Boss
Take a Memo:
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- #21
The only possible way I could see a conservative being a socialist is for that person to be so far right that he eventually merges with the radical left.
This is because you are interpreting "socialism" as totalitarian Marxism or Communism. That's not what I am talking about. Any system that is centrally-controlled by government, which is there to provide a collective benefit for us all, is a "socialist" system. The military, for example. Every conservative I know of believes in having a strong military.... do you believe it should be privatized or operated by corporations?
We credit Eisenhower (R) with our wonderful interstate highway system, but this idea was not his. It comes from the National Socialists of Germany under Hitler. It is a socialist system. Most conservatives are appreciative of the interstate highway system, we don't hear many of them clamoring for repeal on that. And it doesn't mean we are Nazis.
The point is, socialist systems can and do work under the financial backing of free market capitalism and economic free enterprise. The conservative philosophy should restrict these things to what we need and not what we want. Even a degree of nationalized needed health care is obtainable, if it is done correctly. The current plan isn't going to work, but if we first tackled the cost-effectiveness of health care by introducing more competition and capitalism and removing government regulation and constraint, it is possible to have a limited "socialist" system to provide health care for those who need health care. To some degree, this is precisely what we did with Medicaid.
The problem is, liberal socialists are ideologues. They've taken socialism to a whole new level. They embrace the failed ideology of the Marxists and Communists and believe we can make this system work, even though it has failed every time it has been tried. To a socialist ideologue, the line between need and want is unclear and undefined. A want becomes a need. Socialism can never provide everything we want. Only free market capitalism can do that.