Shifting the Context of Left vs. Right

Conservatism is not what it was before FDR and the New Deal. Old line Conservatives like Garet Garret, Albert J. Nock, H. L. Mencken, John T. Flynn, Frank Chodorov, and others like them, were they to walk the earth today, would be considered right wing extreme extremists. FDR and the New Deal succeeded in pulling the continuum of what constitutes liberal vs. conservative to the left so that today’s people can claim to be conservative and still support things like Social Security, Medicare, and other government give away programs.

We are now living in times that represent another lurch leftward in the left vs. right continuum so that if the Obama administration is successful in socializing health care, the way that FDR was successful in socializing old age retirement, today’s liberals will be thought of as tomorrow’s conservatives. This will result in, as an example, tomorrow’s conservatives accepting homosexual marriage as a given but cherishing their conservative pedigree in the fact that they oppose bestiality marriages.

Roosevelt was successful in redefining left vs. right because in his socialism New Deal legislation he bought and created a constituency that would never vote against the money that the Democratic party was committed to giving them. The whole social security scam gave people just enough money to remain dependent upon the government but not so much money that they would ever be anything but dependent. Obama is seeking to do the same thing that FDR did (and LBJ compounded) by creating a constituency that once it gets hooked on the drug of governmental sponsored enterprises (GSE) will never quit voting for the party that got them hooked on GSE. If he is successful in doing this the whole continuum of what constitutes left vs. right will shift once again leftward.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane