“This, among other things, has forced me to conclude that the majority of conservatives (not all) are very much like most liberals and leftists. They view politics and economics not as the key to unlock and unleash the total potential of human kind, allowing us to drastically improve the lives of future generations, and achieve untold levels of greatness in our own. They view it as a religion, a therapy session, and a substitute for real and genuine accomplishment in life because they’re too damn lazy to put any real work or effort into it. This is why after 40 years of Rush Limbaugh and 35 years of conservative talk radio, nothing has been achieved because, just like going to church, it’s easier to bitch, whine, lament, rue, and mope, than actually put forth the work and effort. And just because they claim to be conservative doesn’t meant they have a harder work ethic or know better. They just happened to be lucky to choose the political model that actually works.”
So really what you’re saying is that they aren’t conservatives. People can call themselves whatever they want. It’s actions that demonstrate who they are.
Good rant Cap. Spot on.
like I said, I am the only living conservative in Canada. heck maybe even the US for that matter. never scratched a Canadian who would not vote for a tax increase or to take something from a fellow Canadian. look at what the governments are doing all across the country. only a fool with limited intellect would think it is anything but extreme socialism/communism. the government now controls every aspect of every Canadians life. it can and will get worse.
But all that obfuscation works fine for leftists, statists and progressive. Why is that? (sarc off)
Trying to deal with an emotional argument through reason is far harder than dealing with a rational argument through emotion. At least when conservatives bitch, whine, lament, rue and mope, they do it on their own dime, except for of course the co-opted who feed at the establishment trough.
Conservatism as a movement in itself is unsustainable at the moment. In Canada and the United States, imho, the predominate ideology (assuming one exists) is classical liberalism. Statist and conservatives need these moderates to carry elections. Harper fused the top down, though individualist tendencies of conservatism with the libertarian drive to limit (at least slow down/stop its growth) government, that civil society picks the level of government intrusion, which is not to decide for itself what that level is. That debate must happen for economic and cultural sanity to prevail.
For conservatism to win, it must do two things as alluded to above. First, it has to chuck its social mores (leave that to society, the faith communities and families – if they won’t do it, don’t try to do it for them). All views are accepted and tolerated, if presented reasonably, but they are considered matters of conscience not government. That segues to the second, which is working with libertarians for limited government.
Conservatives must resist their urge for top down solutions, so as not to be seen as establishment-lite, and therefore blamed for its failings. It must re-embrace the grassroots elements of the Reform party, to understand that is how policy used to be developed in this country before PET.
Most of all Conservatives must convince themselves they are of the people, not above them, and they will put taxpayers ahead of themselves. The CPC missed a golden opportunity to do just that by accepting exorbitant MP office budget increases. Until the nation and level of government is restored, all MP, Senator and senior bureaucrat salaries & benefits must be frozen. Take the high ground while depriving statists of ill-gotten booty.
This is the only way to victory, along with either co-opting or dealing out the mediocracy, who will always forgive their ideological and cultural brethren, no matter the damage big government does to the citizen. They destroyed their credibility long ago.
The socialist seeks to eliminate &/or deny the existence of civil society in favour of the overarching state controlling and defining the individual as libertarian socialists – living their own way, with or without others’ financial support, but always speaking to the correct message and narrative – we are all part of government. It that idea doesn’t die soon, then we are in big trouble.
A good essay, that touches on (but doesn’t explain) many of the problems in the conservative movement. One would think that — both in the U.S. and Canada — most conservatives would have understood by now the stark imbalance in power, money, people, between the left and the right. The left holds most of the power, in the media, well-funded foundations, lobby groups, etc. The author points to ineptitude in some grassroots groups, and the fact that his talks were ignored. But here in Canada, Ezra Levant pointed to 140+ groups signed up as anti-Conservative in the last election, with only one pro-Conservative group signed up with Election Canada.
Should we despair, like the author? I don’t. As a conservative economist. I still post blog entries, and undertake conservative research (anti-Muslim on my own, and small-government research for a major think tank). The key is for conservatives to get involved with one or two ongoing projects, and do some work, year in and year out.
The author writes about people at church whining and complaining. As a church-going Baptist, this is not true for all churches. The same rule applies there: get involved in a few church ministries, and do some worthwhile work, year in and year out. — David Murell, Economics, UNB at Fredericton
Words matter. Yet most leftists (and, strangely enough (!) the media) use “conservative” simply to mean anyone they disagree with. So Islamic fundamentalists, Soviet politburo members, Chinese Communist Party officials, the Westboro Baptist preacher and many others labelled conservative. For “real conservatives” (I count myself as one), that was always wrong.
That said, there are many different strains of thought within legitimate conservatism. I used to read Modern Age and other US periodicals for a sense of some of those. And reading Edmund Burke (who characterized himself as a Whig, not a Tory, but who’s going to complain), Alexis de Tocqueville, Disraeli, Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley and a host of others gave a solid grounding in what “conservatism” meant. But for many, conservatism and classical liberalism came to mean the same thing (Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan’s talk was more in this mold). For some, libertarian thinking also fits better with conservativism than other isms. So too, many conservative “purists” found a populist like John Diefenbaker anathema. For some Tory thinkers (e.g., George Grant) that was anathema. For some classical liberal economic types, it was intolerable.
If the reason for trying to drum someone or some idea out of the conservative fold is that they are “not conservative enough” or pure enough, I tend to raise my eyebrows. For as long as I’ve observed conservative party politics, there has always been a tendency to do what I call the “reverse musk ox defence”. That involves having the stronger members of the herd put their posteriors out towards the public and use their horns to gore the weak and the frail herd members in the middle. The end result is usually the election of socialists and liberals and we all end up losers as a result.
William F. Buckley’s aphorism about conservatives doing best by adopting a pragmatic approach to politics and choosing to vote for the more conservative electable candidate in the running always seemed preferable.
“First it has to chuck its social mores… All views are accepted and tolerated…”
Couldn’t disagree with you more. As thousands upon thousands of innocent people are slaughtered in the womb, who is going to be the one that stands as their protector? Not the justice system. Not the liberals. So who if not conservatives?
Chrétien/Martin balanced the budget for the first time in half a century so they had some fiscal responsibility. Conservatives can’t brag that they did better.
Chuck the social mores and they are no different than the liberals.
Obamas crinimal acts against america he needs to be impeached arrested tried and given life and even longer
And yet, the good captain lives in, and pays taxes to, the peoples republic of Minnesota.
Conservative, Liberal, NDP…shrug, what’s the difference. You fall into the volcano with a parachute, or without one.
The issue is freedom. You either get it or you don’t. And freedom can only exist and thrive where there is “only the essentials” small government. And not one of these parties has any intention of chopping government down to that size. Not even close.
Doesn’t matter. Conservatives can’t get elected championing social conservatism, so it goes for naught and we all get caught in the consequential progressive slavery, with social issues now decided by leftists, who have no concern for unborn babies, boys in girls locker rooms, or fiscal responsibility.
Leave people alone, stop trying to legislate their morality, no matter your views. Focus on conscientious people not being forced to perform abortions, gay marriage or assisted suicide. It killed off the GOP last election, and would do the same here. If these matters were to come up, if must be via a free vote.
BTW, Conservatives/Harper did way better than Martin/Chretien; how could you say they’re the same. Holy crap man, all the Grits did was pilfer pension funds, offload expenses onto the provinces and benefited from a strong economy. Even so they took us to the debt wall, in the end partially adopting Manning/Harper proposals, finally getting top marginal tax rates below 50%.
Then Harper took it further; he understood government can do less mischief with our freedom and prosperity if we cut off their funding ie limited government. Harper reduced taxes much further, introduced many programs to help prevent the tax system from pushing people and families into poverty – GST cut, UCCB, Fitness/Arts credits, CEP, WITP, etc.
So imho you are wrong on both accounts – seriously wrong in a way that would ensure progressives rule the roost, the treasury and our lives until we finally crash under the weight of their fatal conceit.
