Question about Conservatives?

Question

So generally, republicans are known as conservatives, so explain this to me:

Why is it that since the Republicans had control of the White House and Congress for so long, actually spent us into a deficit after a democratic president left office with a surplus? High federal spending isn't my idea of conservative.

PLEASE explain how I'm being unpatriotic. As far as I know, this country was founded on CHOICE and the right to speak one's own mind. I just want to know what makes someone a conservative, because it seems that a majority of the people that would be considered as such practice the exact opposite of what they preach.

The whole 12-to-40 things isn't relevant. 12 years is enough time to alter the direction of a nation.

Iraq is just a waste of money and time. Bush pushed for the invasion when Iraq CLEARLy had NO WAY of attacking us.

Answer 1

I agree but Republicans actually controlled Congress for a short time. democrats controlled it for 40 years prior to that and also manage some big deficits.

Answer 2

You are so right!! Most of the Republicans in there now -- Mr. Bush included -- are not real conservatives. They are only conservative on social issues -- but fiscally, they are more spendthrift then some of the biggest spending liberals I have ever known.

I have only seen two politicians out there who actually cared about balancing the budget -- Clinton and Gingrich. They had a balanced budget going there for awhile, but with so many wined-and-dined politicians, and literally hundreds of thousands of lobbyists camped out in DC, all competing for government money -- of course that didn't last very long. Politicians promise everything to everyone in order to get elected, borrow the money to pay for it all, and when it comes to paying it all back, plus heavy interest -- lo and behold, they are out of office, and its some other generation's problem.

Our national debt is now well over eight trillion dollars. That is: 8,000,000,000,000. Everyone sort of seems to ignore the elephant in the room.

And I don't know what we are doing to fix that when we are running huge deficits every year. If we keep at our current direction, we won't have enough money to pay down just the interest on that monster. Just because we are the U.S., doesn't mean we are somehow "above" economic collapse.

Please elect responsible politicians.

Answer 3

It's complicated, but neoconservatism isn't the same as traditional conservatism.

You are right - the thugs in the White House now are pretty far removed from the Republican party of even 20 years ago, and even farther from the group that freed the slaves, stopped civil rights abuse in the 60's South, started the EPA, ended Vietnam, ..I could go on.

I absolutely understand that the deficit is money we owe ourselves. Do you understand that the deficit amount does not include the amounts guaranteed to be paid out by Social Security? Right now each and every American adult owes about $175,000 if you add those two together. And yet Hillary's solution is just to tax us even more.

Answer 4

Clinton had no war to fight, he had no Katrina, and he had no 9/11. The surplus Clinton left was a BUDGET surplus, not a national debt surplus. Much, if not most, of that surplus was due to welfare reform and tax cuts which the Republican Congress forced down his throat. A lot of the rest of it was at the expense of our military, sad, but not surprising, to say.
PS: Having control of Congress for 12 years is not "so long" when compared to the forty plus year of democrat control and all the social give-away programs they ushered in.

Answer 5

Interesting question! If I remember correctly, I think that the conservative commentator Tucker Carlson once said that Bush wasn't even a true conservative. I think that some conservatives here would agree with you, because some of them are dissatisfied with the fact that the government has gotten much bigger rather than smaller since Bush has been in office.

Answer 6

BEcause congress was only controlled by us for a short time and the democraps for almost 40 years, and war is exepsensive and someteimes you just have to bite the bullet to get it done. The deficit is coming down and faster than we thought!

Answer 7

When you have a 9/11 happen and the war on terror it's kind of hard being conservative. The economy is booming though and once we get the wars behind us we will again have a surplus...

Answer 8

because our historical idea of government and leadership is dead and gone! once upon a time, being conservative meant standing by a certain set of beliefs. now, anything goes and you can call your self whatever you want and no one can tell the difference. no matter whether you call yourself democrat or republilcan, you are just feeding the beast! these two parties are the governments way of keeping us all at odds with each other. the two real parties are the goverment and the people!

Answer 9

Republican are viewed as conservative because they constantly call themselves conservative and reflexively and endlessly repeat conservative talking points. This has the effect of rather effectively hiding the fact that their conservative slogans have no connection at all to their actual governing practices.

Answer 10

That is why they came up with the term "neoconservatives". Their ideology seems to be generally less about low spending and small government, and more about social issues and religion. The old ideology of conservatives is sometimes called Goldwater conservative, after Barry Goldwater.

Answer 11

Because the Republicans of today have lost their traditional conservative values.