re: An Appeal For "Traditional Conservatives" to reconsider Populism.

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We're not as free as we think.

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We never have been. This isn't anything new. Nothing you're talking about is new. Government has always been corrupt and always will be. Which is why conservatives want to keep it as small as possible. You populists want to grow it.

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It's time to level the playing field and put power back in the hands of the people.

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Why? I point this out over and over and over. The oligarchy you identified—which, again, is nothing new—has produced the highest standard of living in the history of the world.

Why am I supposed to believe that "the people" would do a better job? Have you read this board? This board is "the people." Go to Wal-Mart and look around. That's "the people." Those YouTube interviews of Palestine protestors in which they scream "From the river to the sea" and can't tell you which river and which sea? That's "the people."

As I have posted before, despite the language used in many founding documents, this was not supposed to be a system in which ordinary uneducated people had much influence on governance. The founders envisioned many of the positions we vote for today as being appointed, and not everyone was supposed to be able to vote just because they could fog a mirror.

When they said "the people" clearly they meant a system in which some hard limits were to be placed on government to protect citizen's rights. Clearly they meant "not a monarchy." They did not mean that the Great Unwashed should govern the country. If you argue that they did, I'll need to see some evidence for that. Similarly, when you say things like, "It's time to put it in the hands of the people," I'll need to see some evidence that that is a good idea. I don't think it is.

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When big corporations cozy up to government, they tilt the playing field in their favor.

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And it has always been so.

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Less choice, higher prices, and fewer opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

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The result is the highest standard of living in history.

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we gotta tackle corporate influence in government head-on. It's about leveling the playing field and letting everyone compete on merit, not connections.

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To the extent that this is possible (it's not 100% possible and never had been), it's not necessary to abandon conservative principles to push back and limit it. In fact, it's the abandonment of conservative principles that has allowed it to progress to it's current point.

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Take censorship, for example. Big tech companies are flexing their muscles, silencing voices they don't like and stifling free speech. That's not the free market at work; that's censorship, plain and simple.

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Not if they are private companies. Plain and simple.

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Corporations are enforcing government agendas within their own ranks, pushing diversity initiatives and ideological conformity. Your workplace shouldn't be a political battleground—it should be a place where everyone's ideas are respected.

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And your populist solution is what? Use the power of the government to dictate to private companies how they have to run their organizations?

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Then there is war and peace. Do you really think "national security" means combating existential threats or does it mean catering to the oligarchy?

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I'll play along with your stacked language here and say that it means catering to the oligarchy. You guys have demonstrated over and over that you are like little children when it comes to understanding how American interests are served by intervening in foreign affairs. Your analysis is always oversimple by a couple of orders of magnitude. I'll take adults running that show, even if those adults are also figuring out how to profit from it, rather than leaving it in the hands of children.

And here's something that you guys will never admit, but which obviously matters a great deal. Those adults know things about the situation that you children do not. It's called "classified information." You guys immediately start screaming "War profiteering" without the slightest consideration that there is classified info on that situation that you'll never know. Yet you assume that you keyboard warriors REALLY know what's going on and the generals and military advisors and Commander In Chief are just too clueless to make the right decisions.

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We're sounding the alarm on this dangerous collusion between big government and big corporations.

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Yeah, I know. You think you're onto something that hasn't been going on since cavemen started separating into tribes. Why you think this, I have no idea. You might as well start a campaign to "sound the alarm" that people act in their own self-interest.

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We're fighting for transparency, accountability, and individual freedom

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No, you aren't. You've given two examples in this one post on how you want government to run private businesses.

Again, this is the problem. Populism does not adhere to principles. It's not compatible with conservatism, which does adhere to principles. You think it is, but that's because you literally don't understand what it even means.

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Let's reclaim our Republic and restore power to the people, where it belongs. That's the true spirit of conservatism

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No, it isn't. Again, the country was never envisioned to have uneducated, unsophisticated minds running it. Yes, you can quote things like "By the people," but again, that doesn't mean what you think it means. It mens that royal bloodlines were not going to limit who could govern. It didn't mean nothing was going to limit who could govern. Clearly they envisioned limits on that, male white landowners being the most popular at the time.

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By your logic the natural path to a constitutional republic is corporatism.

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Our current Corporatism is a byproduct of a sick system where government controls corporations.

So no. Populism will get you there sooner.

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Who/what should people have been looking to in 2016 if not Trump?

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2016 is gone. Y'all should have considered his failure in 2020 and 2024.

Now we're stuck with him.

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Conceptually, I have no qualms that conservative values are best.

That said, we have had decades waiting for those who carry the conservative banner to do something…..anything….to stem the continued creep (now warp speed these days) of this increasingly authoritarian Transnational Progressivism.

This Trump “populism” is a reaction and movement that has stepped into the void that those claiming to be conservatives had left wide open for it to step into.

People want leadership, not policy wonks, leading a movement. If true conservatism ever stands a chance of making an impact in this country, it better find that leader again who can inspire and capture the confidence of the public. It’s not just going to work itself out if we wait.

As it is, the parade has currently moved on and people are looking to that figure who they feel best represents the chance to counter the path this country has been headed.

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While this is true, it's the worst solution possible to the problem.

If I drop my cell phone, yeah that's a drag. But I fail to see how my response to dropping it is better if I then stomp on it and kick it.

Same with this. If the problem is failure to adhere to conservative principles, how does it make any sense to respond to that by abandoning them completely? How does that help? How does that set us in the right direction?

The populists on the right already sound almost exactly like Carter era Democrats. Which is why some may ridicule Roger's assertion that populism leads to socialism, but I don't think they have any credible evidence that he's wrong about it. We're already agreeing with Jimmy fricking Carter on everything but unions, and before long Huckster Carlson will do a segment about how unions really are good for America and the parrots will pick that up too.

Give it a few more years and we'll be past Carter, past Clinton, and agreeing with Obama's brand of Democrat philosophy. We'll advocate for socialized medicine and the like (unless the populists on the "right" already do that and I haven't seen it yet). Then, since we're all about "helping the Little Guy," we'll start including minorities in our concept of "The Little Guy," just like Democrats did, and start adopting their current positions in the culture war.

You think that's crazy, but I can't believe my eyes every time I see "the right" say things and take positions that Carter would have taken when I was growing up. Plus, the left will continue to pull left, so when your only point of comparison is the left instead of your own principles, the fact that "the right" is going left will not be obvious to you.

I can't argue with Roger about any of that. It's already happening. We're already up to Carter.

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Who/what should people have been looking to in 2016 if not Trump?

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Ted Cruz. That's an easy one.

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The natural path of populism is socialism.

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SDVTiger

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Tell us how he's wrong.

You guys are already up to Carter. Why won't you continue to pull left?

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quote:The fear of populism is instilled and ingrained deep by the world order that was established post WW2 and is in its dying breath today. The natural path of populism is socialism. Dont do it.

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Apparently its the natural path of conservatism too

The problem is that We are pussies.

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quote: By your logic the natural path to a constitutional republic is corporatism. Our current Corporatism is a byproduct of a sick system where government controls corporations. So no. Populism will get you there sooner.

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The path that you propose is hopeless. It will require complete collapse or balkanization to even be implemented. Now if you want to argue FOR those scenarios ill listen. The status quo will practically end up in defeat and totalitarianism with the people that hate me and my family being the ones in power....but ill still have the peace of mind knowing that I voted ideally, while my kids are being force fed tranny propaganda at the point of gun.

Conservatives pitch this and wonder why people increasingly are telling them to frick off