Ideology/Big Government - reply to reader 

In response to my post “Ideology and Big Government II” someone wrote:

> You rather routinely try to portray
> conservatives and even libertarians
> as having something positive to say.
> They don’t.

Well, we have a difference of opinion about that.

It seems to me that there are different kinds of conservatives and different kinds of thinkers who use that term to describe themselves. Many Greens will point to Paul Goodman as a key theorist whose ideas were influential during the sixties. One of his most important works was titled New Reformation: Notes of a Neolithic Conservative (1969).

There are people who advocate local empowerment, fiscal responsibility, stability, and community - and who take strong positions against consumerism and against foreign adventurism - who call themselves conservatives.

It’s instructive to remember how Ralph Nader said in his campaigns that he expected his message to find resonance with such conservatives. In January, 2004 Nader said:

“Millions of conservatives are furious with George Bush over the deficit, over corporate welfare payments on the backs of American taxpayers, over being soft on corporate crime, over the Patriot Act and the violation of civil liberties and privacy. There’s a whole opportunity there to get a lot of them to vote for an independent candidate.”

Some leftists were not so comfortable when Nader said things like that. Personally, while I don’t agree with all of Nader’s perspectives (I think he tends to be more social democratic than Green), I did agree with him about that. I believe that his message - and the communitarian Green message - should be able to appeal to such conservatives.

Green writer Steven Shafarman echoed that sentiment in an article he wrote that same month (January, 2004):

“In addition to Greens, Nader will be appealing to:

“* disenchanted Democrats, perhaps especially those who supported Kucinich, Sharpton, or Dean;

“* whatever remains of the Reform and Natural Law parties;

“* true independents - like Nader - who refuse to join any party;

“* Republicans, Libertarians, and other former Bush supporters who are unhappy about Iraq, the loss of jobs, his fiscal irresponsibility, his support for the oil companies and weapons industries, the fact that government is growing faster than under Clinton, and so on.

“I’m especially eager to see us learn to appeal more effectively to the Libertarians and true conservatives - people who really value and want to conserve individual freedom, small businesses, local control, and our environment. The Dems and Reps are both authoritarian corporatist parties. We are not.”

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