Honest Conservatism - Oxymoron?

Quote:
I say divide "honest conservatives" into the classes of 2000 to 2006, rank them by seniority according to the date of their public honesty, and use that as a ranking for who to read, who to respect, and who to promote as worthy intellectual adversaries.

Reason for Nomination:
This was a response to one of my progressive email buddies who shared the TomPaine piece with the list that I'm on. I thought I'd cross post it here. I have not cross posted to Tom Paine. Maybe I should.

Rick Perlstein’s distraction of an “honest conservative” is no better than Bush’s coining of the phrase of a “compassionate conservative.” Conservatives have to take progressive values of empathy and honesty and tack them on to the word to even make it palatable. We should quit discussing conservatism and start promoting progressivism.

It’s like airing Paris Hilton’s jail time as news to distract us from the Iraq occupation and the total rejection of the conservative government by a progressive electorate. American values are not inherently conservative, but progressive.

Progressives want a progressive government for a better future. For us government does what America’s future requires and what the private sector cannot do – or is not doing – effectively, ethically or at all. Its dual functions are empowerment and protection.

It’s the job of progressive government to promote and, if possible, provide sufficient protection, greater democracy, more freedom, a better environment, broader prosperity, better health, greater fulfillment in life, less violence, and the building and maintaining of public infrastructure. That’s progressive government.

We currently have a conservative government of both Republicans and Democrats and the Democrats at best have forgotten how to protect our “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness” by promoting our core values of empathy, responsibility and strength. At worst conservative Democrats are trying to reclaim John Locke’s vision of America struck down by the framers of the constitution as “life, liberty and pursuit of property.”

The job of conservative government is to systematically change America’s democratic experiment of government “of the people, by the people and for the people” to one “of the few, by the few and for the few,” (did Hillary coin that phrase?) It’s an accurate phrase and should be used over and over again for conservative government.

Conservative government focuses on weakening and damaging grassroots democracy. Its job is to de-regulate and de-fund all programs except for the treasury and the military. Deficits are not a problem under conservative government. It’s all about increasing “free markets” (which are not free and another rant at another time) here and abroad and reducing broad prosperity. It’s all about transferring our common wealth to the hands of a few wealthy individuals, families, and corporations.

George Bush has been a model conservative president, maybe one of the greatest conservative presidents. He has advanced conservative government so far that conservatives have been found out to be what they are, i.e. undemocratic. Every Republican candidate denounced George Bush. THEY DID NOT DENOUNCE CONSERVATISM.

If you’re a progressive (and I would say a constitutional American), honest conservatism IS an oxymoron. When we debate conservatism, we lose. Let’s honor our values BOLDLY. Let’s demand a progressive government. It’s not just about the presidency, although it’s a biggee. It’s about government at every level. Let’s start we’re we are living. Let’s start today.