Question for conservatives

[flaja]

Liberals need not answer; if you answer these questions I will assume that you are calling yourself a conservative.

What is it about low taxes and small government that is inherently conservative? On whose authority did these things become conservative dogma?

And what happens when a majority of the American electorate wants higher taxes and big government and thus conservatives don’t get elected to office? Are there other components of conservative ideology that could be implemented if conservatives would agree to enough taxes and government to satisfy a majority of American voters and thus get elected to public office?

 

[dogtowner]

Small, limited government and the low taxes needed to operate it are dictated by the Constitution. The main difference between conservatives and non-conservatives is a willingness to abandon constitutional limits by expanding government where it is not authorized to go an obtaining the taxes to pay for it.

As most if not all of this is simply vote buying it is not surprizing that votes are, indeed bought and elections swayed. But lets be honest what those voters are sayiong is higher taxes on somebody else, and benefits for me not benefits for all at cost to all.

 

[flaja]

Small, limited government and the low taxes needed to operate it are dictated by the Constitution.

Prove it.

 

[dogtowner]

Prove it.

Read it, its pretty simple.

 

[flaja]

Read it, its pretty simple.

I have, and it is simple only to simpletons.

U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States;”

And:

“To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into
Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this
Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

The Constitution says nothing about limited government and low taxes.

 

[dogtowner]

I have, and it is simple only to simpletons.

U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8:
“The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general Welfare of the United States;”

And:

“To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into
Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this
Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.”

The Constitution says nothing about limited government and low taxes.

It limits the powers of government (the ones enumerated between your snips and referred to by the "foregoing powers".

By limited the role of government, costs are minimized.

As any fool could see.

 

[flaja]

It limits the powers of government (the ones enumerated between your snips and referred to by the "foregoing powers".

By limited the role of government, costs are minimized.

As any fool could see.

No, it merely sets up the parameters within which the powers of government become political issues to be settled in the normal course of politics.

But if I were to accept your view that the Constitution instituted low taxes and small government as harbingers of conservatism, are you saying that conservatism did not exist before the U.S. Constitution was written? Are you saying that conservatism was cut from whole cloth in 1787 with no precursors leading up to the Constitution?

 

[dogtowner]

No, it merely sets up the parameters within which the powers of government become political issues to be settled in the normal course of politics.

But if I were to accept your view that the Constitution instituted low taxes and small government as harbingers of conservatism, are you saying that conservatism did not exist before the U.S. Constitution was written? Are you saying that conservatism was cut from whole cloth in 1787 with no precursors leading up to the Constitution?

As I pointed out upstream, I'm concerned about Constitutional and beneficial. Conservative / Liberal are only definable in the context they are being applied to. That the Constitution was written so as to strictly manage the role of the federal government, it happens to support one facet of a conservative nature of it. A victory at the time that was effectively felled by Lincoln.

 

[GenSeneca]

No, it merely sets up the parameters within which the powers of government become political issues to be settled in the normal course of politics.

But if I were to accept your view that the Constitution instituted low taxes and small government as harbingers of conservatism, are you saying that conservatism did not exist before the U.S. Constitution was written? Are you saying that conservatism was cut from whole cloth in 1787 with no precursors leading up to the Constitution?

What, pray-tell, is your political philosophy?

 

[flaja]

As I pointed out upstream, I'm concerned about Constitutional and beneficial. Conservative / Liberal are only definable in the context they are being applied to. That the Constitution was written so as to strictly manage the role of the federal government, it happens to support one facet of a conservative nature of it. A victory at the time that was effectively felled by Lincoln.

No. From the earliest the federal government was controlled by loose-constructionists. From Hamilton’s bank to Jefferson’s Louisiana Purchase to the internal improvements of Clay’s American System to Republican subsidies for the railroads to FDR’s New Deal the federal government has always done what the American People thought necessary and what was necessary has always been a political question rather than a constitutional question. The Constitution was never meant to limit the size of the federal government.

 

[flaja]

What, pray-tell, is your political philosophy?

See new thread.