Conservative Socialism

Having become disillusioned with the Republican party I think it is time for us libertarians to at least try to build bridges with liberals. In fact, the rise of conservatism can, perhaps, be used to show them the error of their ways.

Liberals and libertarians have many of the same goals; it's their coercive methods libertarians have a problem with.

Historically, the conservatives were the coercive power. Meaning the aristocracies, theocracies and mercantilists. They were the 'Right'; authoritarian government.

The classical-liberals, meaning libertarians, we're the ones who took that power away. Meaning laissez-faire capitalism (though it hadn't yet been named that). They were the 'Left'; limited constitutional government.

Modern liberals recreated that coercive power to advance their well intentioned social agenda. But as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Now conservatives are back in control of that coercive power. What many liberals don't yet realize is that the conservative hijacking of their liberal socialist institutions has only just begun.

To understand why this is so, it is important to understand why the classical-liberals created a limited constitutional government and what it is that modern-liberals did, with their good intentions, to undermine it.

The Constitution required a super majority to change it. This meant that we the people would have to have a proper national debate before the government was granted a new power. But FDR changed all that. FDR by-passed the Constitution by inventing new government powers through the 'general welfare' clause. After threatening to 'pack the court', the Supreme Court agreed with him.

But the 'general welfare' clause was never intended to be a grant of a general power. The whole point of the constitution was to limit government to specific powers. If Congress has a general power then there is absolutely no purpose for the Constitution.

It is also important to note that interpreting 'general welfare' in this way was originally a right-wing strategy to undermine federal constraints. It was Alexander Hamilton, the father of modern conservatism, who first proposed it.

Regardless, today limited constitutional government is mostly a thing of the past. What we have today is a Supreme Court precedent government. It no longer takes a proper national debate and super majority to grant the government new powers. All it takes now is a single ruling by nine politically appointed justices.

Now that the conservatives have packed the court with conservative judges you can bet your boots a whole new set of legal challenges are heading their way.

Now that the conservatives have packed the court with conservative judges we're going to find out what 'general welfare' means when conservative judges interpret it as a general power of Congress. And liberals are not going to like it. And neither are libertarians.

Many conservatives would argue that this is a good thing. But I believe they will eventually become as disillusioned with the Republican party as I and many other libertarians have. Even now cracks are forming in the edifice of the party.

Never the less, George Bush has demonstrated the anti-socialist stance by conservatives is nothing more than a facade. George Bush's socialist, big government policies are not an aberration. In fact, not only is socialism compatible with conservative policy, it was invented by them. For evidence of this see Bismarck's Germany. Even our own Social Security Administration has a web page describing his contributions:

Germany became the first nation in the world to adopt an old-age social insurance program in 1889, designed by Germany's Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck. The idea was first put forward, at Bismarck's behest, in 1881 by Germany's Emperor, William the First, in a ground-breaking letter to the German Parliament. William wrote: ". . .those who are disabled from work by age and invalidity have a well-grounded claim to care from the state."

Socialist policies are inherently authoritarian. Hence the melding of fascism and national socialism early last century in Italy and Nazi Germany.

We live under a Supreme Court precedent government and now those precedents are decided by the authoritarians.

Did you really think it was about abortion and gay marriage?