Mark Sanford has a new book out and yes I haven’t read it, but from an article about the book he apparently is saying that the Republican Party does not really have a conservative agenda or is no longer conservative. I have been saying that for years.
It is interesting to hear someone who had a long running political career as a Republican say that though.
The article can be found on Business Insider if you are interested. He states he feels the Republican Party has lost its way and some of it is attributable to Trumpism, he admits the Republicans had lost their conservative way long before Trump.
He addresses it a bit different than I have and would, yet for someone to address these issues in a book is pretty significant.
And for those so far down the Trump rabbit hole, they would not realize how little the Republican Party is defined by any true conservative agenda and this is also part of the problem. There is no conservative agenda.
Sure there was cut taxes, but in practice this was for corporations and as I have always said supporting the uber rich to so they can become richer is not really conservatism.
The strong defense policy was not for defense, but more for large corporations to make money off the taxpayers, which they aren’t or at least proportionally.
And appointing conservative judges which Trump did is not beneficial if you do not give them a strong conservative agenda to rule on.
Otherwise you get a bunch of lip service to conservative talking points such as pro-life, but other than cutting federal funding to Planned Parenthood or other places you can get an abortion there is no real policy. There is no pro family policy, no policy to help people that are married, no policy to protect individuals and especially against corporations, just a bunch of talking points.
So when you hear some Democrats call the Republican Party the party of no, it is understandable because the Republicans haven’t come out with real comprehensive actionable public policy on real conservative issues in years. They just get away with going against everything the Democrats propose as a policy, hence the party of no.
And since much of the conservative agenda falls back on moral issues and since they have lost their moral compass they don’t even know how to make conservative policy.
For example, we all know stealing is bad and because of that conservatives use to call themselves the party of law and order under the guise as to protect people from being robbed. Yet to truly understand why stealing is bad you should base your policy on the concept that stealing is an action that shows this person has no respect for you as a person. Once you lose respect for each other then society starts to crumble. And again the key concept is respecting each other, then you understand why stealing is bad and not because there are some laws that say so. Nowadays though people view stealing as bad because you lost a material good and the other person shouldn’t get to have it because it was yours. There is a nuance here I am trying to state that I hope you are picking up on.
It isn’t the immediate action that is what we should be creating policy for as a conservative, but the underlying principles of why we feel that action is wrong or right that should be the basis for conservative public policy. Yet the Republican Party is failing in both regards and has been for quite some time.
I could spell this out in greater detail, but I am writing this while eating breakfast before work so have a great day. Hopefully I will get back to this sometime. I was just glad to see someone who represented the Republican Party for as long as Mr. Sanford did, even though a “fallen’ Republican say that this party does not represent conservatism, even before Trump.
:in the old days” we use to say you shouldn’t eat and run. Well I am eating and writing and running so I am failing at good health and good efforts. sheesh!
Cheers
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