If Conservatives want to win the cultural and social war against socialism then they need to start with establishing and maintaining core principles. Such an idea is not some ‘pollyannaish’ theoretical model asking people to behave like saints or to contradict the realities of obtaining and maintaining power. The observation is nothing more than a sensible approach to differentiate the conservative product in the political marketplace and restore its brand image with a cynical and increasingly disinterested voting population. Not to establish and ensure the credibility and honesty of principles and ideas will inevitably lead conservative parties towards crass populism and eventually into oblivion. Sadly we have conservative leaders in both Canada and the USA doing the opposite of what serves their interests.
Today in the USA the 12 year Republican-Conservative reign will end with the left wing of the Democrat party in full control of the House and perhaps the Senate. One reason for this is the natural cycle of voter exhaustion with those in power. But a more substantial reason is that voters don’t see a large difference in implementation detail between the 2 main US parties. The Republicans have not been able to brand themselves as conservatives. On only 3 issues are there significant differences between the 2 main competing ‘gangs’ of power in the US; how to prosecute and win the war on terror; lowering taxation; and reforming the US legal and tort system. Granted all 3 issues are important – but the Republicans have not done a good job at portraying themselves as being much different in substance then their opponents.
When conservatives cannot push reform; adhere to conservative principles and display integrity in office, they are doomed. The media, the education establishment, Hollywood, unions, and recipients of government largesse are natural and violent enemies of conservative ideals. When the voting populace has little to choose from they will naturally pick the party of crasser populism – the one that hands out more money, more favors, more emotional rhetoric, and more inane programs to curry favor. If conservatives engage in that game they are doomed.
Conservative movements become weak when they act like socialist demagogues. George W. Bush has both positive and negative attributes but his record is obviously mixed. The economy has grown; tax cuts worked; the stock market is at record highs; unemployment is low and the US shows economic resiliency that is shocking to Canadians and Europeans, who under the same circumstances [war, massive government spend, natural disasters, Barbara Streisand], would be mired in long recessions.
The core of Republican weakness is that Bush and his government cronies are big-government conservatives and inconsistent ones at that. The US conservative movement has become outright supporters of the welfare state. Compassionate conservatives have set out to surpass the leftists in spending. Bush has not vetoed a single spending bill, and he ranks with FDR and LBJ as a great financier of the welfare state. To call this triumvirate "free-market," or "pro-business," is an intellectual and political crime. Yet this is what the Bush conservatives claim even as non-military spending has skyrocketed under the conservative watch.
Increase in non-military spending per year:
-Nixon/Ford: 6.8% per year
-Carter: 2.0% per year
-Reagan: -1.3% per year
-Bush 1: 4.0% per year
-Clinton: 2.5% per year
-Bush Jr: 8.2% per year
[from US Congressional Budget Office]
Bush Jr. is the biggest spender of the bunch. Under Bush Jr., the Department of Education has nearly doubled in size. Attempts to eliminate Social Security have now changed into plans to ‘save it’. Private savings accounts will be owned by individuals but controlled by the government. Private medicine will be by cartels, under government controls and grants. Welfare will be distributed by private groups, including churches and other religious organizations, who will seek the approval of government bureaucrats. This is not a conservative program – in fact it is largely the opposite of conservative principles and this is why the Republicans will witness a Democratic takeover of the House and a near takeover of the Senate. You can’t ‘out-socialist’ the socialists. Voters understand this and little is more repulsive than watching ‘conservatives’ act like socialists.
In Canada the same has occurred. Within 10 months of attaining ultimate power the so-called ‘Conservative’ government broke an election promise not to tax a legal corporate form called an Income Trust which pays no corporate income tax, but disburses surpluses to shareholders who then pay a dividend tax. This form of organization is essential for smaller firms needing to access capital at good rates and it attracts foreign and domestic investors. By raising taxes on such a form of organization the populist ‘conservatives’ send 4 messages; 1. Corporate tax rates which are the 2nd highest in the world in Canada will not be reformed. 2. Wiping out investors literally overnight is not a concern. 3. Access to capital is not a pressing issue for the ‘conservative’ government and 4. Arbitrary use of government power which marks corrupt nations like Russia or Cuba is now part of the ‘conservative’ program.
The above ensure that in Canada, a ‘conservative’ government has no credibility. Breaking promises; raising taxes and thus the costs of goods and services; bashing business and raising the barriers to capital access and lowering GDP growth, job creationism and ultimately the standard of living, are now associated with a ‘conservative’ policy. It is a dangerous and insulting display of political calculation and anti-market, anti-capitalist policy calculation. Meanwhile the Canadian Federal Government budget grows by 10% per year, whilst record surpluses are enjoyed as a result of over-taxation. It is little wonder that the average voter views any rule by ‘conservatives’ as not being any different from any other populist or statist group.
The best that can be said for the ‘conservative’ movements in Canada and the US is that the alternative is worse. Yet such a policy of ‘vote for us we are not as bad as the liberal-socialists’ is not one that has any endurance. If conservatives can’t reclaim their heritage and principles they will simply morph into yet another demagogic vote buying concern. Hence populism; diversity; multi-cultism; eco-fascism; 'values'; regional programs, subsidies, protectionism and the like become embedded features of national existence – much to the detriment of the society. Populist parties carve society up into little blocks and make sure the little blocks are dependent on government-gang rule whims. Over time these little blocks of voters are celebrated as part of the national 'value' system. Politicians use such values and ‘block identity’ to appropriate more wealth to increase spending while covering up the ruse with baseless rhetoric about ‘our children's-children's future’; ‘caring for the old’; ‘green spaces’...etc.
After a few generations of such nonsense a country fades into irrelevance. The state and the nation stand for nothing. It descends into a grey mass of shrilly competing blocks with no common heritage, no common culture, no common sense, and no common purpose. One can read about the Hapsburg empire for the ultimate result of such a creation – the complete unraveling of an unnatural empire. So be aware of conservatives parading as socialists – they are part of the problem, not part of the solution and election results will bear this out. Pity for the Western nation state which continues its descent into socialist chaos.