How Reagan ruined conservatism

[Imran Siddiqui]

I've said several times I like the William F. Buckley types.

Of course Reagan consulted with Buckley quite a bit... but that doesn't fit the narrative

[dannubis]

However, Reagan probably didn't understand a word of what Buckley was saying ...

[Imran Siddiqui]

[onodera]

I'm glad you pointed that out. My brain just sort of auto-substituted "Spanish-American war" and moved on.

Same here.

[trev]

The abandonment of fiscal conservatism by Reagan has damaged USA ever since. Australia with consevative gov'ts and fiscal conservativism has been much more successful economically with close to 20 years with no recession an no recession likely in the near future. Similarly nelsewhere around the world, the countries who average the highest deficits are generally doing the worst.
Get you budget back towards balance and save the world from the next crisis.

[dannubis]

Australia is a major raw material supplier which is in essence more resilient towards economical crises...

[dannubis]

[Elok]

Nobody actually wants real fiscal conservatism at this point in the game. It would necessarily involve either cutting benefits for old people (who vote too much due to having nothing better to do) or cutting the military (which opens you up to all kinds of UnAmerican charges). Trimming anything else would annoy constituents while not solving the problem. With 100 people in the Senate and about five times as many in the House, it's hard to blame any one person for perpetuating the real decades-old outrages, only for whatever piddly-ass pork they bring home.

The only thing I can think of is to disband the Air Force, maybe fold its pilots into Army and Navy and save on administrative costs somehow. And that wouldn't do much, I don't think.

[Ben Kenobi]

Nobody actually wants real fiscal conservatism at this point in the game. It would necessarily involve either cutting benefits for old people (who vote too much due to having nothing better to do) or cutting the military (which opens you up to all kinds of UnAmerican charges).

Hmm? I want fiscal conservativism, even if that means cutting some out of the military and social security.

What I object to is the standard fearmongering of leaving the pork while cutting only the military.

[ricketyclik]

Australia is a major raw material supplier which is in essence more resilient towards economical crises...

True in this case, but only because there is still international demand for raw materials coming from China. In previous world recessions (read US recessions) we've fared poorly indeed.