« ALEA Home | Email msg. | Reply to msg. | Post new | Board info. Previous | Home | Next

Re: Bill Kristol

By: Cactus Flower in ALEA | Recommend this post (0)
Sat, 12 Mar 16 11:14 PM | 110 view(s)
Boardmark this board | The Trust Matrix
Msg. 18349 of 54959
(This msg. is a reply to 18346 by Cactus Flower)

Jump:
Jump to board:
Jump to msg. #

This is Burke's theory of government in his own words:

"That the State ought to confine itself to what regards the State, or the creatures of the State, namely, the exterior establishment of its religion; its magistracy; its revenue; its military force by sea and land; the corporations that owe their existence to its fiat; in a word, to every thing that is truly and properly public, to the public peace, to the public safety, to the public order, to the public prosperity."

I think he might well have added public health to this list if the notion had existed back then, rather than the harsh brutallism of modern Republican theory. He was about continuity of government within a traditional framework, rather than minimising it. He was in favour of incrementalism rather than reduction. He preferred pragmatism to ideology. He believed in government function rather than obstruction.

Alongside the state, and not instead of it, he believed in the free market. For me, in modern terms, he was a cautious liberal rather than a tub-thumping conservative.




» You can also:
- - - - -
The above is a reply to the following message:
Bill Kristol
By: Cactus Flower
in ALEA
Sat, 12 Mar 16 9:18 PM
Msg. 18346 of 54959

is not my favourite Republican writer.

But, setting aside the mischaracterisation of Burke (who had nothing like the beliefs of modern American ideological conservatives), here's an interesting quote:

"If time runs out, and Trump prevails in the Republican contest, many of us will rally behind an independent Republican candidate to save the honor of the party, and to offer a decent alternative to the American people. Edmund Burke, the founder both of party government and of modern conservatism, wrote, "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.""

http://www.weeklystandard.com/the-horror/article/2001507


« ALEA Home | Email msg. | Reply to msg. | Post new | Board info. Previous | Home | Next