Roll Over, Goldwater

The genuine conservatives of the twentieth century such as Barry Goldwater, Robert Taft, Herbert Hoover, Charles Lindbergh Sr., Charles Lindbergh Jr., Joseph McCarthy, Clare Booth Luce, Douglas MacArthur, William Borah, Ezra Taft Benson, and William Knowland are rolling and spinning in their graves. They believed in and worked for the Constitution, civility, individual liberty, true patriotism, and the preservation of the middle class.

Not one of them would have gone along with unconstitutional and pre-emptive wars, Keynsian economics policies, neglected borders, invasions of privacy, meddling foreign policies, violations of freedom, and the usurpation of state's rights.

Deficit spending was the one certain criticism conservatives had of liberals. No more. Unindicted Republican spokesman Rush Limbaugh claims that current deficits zooming up don't matter because the economy will grow out of it. "Conservative" columnist Fred Barnes laughs it away saying, "the national debt is a smaller percentage of the GDP than in the past, not to worry."

Notice that the main talking points used by conservatives are identical to those used by the hated liberals a decade or so ago.

The conservative heroes of the past deserve to rest in peace, but modern-day traitors to the American cause keep them rolling over in their graves. It might console us a bit if they had been cremated and their ashes sprinkled over the fruited plain. Blowing in the wind - metaphysically and symbolically, of course.