Someday, Conservatives Will Defend Obamacare

This is what I mean when I say that figuring out what the conservative position is or ought to be on this or that is like nailing jelly to a wall.

The message of this op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer is that we conservatives, and our pal Romney, are just trying to trim the crazy excesses of the LBJ liberalism of the 1960s. Why, we’re not attacking the New Deal! “Romney simply wants to protect a safety net built on conservative New Deal principles from the Great Society-like overreach of Obama.”

What were once fought tooth and nail as wealth redistribution and obvious violations of the Constitution are now “conservative New Deal principles.” The word “entitlement” is used favorably as well. Defending such things has become conservative, now that enough time has passed. We just want to administer the programs of liberalism more efficiently, and call it conservatism.

The general principle, evidently, is not that wealth redistribution is wrong in itself or necessarily opposed to conservatism. The problem is with wealth redistribution that favors constituencies not known for voting Republican.

LBJ’s programs caused all kinds of social pathologies, but according to the article, “conservative New Deal” social insurance causes no such problems.

Here is what a conservative whose philosophy is a bit broader than just the platitudes of Reagan and Romney had to say about that, even though he was speaking about Sweden.

http://twitter.com/tomesnyder Tom E. Snyder

You nailed it–and that nail WILL hold jelly to the wall.
Don Wills

That’s why I don’t call myself a conservative.
Bob Murphy

That was painful. Then to torture myself even more, I read the comments where it was determined that the real problem was free trade. (In fairness they blamed NAFTA, but I think their problem was with lower tariffs, not with ceding sovereignty etc.)
Josh Arizona

There is nothing “conservatism” won’t embrace once it has aged enough.
Max.H

Being a Swede myself, that is an eyeopener what Allan Carlson wrote. Astonishing writing. Here in Sweden they teach you how great the welfare system is, how chaotic it would be without it. Thank God for the internet, Thanks Tom!
Rob Nabakowski

Hayek would agree.
anon

This article/blog posting also speaks for those so-called libertarians that have endorsed or said positive things about romney – like rand paul (the paul family) and jim demint, those in paul staff that were in close contact as they told to media.
So Rand Paul then also is wishywashy about obamacare, instead of the ridiculous fake comments that conservatives and he are against obamacare.
Scott Lazarowitz

Hmmm. In 21st Century Amerika, conservatives have become welfare socialists and liberals have become neocon warmongers. Is this like wife-swapping?

(Kids, don’t try that at home, not good…)
Anonymous

That day was in the 1990s, and I’m sure it will come again soon. did anyone see the gop debate where gingrich called romney out on supporting the individual mandate? his reponse was “i got the idea from you” and ginrich’s response was “well i got the idea from the heritage foundation!” Also, The republican party has already agreed to vote to fund Obamacare, so it probably won’t be long before they openly support it again
Anonymous

oddly, isnt that supposed to be part of conservatism? supporting tradition? maybe it isn’t hypocritical of them after all, just misguided
David

As much as conservatives complain about government spending, the three largest programs are Social Security, Medicare, and the military. Do they want to touch any of those? Of course not. Ryan’s optional tweaks that go into effect decades from now is the best they’ve come up with
Edward

The Goldwater, Reagan and Paul conservatives see right through that crap. Tea party conservatives and tea party libertarians do not want comprimise by a large margin(I saw it on c-span). For nearly 100years this nation has been moving left, we just begun turn around. There will be no comprimise.
Anonymous

This “conservative” rhetoric can only mean one thing..
The coercive class must have adopted Humpty Dumpty as their prime political advisor!

To illustrate my point:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.”

“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master — that’s all.”

Kind regs from / Amsterdam (clip) /, Holland,
Richard
Anonymous

Reagan?

To me this left-right-left dialectic sounds just like a marching order for unlimited government. It’s a fake-choice plebiscitist front, me thinks, for the Servile State you’re in.

Kind regs from / Amsterdam (clip) /, Holland,
Richard

R3V ON!
Franklin

There was Hail Mary pass at endgame that might have forestalled the nonsense for a few years, a perfectly thrown arch into the end zone and into the hands of the open receiver who could have spiked it into the ground. All pieces came together, leaving it up to a single human being.
But John Roberts muffed the pass.
It’s now the law of the land and, while it shall morph in the coming decades, has all but ended any discussion whatsoever on the role of government on its subjects’ health care.
Second term or not, Obama is this signature milestone.
He is this progressive success, much like FDR is the American social safety net.
They are monuments embedded into the nation’s culture.
One man had the power to curb this, just a few months ago — not to stop it, but at least curb it.
Because hundreds of millions of citizens did not stop it already.
Pity.
Anonymous

What you are fighting against in “entitlements” is that we’ve had 70 odd years of consistent govt. lies about insurance.
Some turbulence when reality rears its ugly head is to be expected.
Phenry

What John Roberts did was intentional. If your definition somehow means “intentionally dropped the pass,” then I apologize and concur.
Phenry

They are not Conservatives and never were.
Phenry

Reagan talked a good game, but in the end, his record speaks for itself…

…And no quote about Libertarianism being at the very heart of Conservatism can change that.