Conservative Impostors (Neocons)

Four years of Latin study, and a good dictionary, tell me that "conservative" comes from the Latin words "together" and "keep", meaning to keep together, or preserve. Traditionally in politics, to be conservative meant to be opposed to change, in contrast with progressives, who actively worked for change.

The current crop of American conservatives have their roots in the 1960's, when skewed thinking perverted conservative fundamentals. Think of Barry Goldwater writing "Conscience of a Conservative" [actually I would rather not think of Barry Goldwater at all and I must admit I don’t recall ever reading that tome]. Goldwater was basically for nuking Vietnam to "save" it from Communism. Think of Governor Reagan in California fighting to preserve the Redwoods - or rather one Redwood - as Ronnie said, "If you see one Redwood, you’ve seen them all." Think of the John Birch Society and "None Dare Call It Treason" [which was short enough and ridiculous enough that I actually did read it].

Fast forward to 2004 and a second term for GWB. What do the Bush "conservatives" want to preserve safe from change? They claim they want to preserve "values", but these self-proclaimed conservatives are actually the antithesis of true conservatives. Here are a few of the major changes these impostors are seeking: ignore the doctrine of stare decisis and overturn Roe v. Wade; replace a centrist US Supreme Court with somewhat conservative leanings with an extremely reactionary Court, modelled after Justice Scalia; change the US Constitution to make marriage a matter of Federal law rather than State law; change the concept of conserving Refuges, so that oil drilling can now be allowed; change the bona fide conservative concept of pay as you go and replace it with lower taxes for the rich, resulting in huge budget deficits; change our system of Social Security which has provided disability, survivor and retirement benefits since the Great Depression of the 1930's, and start siphoning funds off for the private sector brokers and financiers who might be the next Enron; and further develop the change of American foreign policy claiming a right to unilaterally and pre-emptively strike against other nations we choose to perceive as a threat.

Author Kevin Phillips refers to these modern day impostors as neocons - neo meaning a new form of something. Phillips points out that the 1960's neocons also included the hawkish wing of the Democratic party, headed by our own Washington State "Senator from Boeing", Henry Jackson. Remind me sometime to dig out my 1965 letter to Jackson about our mistaken involvement in Vietnam and his boilerplate response.

The two most genuinely conservative positions I can recall being taken by an American President in the post-Vietnam era, were by the two Democratic Presidents. In the midst of oil shortages in the late 1970's, Jimmy Carter told Americans we must each take personal action to reduce our own oil consumption - for which the impostor conservatives vilified him. And in the 1990's, Bill Clinton said we must reduce the legacy of Reagan-Bush deficits and pay as we go, and that is what was done during his time in office.