IT’S REALLY HARD TO SWIM TO AGAINST THE TIDE.
Burke was a classical liberal (a good thing).
Any Rand considered Buckley an intellectual lightweight, I tend to agree.
It’s not the politics that are wrong in this country it’s the philosophy. As long as the majority believe in entitlement and making someone else pay, nothing will change. That is why all political parties look the same. They all pursue the same voter offering increasing more outrageous bribes.
Seperate the state from religion. There is no upside to legislating morality. It can’t be done.
I have worked for the old PC Party of Canada, helped start the Reform Party in my riding and continued on in support of the CPC. My experience has been that many conservatives ground their belief in these parties based on fiscal conservativism. They wanted the government’s books balanced and did not want to pass debt down the generations. Fundamentally that was it. Talking philosophy was a waste of time or a slow process of education.
I am disappointed in the CPC and have stepped back from active support as IMHO they have failed to make much effort to educate their supporters in why their platform is worthy. If they could not do that with their supporters then expecting the general public to support hem was a lost cause. Again, after meeting a number of politicians, I concluded that many were no better informed.
I still support the Fraser Institute which produces much good research and does try to distribute that research to citizens.
IMHO Canadian Conservatives have to pick an ISSUE (not a social policy) that has become
incredibly expensive & that they CAN solve…Like Trump, build on the simple issue
Lester Pearson made the mistake of allowing Civil Service Unions… That which was created by Government can be eliminated by Government… The amount of Taxpayer money wasted is obscene.
Ronnie took on the Aircraft Controllers Union… and sent them into the waste basket of history…He sent a unmistakable message that all of America understood….
It always absolutely stunned and shocked me that all the rough, tough, independent-minded “conservatives” couldn’t even pluck up the balls for a tax and services boycott, which would have pretty much stopped the left wing nanny state SJW bullshit dead in its tracks.
Lefties are helpless, and totally dependent on you conservtives for handouts, and you still can’t put ’em away.
Pretty pathetic really…
The biggest whiner non-conservative is the fake captain capitalism. He expects everyone else to do his conservative lifting for him. When they don’t meet his high expectations he cuts them down. What an f’ing loser.
Political parties are 99.99% volunteers. Conservatives by and large have jobs, families, businesses, etc. They cannot commit full time to ensuring everything is up to your lofty standards – they do the best they can with limited time and resources. Most EDA’s are desperate for help.
If you don’t like the way the party is being run then join it and make it better. Other wise stfu and go rot and hell you pathetic little left wing whiny parasite loser.
Abtrapper – William F. Buckley had a sense of humour that prevented him from taking himself too seriously. He also believed in legislating morality, and it most certainly can be done – if based on Judeo-Christian principles, though perhaps not in my lifetime! You take yourself too seriously, which shows in your lack of any sense of humour.
I enjoyed reading Buckley. He was a clever word smith and wrote in an entertaining style.
My point is simple. You cannot legislate people’s morals. If the Judeo Christian belief system has lost it’s way or no longer holds sway over the population you cannot force it on people through legislation. Bad law is not obeyed unless you are prepared to use force.
A simple example of what I am attempting to point out might be a community newspaper. If the editorial viewpoint of the paper is incongruant with its readers, the paper would very quickly cease to exist.
The same is true of political parties. If they don’t reflect the philosophy of the electorate they will never form government.
What whores like Cap’n Cannibalism and his sycophants want is MORE money not morality.
(yes I get that morality is not an issue with people who do not comprehend it)
Cap’n Cannibalism and his ilk are Common Liberals… just ease-up on the TAXES and his/their vote is and always was Up-for-Sale like common Street Walkers.
He does not comprehend nor does he/they care about the values of the people who historically built the Western World that he/they pretend to be the HEIRS of, but in actuality, he/they are no less parasites upon it than the Leftists that he shuns for pure material reasons, as if Communism itself were not rank materialism entirely equal to Cap’n Cannibalism’s view point.
