Torture Is Not Conservative? Well Yeah, Torture Really Is Not Conservative

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Voila, the American Populist Party:

http://www.americanpopulistparty.org

Advocating a return to Constitutional government Of, By, and For the People.

Joe Ballantine of CA 11:26PM December 22, 2009

The Republican Party hasn't been Conservative for at least the last 40 years. People are just starting to realize that. Even on Social Issues like Gay Rights and Abortion they are Big Government, No individual Freedom, Government decides. Republicans as "Conservatives" should be pro-gay rights as a freedom and Seperation of Church and State issue. The Republican Party is dying because they have no compass, even with the Bible, they pick and choose some parts and not others. With their "rebranding" they should finally come out and be honest and call themselves the "Pope's Party" or the "Southern Baptist and Vatican Party" or something that truly defines who they really are: a fractional Right Wing Religious Third Party. The REAL Republicans should take this as an opportunity to form a moderate Party of Fiscal Conservatism, Social Liberalism and Foreign Policy Conservative(and non-reactionary). They could call themselves The American Populist Party and quickly become the dominant Party in America (taking a near majority of Democrats with them. But they won't because at heart most politicians are cowards.

Bob Green of IN 11:53AM May 01, 2009

Conservativism is a glittering generality it means a whole lot and not much at all,which is why so many politicians like to describe themselves this way on the one hand it could mean sensible and practical or it could mean little or no governmental restrictions on trade or business or it could mean all kinds of restrictions to new ideas and policy which would upset the status quo and the good old boys network....conservatives tend to think in authoritarian ways and liberals are more broad minded,democratic and are far more humanitarian than the average conservative person.... useing torture to get information out of prisoners of war has nothing to do with our Constitution and Bill of Rights.....

Steve S. Roisman of CA 11:50PM April 30, 2009

You cite the "core of conservatism" as being limited government. Wrong. The core of Conservatism is the idea that the role of government is to protect individual life and liberty - an end goal to which limited government is a critical means.

But there are other necessary means to fulfil government's most basic function. War is one of them. So is an effective police force - anarchy destroys liberty. And where innocent individuals' LIVES are in substantial danger, and evil men are refusing to give information which would protect them without being sleep deprived, slapped, or having water poured in their face (calling that "torture" deprives that word of any real meaning) absolutely shoudl be considered - especially since we now know that it DID work.

The Juice of NV 8:01PM April 30, 2009

Torture is not the most effective method of eliciting true information from anyone.

We can reduce abortions (and badly parented births) by aligning to de-sex our media culture and by aligning on honest web sites to teach our young people completely about sex, love, life and consequences..

Cable and Satellite TV should be regulated as utilities and forced into a model of selling service by the channel---instead of by the package. We all need the savings of buying half as much AND everyone should have the right to regulate the content coming into a home WITHOUT first buying it and then having to block parts of what you bought.

Muser of NM 10:45AM April 30, 2009

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Robert Schlesinger

Robert Schlesinger

Robert Schlesinger is managing editor for opinion at U.S. News and World Report, overseeing all opinion editorial content. He is the author of "White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters." E-mail him at rschlesinger@usnews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @rschles.

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