Trump will clean house

[kevin kiernan]

Crooked politicians must be held accountable for the crimes they have done. Trump is the only one who will do it. To elect a POTUS who will not prioritize fixing our criminal political system will not be good enough for me.We will not get another one like Trump ,who will bitch slap the evil out of Washington politics..No one can deny that Trump is crazy enough to do it. But he needs us to want it fixed. He can not stand alone..This is that time in history. The time that many have hoped. Turn your back on this opportunity,and we are done. THAT IS THE TRUTH OF IT.

[charles royer]

It hurt him when he turned to what looked party politics as usual to win .Oboma has given rise to a new urgency for real change. Many people of all parties have had their fill of that!

Just sayin!

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

Firstly, as worthy as these eight issues may be, they are emphatically NOT core conservative principles; rather they are political cliches' and slogans of our time; such as Gun Rights, opposition to Obamacare or Supporting Israel.

And that is the very essence of the problem. Principled Conservatism is neither ideological nor religious in impulse. Rather it is derivative of first principles such as the critical need for a moral order based on Natural Law or the Family Unit as the foundation of culture/society.

Listening to politicians such as Cruz and media types like the FOX windbags, blathering on about conservatism; one immediately realizes they don't know their ass from their elbow regarding the essence of Principled Conservatism. In a nutshell it is the ideas, thoughts and wisdom of the Ancients, the Scholastics, the likes of Hume, Locke, Burke, de Maistre, Jefferson, Madison; among others.

When we recover their wisdom, we will have taken a great leap forward in recovering the lost legacy of our Founders.

-------------------------------------

Secondly, your screed against Trump is abusive, infantile and pointless. As Fredrick of Prussia observed, audacity is the must have attribute for transformational leadership, which Trump has in spades. Plain people have made it clear to establishment types, by a large margin, that they have no further interest in the pious cant and sanctimonious blathering of politicians and their media errand boys. Try getting real.

                                                                                                               

[M]

Thomas,

Did you read the last one that directly addresses Principles Conservatism?

Titled "Racism, Conservatism, Affirmative Action, and Intellectual Sophistication: A Matter of Principled Conservatism or Group Dominance?"

http://www.scholar.harvard.edu/files/bobo/files/1996_racism_conserv... 

Did you mean Traditional Conservatism? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditionalist_conservatism

Or even;

Restoring the Meaning of Conservatism

http://www.theimaginativeconservative.org/2013/10/restoring-the-mea...

Or;

Burkean Conservatism based on the ancient classical and Christian moral natural law, derived from God and perceived by all uncorrupted men through “right reason.”

http://www.firstprinciplesjournal.com/articles.aspx?article=695

Or as defined in;

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/conservatism/

Because the articles on Principled Conservatism all connect it with politics of one form or another even back in history.

Major Principles of Traditional Conservatism:

One principle of conservatism is that people are bound by their common history, faith, and experiences. These institutions are built up overtime and are not a result of reason. Thus, no rationale can replace what as been the foothold for so many generations. Conservatives viewed, as a result, any form of reason is potentially radical and can threaten the stability of a traditional society.

As mentioned, religion forms a basis for such tradition in society. It provided a sense of order to control bad behavior, more readily known as "sin." Due to this strong adherence to social customs created by faith, the state will punish violators of that order. It also calls for respect for individual jobs and roles held in that society. Everyone is given a specific role and everyone must maintain that role to maintain balance and order.

Traditional conservatives also believed that humans naturally pursue their own interests. This, coupled with social restrictions, has evolved and developed over many years. In addition, they reject egalitarianism, or equality, among all people. Rather, they believe that people's abilities and contributions make some people more valuable than others. Those individuals who have more importance in maintaining economic or social stability receive more for their contributions. Thus, they supported an aristocracy. https://apgovernmentchs.wikispaces.com/History+and+Basic+Tenets+of+...

Therefore, I would like you to list your beliefs of the Principled Conservatism in opposition to those I have listed.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

M.

In essence, I have no fundamental argument/disagreement w/your assertions.

* Now while Pericles, Solon, Cicero, Aurelius, among others, were politically active; the politics of antiquity is hardly what is currently on display.

* Indeed Hume, Locke, Berkeley, Burke, among others, were involved in Whig and Tory politics.

*Certainly Conservatism, rejects egalitarianism, another pernicious secular heresy from the French, as a denial of uniqueness and individuality.

* As for religion, it should always be kept at a healthy distance, as the core of conservatism is both non-ideological and non-religious; which doesn't mean anti-religious. Case in point is the stifling effect of Sharia Law on any creative impulse that raises its head under Islam.

* The Scholastics asserted that a Moral order based on the Natural Law, independent of but related to religion, governed Man.