Cap’n Cannibalism and his stooges are mere pretenders, these people are NOT the heirs of the World that Christians built any more than the Leftists that he/they jostle with for the possession of.
They are, both groups, THEIVES and Pretenders, False heirs.
Seriously, if these boyz could only get LAID and enjoy life in the SHADE they’d vote Progressive if they would just but BE on the inside sipping gravy and diddling whatever …however …they want, at the expense of the Real Heirs while pretending God doesn’t exist and has no power over HIS own creation.
God’s PEOPLE, my SPIRITUAL ancestors, who came here and BUILT this Western World, built it for SPIRITUAL reasons and were a SUCCESS for reasons that Cap’n Cannibalism and his egocentric Atheist sycophants cannot even begin to comprehend.
My Protestant ancestors worked together and achieved this success(Western World) because they were all Christian Brothers and Sisters(not motivated by rank materialism and they were NOT communists) and they had a common World View that blessed them with this Awesome Result because they were ALL in the Body of Christ based on faith in the Bible.(not the Vatican, the Bible)
Conservatism is about understanding and preserving the values that built the Western World and believing that those values will be as much of a success going forward as they were building this world.
This will be so because building it was only possible because God blessed the enterprise and leaning on God is essential for maintaining this enterprise going forward.
Cap’n Cannibalism thinks God doesn’t exist and success is only about cleaving to and working with the proper economic principles.(just like the Leftists)
He doesn’t know history, he doesn’t have faith in God, and he is a wrong as his Leftist brethren.
My expectation from a conservative government would be to advance our liberty.
Under Harpers watch he did not remove the search and seizure without warrant from the gun control legislation. Nor did do anything about the RCMP kicking in doors of law abiding citizens and searching for guns in High River during the devastating flood. Sometimes entering multiple times because they couldn’t find them. Which ultimately means they had a list. Police breaking into our homes and confiscating our property. Innocent people on a state sanctioned hit list.
He did nothing to advance liberty and freedom.
We are talking the difference between principles and opportunism. I don’t want the political party that I hope to support merely desire power for the sake of power. I want them to stand for something. And yes, that means a moral stand.
For those who say conservatives are legislating morality, what on earth do you think the left does? In spades.
You can’t beat progressives if you don’t believe in anything strong enough to beat them for. Nihilism is not worth dying for or building a society with. That’s why progs make their political causes into a religion and succeed while you lukewarm conservatives conserve nothing.
Western civilization is done. The Roman Empire will be glad to see you in history’s dustbin.
“For those who say conservatives are legislating morality, what on earth do you think the left does? “
That’s easy. The left is legislating immorality.
I am disappointed in the CPC and have stepped back from active support as IMHO they have failed to make much effort to educate their supporters in why their platform is worthy. If they could not do that with their supporters then expecting the general public to support them was a lost cause
I too am disappointed with how the CPC squandered the majority govt mandate we gave them. They lost the election because they failed to effectively communicate their intent or reasoning for the actions they took, especially when criticized about policy and legislation.
They were elected in difficult economic times with a promise to cut govt spending. Once in power the Harper govt ordered the bureaucracy to make cuts, but failed to direct where the cuts would be made. Nearly all the upper bureaucracy was Lieberals who had risen to their levels of incompetence during the Chrétien/Martin regime. They hated cuts and they hated Harper, so they didn’t cut the fat from the redundant bureaucracy, they cut as many jobs as possible at the base of the bureaucratic pyramid. They cut the thousands of part time summer jobs that college kids got every year to help pay their student loans and survive.
Nearly all these kids were linked on social media and it didn’t take much to get a “Harper cut your job”; “Stop Harper” hate campaign running through the twits world like a brush-fire. The Lieberal machine fed that “HateHarper” fire in the social media, and the LSM picked it up and made it ‘newsworthy’. When the govt enforced the policy of govt scientists releasing their findings through departmental PR not speaking to the media directly, the “HateHarper” machine turned it into ‘muzzling scientists’. The Lieberals motivated a pissed-off, narcissistic demographic who generally never voted before to personally “HateHarper”.
