- Respect for the Constitution
- Respect for life
- Less government
- Personal responsibility
"Conservatism," he said, is the principle of protecting peoples' rights.
Now what did former Arkansas Governer Mike Huckabee say? He said (on Fox and Friends, 2/28/09) that capitalism is "better" in the marketplace with its "free hand" versus the government with its "heavy hand."
Where is the similarity? Both of them think conservatism is about principle, when in fact it is not about principle; it is about "preserving" the status quo from the liberals attempts to rip apart conservative values any further than they already have. Conservative values are not based on objectivity, but rather on the subjectivity that the free market is the best; not that it is right.
Neither of them mentioned the principle of the free market as the right of men with individual sovereignty. What is individual sovereignty? In a civilization it must be defined as the most freedom available while living under the rule of law.
"Individual sovereignty was not a peculiar conceit of Thomas Jefferson: It was the common assumption of the day..." Kelley L. Ross, Ph.D.
Man is born with absolute individual sovereignty, because where no government ruled him, and where no men enslaved him, all the unalienable rights given him by nature would remain with him. In a civilization of laws, some of those rights are alienated in order to secure the rule of law, but in return the individual actually gains.
He gains the freedom of having to police other men to secure the natural rights he is left with. He is free of having to enact individual justice when he has been wronged.
Because he is free to be himself without worry that others will--metaphorically or actually--put their fist, or a gun, in his face, he is free to use his energy in the pursuit of happiness.
The principle of "respect for life" means the respect for individual sovereignty. This does not mean the sovereignty of the people in the aggregate when defined as "the greatest good for the greatest number."
Huckabee meant just this very thing when he said capitalism was "better."
The problem with conservatives is they don't understand that capitalism is not "better." It is man's right by nature, by his nature as a free sovereign, and as the "rational animal."
Krohn said "respect for the Constitution" was a principle. Well, under the Tenth Amendment whereby the States have all the power not specifically given to the Federal government nor denied to the States themselves, the people have all other powers.
There is not one word in the Constitution that allows for the men operation of free men in a free market with the "heavy hand" of the government when it has a gun it that hand.
"Less government" means nothing except as a comparison. In the 21st century we need a government that is immensely larger than what was required in Jefferson's time. "Less" is not a standard. It may be a goal compared to what we currently have.
But the goal is a government that rules free men, not a "smaller" government. We can create a smaller government tomorrow and yet not get rid of the collectivism that the gun in the hand of government has pointed at our heads.
Capitalism is not a "better" system; it is the only system commensurate with free men operating in a free market under the rule of law that protects individual sovereignty.
The Republicans lost the last presidential election and the previous Congressional elections because they don't know what a principle is. They compete for the minds and hearts of the American people by offering them bromides about freedom while chosing an economic system based not on the freedom offered by that system, but on the fuzzy idea that it is a "better" system.
And they don't understand why it's better.
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