–1834) are alive and well. Malthus was the popularizer of the bogus idea that the population was increasing beyond the means of subsistence. He wrote in his 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population, “The power of population is indefinitely greater than the power in the earth to produce subsistence for man” ...

Another Worthless Republican Plan

by Laurence M. Vance September 2, 2019

The national debt, budget deficit, federal budget, and congressional spending have all skyrocketed during the time that Donald Trump has been in office — just as they did when George Bush and Barack Obama were in office. The national debt now exceeds $22 trillion. It is expected to reach $23 trillion by the end of 2019. The debt is a ...

Conservatives, Libertarians, and Family Leave

by Laurence M. Vance April 5, 2019

Former president and conservative icon Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) famously said about conservatism and libertarianism in 1975, If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of ...