Comments Posted By PB
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"the culture and history of America is that of a liberal (classic) democracy"
"For about 150 years, there was no “conservative movement” in America"
Exactly. The American Experiment is NOT conservative. The very idea of a society being an experiment is anathema to true conservatism. The ideas the Founders used to establish this country were a synthesis of liberalism and republicanism. Conservatism was created decades later and was designed to defend the European pre-modern social order against the very kind of modern ideas that animated the American Founders. The contemporary American conservative movement was invented in the 1950s by a bunch of fringe intellectuals who had a thing for European conservatism and who opposed the industrial age administrative state.
"It is my belief, and the belief of a few others, that once again, conservatism must rise to the occasion by “standing athwart history yelling stop.” "
"Standing athwart history shouting stop" is the exact opposite of what the American Experiment is all about. The motto the Founders chose was "Novus Ordo Seclorum" : New Order of the Ages. They believed they rode at the front of a movement driving into the future and creating a new kind of society that was leaving the old European pre-modern order behind. And they were right. The effort over the past few decades to graft a European conservatism onto the American Experiment is a huge mistake that is distorting our view of what America really is. The turmoil of the 1960s propelled two movements forward: the New Left and Conservatism, both of them are alien to the American Experiment. The only way we can move forward into the 21st century is to move beyond both of them, reconnect with the spirit of the American Experiment and innovate an information age vision of America that is based upon the liberalism and republicanism that is at the heart of everything that America is about. That is the only way forward. Conservatism is a diversion.
Comment Posted By pb On 22.09.2009 @ 18:56
WE'RE GOING TO NEED THE PATIENCE OF JOB
Jake (#5) said:
"...Let’s keep criminals charged with crimes under American law in America..."They're not criminals--they're enemy combatants! American criminal law should have nothing to do with them.
Comment Posted By PB On 14.02.2008 @ 08:49
I see a lot of statements in here about what FEMA has promised to do at various points in time. Perhaps you could try to find out what they actually have or have not done, and when?
Also, as this seems to be the real focus of your timeline, I'll give you a starting point: After Failures, Government Officials Play Blame Game. Especially revealing were the statements made by Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, on Meet the Press, Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, and of course Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans, who you have already mentioned.
Nagin said, "[The federal government/FEMA] kept promising and saying things would happen [...] I was getting excited and telling people that. They kept making promises and promises." That's all I see in your timeline from them, too.
Comment Posted By Pb On 5.09.2005 @ 17:55
BLOOD IS THICKER THAN POLITICS
Right on. Discussing and disagreeing about politics is one thing. Dissing someone's loved ones is totally another. Bottom line, we all have opinions and we all have families. Hopefully, love and loyalty within families will always take priority over political opinions.
Comment Posted By PB On 20.05.2005 @ 22:56