The CPC didn’t counter this with open effective communication, and obviously failed to see the growing dissent in the world of i-phone linked social media. Then the Lieberal machine gave the twits a rock-star ‘leader’ to clinch their choice in the media-driven popularity contest coming with the next election.
The CPC failed to communicate and became as aloof and out-of-touch as the previous Lieberal regime, and their core of old-guard support wasn’t enough to carry the day. The Lieberals “HateHarper” social-media campaign increased voter turn-out, and nearly all the new voters voted Lieberal. The LIB played a much smarter game and blindsided the CPC.
so, sitting in a church and listening to a scammer pick their pockets is a job now. Once “so called religious cons” learn that politics and bible banging don’t mix, then maybe they’ll quit driving off non-bible bangers.
so you’ll link us to your blog now will you????
both Tory and Hudak lost elections because of their religious ways, just had that discussion with people they drove off.
no you can’t legislate morality you dumb twit
Can’t legislate morality? Really?
There are laws regarding murder, theft, speeding, parking, polygamy, beastiality, peodphelia. These are laws all morally based.
Just because you have no morals doesn’t mean there isn’t legislation addressing them.
“Just because you have no morals …”
You think that’s what’s missing?
“no you can’t legislate morality”
Should incestuous marriage, polyamory and public nudity be legalised?
jean;
Good summary of how things went down. To date I have not seen any real accountability by the CPC HQ to address this huge failure.
Someone above mentioned that political parties are 99.9% volunteers. I would suggest otherwise. Ideally the party should have grassroots volunteers who can carry the Ottawa message to members and at the same time understand the rationale. The reality that I saw was as soon as the CPC formed government they reverted to top down management and direction. There were forces within the Party who thought that election campaigns could be won through media campaigns. Go figure that when the CPC had/has a brutal inability to communicate a message.
All modern first world democracies have laws to preserve order. Not everyone obeys these laws, whether they be speeding or murder.
Political parties are not unlike religion itself. If you believe that homosexuality and abortion are mortal sins you probably are not a member of the United Church.
The same things happens when you vote. You weigh the values of the parties on offer and decides which one is least offensive.
If the religious narrative was predominant in Canada political parties would all adhere to it.
Canada is as progressive as any country in Europe.
I agree 100% with your comments about liberty. They are quite telling btw, given Harper fused Conservatives and libertarians (actual liberals not the statist Grit abomination) into a viable governing force. Rather than look at what he didn’t accomplish, I’d rather reminisce about his attempts to limit government through economic liberty. If he tried to institute property rights and cut the CBC he could very well have been quite a short-lived government, given his first two were minorities. His pragmatism left an excellent legacy for the CPC to build on, one which will take quite a while for progressives to tear down, as they do everything in their power to blacken Harper’s stellar record.
Who knows, maybe if he went libertarian on this or more Conservative on that, he may have killed off the progressives. Arguing now that he didn’t fully immunize the country from another progressive takeover is a bit like arguing the Allies should have known in the early forties they were going to win the war, or that Trump must be stopped because he isn’t conservative enough but facilitating Crooked Hillary’s victory.
Having said all that, I believe the appetite for a cogent fusion of libertarianism and conservatism will increase, and perhaps issues like private health care and putting the CBC away will have resonance. The problem ON, where there exist a high tolerance for fiscal depravity and corruption.
The main thing, however, is to co-opt or bypass the mediocracy, most certainly including the Corrupted Broadcasting Comrades. The top down delivery of Conservatism alone will never deliver power and thus release from the clutches of PC statism employed by corrupt double-speakers everywhere.
“Captain Capitalism”?
Captain Insufferable Blowhard is more like it.
Two notches further along the looney dial and he’d be mailing letter bombs to his “enemies” from his cabin deep in the woods.
I have to say that many of the people I’ve met in the CPC/Ontario PCs are indistinguishable from Liberals. They want to talk about what the government is going to do for -them-, they’re looking for some free cheese to fall off the milk truck in front of them.
Not all. But many.
That’s why nothing happens when the CPC gets a majority.