[M]

Thomas,

Thank you for the list. I do understand what you are getting at, but I also believe that even in antiquity there were political motives entwined with the philosophy. i.e. whenever a new or radical concept was discovered that would better serve the masses, and was incorporated into the governance, eventually Greed and lust for power would rear it's ugly head and those users and abusers then as now, would debase and corrupt it to their benefit over the publics benefit.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

M.

Fair enough, so rather than take a Principle from Aristotle, then one from Cicero, then one from Locke and so on; I sourced these, in no particular order, from the Treatise on Principled Conservatism which Russel Kirk wrote for the Heritage Foundation more than a generation ago.

* Man is constrained by an enduring moral order derivative of the Natural Law.

* The Family Unit is the foundation of civil society and the building block of culture.

* Adherence to custom and continuity is a prerequisite in order for society to endure.

* We are mere dwarfs who see as far as we do, because we stand on the shoulders of the massive giants of antiquity.

* Prudent leadership requires an assessment on the future of actions taken in the now.

* Variety and difference are the catalysts for creativity and innovation.

* Man is not a perfectible creature.

* Freedom and private property are interdependent.

* Voluntary commutarianism is always preferable to involuntary collectivism.

* Eternal vigilance is needed to restrain political power and the passions of the public.

Can't wait for some politician like Mitch McConnell or a pundit like Megan Kelley to articulate one of these principles. Hm......

[M]

Thomas,

Again thank you for the listing it should clear a lot of things up for the members. These principles were at one time honored by Real statesmen People like our founders. Look at what was written in the Declaration of Independence. that document espouses Principled Conservatism. All our american Politics should apply those principles in our governance. However our original political ideology has been bastardized by political hacks and conniving egocentric politicians. In my estimation, the whole Socialist agenda while it pays lip service to the Principles, does not apply them to their version of governance. If the Socialists were sutlers or civilian shop keepers, you could readily accuse them of using a bait and switch technique to bluff and keep their proletariat in line and under thumb.

I don't want to see the American Republic end up the same way.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

M,

Not to flog a horse to death but the issue you raised earlier about the relationship between principled conservatism and politics deserves some elaboration.

Certainly it's true that Greek and Roman leaders were politicians but hardly in the sense we understand that word in our time.

Most importantly, Greek and Roman Culture completely rejected all notions of egalitarianism and structured their societies around class. For those who aspired to civil leadership, wisdom was a prerequisite. for those who aspired to military leadership, valor; and so on. These necessary attributes and virtues had to be observable to the power structure in place, to some degree, before any leader was invested w/power and the trust of civil society.

                       

[charles royer]

The top elected Republican, Paul Ryan, said on Thursday he was not ready to endorse Donald Trump, a sign of the challenges the party's presumptive presidential nominee faces rallying the Republican establishment behind his White House bid.

Ryan, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, said conservatives wanted to know if Trump shares their values.
Really , what values are they? Classic case of pot/kettle black! More like Trump might actually get shit done!
It was beginning to look as though Republicans had fashioned a semblance of unity in the House. They would rally around Paul Ryan, urging him to step up and fill the void left when Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race for the speaker’s gavel. It didn’t last long. The tide has shifted this week, with many grassroots conservatives saying Ryan won’t do. The man who was once the party’s fresh-faced vice-presidential nominee, lauded for his aggressive calls to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid and portrayed by Democrats as the arch-conservative villain who would toss Granny off a cliff, now finds himself the latest target of some of conservative media’s biggest stars.

Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425599/paul-ryan-conservative...

[jack ludwig]

Charles, as we get closer to Nov. you will see more and more republicans jumping ship on Trump. Most of the career politicians do not want to be on that ship when it goes down on election day. As the campaign progresses and the polls begin to reflect the reality, Trump will become more outspoken and bizarre in his statements making his chances of winning that much more impossible. The big guns have not even come out yet to make Trump look like a fool. Just wait until after the convention and you will start seeing the stars of the left's campaign come out and address Trump directly. Hillary will be safe behind these two personalities to casually go about the country to describe her policies.   

[kevin kiernan]

Many career politicians are getting exposed for what they are for sure. Many want Trump to lose because of their own selfishness.Paul Ryan is setting himself up for 2020. He would love to see Trump fail.That is obvious to those who actually are patriots.

[Thomas Vincent Coffey]

A paramount virtue in antiquity was honor; a trait virtually non-existent in the modern era.

Consider George Romney who aggressively sabotaged the POTUS candidacy of Barry Goldwater in 1964, the latter an AF Major-General as well as a gallant war hero.

Now Willard, his doofus son, is replaying the scene, w/Trump, and in addition, Ryan, Willard's Sancho Panza as well as a feckless and undistinguished boob, is giving Trump a pass.

Such dishonorable behavior would have gotten one either executed or exiled permanently, during the Roman era. Where is Julius Caesar when we really need him????