Republicans, Conservatives & Libertarians: Where Do We Go From Here? (health care, vote)

[2nd trick op]

I think that all of us who subscribe to some substantial portion of the spectrum of "conservative" (defined primarily as opposition to the expansion of centralized power) beliefs were not as surprised by the results of this year's election as the Mainstream Media would lead is to believe. Hillary Clinton and her handlers could not have done much less to conceal their goal of cementing their coalition of the discontented into a permanent majority, nor their contempt for those of us who didn't fit into their Grand Scheme.

And so we now have an opportunity, particularly via Supreme Court appointments, to halt the metastasis of what I make no apologies in referring to as the "Blue Cancer". But what can we offer to those whom, I believe, still constitute the majority of Americans who still understand that for each generation, participation in the American Experiment demands putting in more than is taken out?

Traditionally, the central theme of the conservative coalition has always emphasized the risk inherent in expansion of Federal power. Until approximately 1960, that ideology also was able to successfully link the values of entrepreneurs, large and small alike, with the values, mostly grounded in religious belief and nationalism, common to a large majority of those living outside the large cosmopolitan cities, save for the South. but contradictions, particularly with regard to the fiasco in Vietnam and the neglected necessity of civil rights, eventually rendered that strategy unworkable.

Recent economic trends have made it easier to point out that the Democrats' traditional portrayal of themselves as the friends of working-class Americans no longer rings true, as only unions protected by the false strength of a state monopoly and "crony capitalist" partners alienate those who have no choice but to operate in the real world. And most of us now recognize that a "safety net" is indispensable in the post-industrial economy; the challenge is to police it, and identify and exclude the abusive minority who exploit the system and refuse to play by the rules.

And so the challenge we face is to continue not only to expose the oversimplification, stereotyping, and cheap appeals to lowest-common-denominator thinking, but to educate, in order to present alternatives to the simple, and occasionally-ugly "thinking" among a minority within our own ranks. The educated, foresighted voter is our best friend -- we simply have to find ways to enlighten more of them.

[phma]

It won't happen in the current institutions of higher learning which have been overrun by liberal communist.

We need to defund them until they diversify and include 50% of the educators with conservative thought and views.

If they block the entryways to schools, send in federal troops to enforce it.

We may need to institute affirmative action to get compliance. Wouldn't that be a hoot !!!

[cachibatches]

Your post is very well thought out, and it can be answered in a few simple points:

1) Obamacare. It remains one of the most unpopular laws in history, and a clarion call against the expanse of socialism.

We told them that if Obama got the reins of power, his expanison of government would be the most destructive in history. Now it is simply time to say "I told you so." I have done it at work for years, as my company made some horrible changes to our health care, in their words, "anticipating changes to the healthcare market."

Obamare will exist for an eternity as an example of government run wild.

2) Democratic run cities in America. Chicago, Baltimore, Detroit, Oakland... What republican had a hand in any of this?

3) Point to Europe. They are collapsing in real time, and our leap to the right was rpeceded by theirs. Austerity, Brexit, the rise of the far right, the Greek bail out...

4) Simple history of the world--its entire socialist past. They can quibble about terminology all they want, but the fact remains that all regimes left of where we are now fail in a couple of generations.