Barry: an old conservative.	Jerry: a new conservative	Karl: new, new, new.

New conservatives say they believe in most or all of those things, but then again, they also say that the current Iraq war includes an allied coalition broader than in World War II.

That's true only in a sense so narrow, it mocks the word "true."

Let's kick the tires for each of these claims and see what we're driving today.

Small government

"I stuffed it like a turkey." - Don Young (R-AK), of the new Transportation Bill.

Don Young heads the committee.

There's a new ($231 million) Don Young bridge underway in a little-seen part of Alaska.

Spending is increasing under George W. Bush even as tax cuts are being enacted (and a war being fought). Unlike Clinton, Bush has not vetoed a single spending bill.

The conservative Economist called the recent Energy and Transportation bills as "not good... for small government conservatives." (8/6/05, p.28) They add that "This is the politics of LBJ [a big-spending Democrat] and not Barry Goldwater [small government conservative, once considered very conservative]."

The budget deficit has ballooned, we're financing it through borrowing, and spending -- under a Republican Congress and Senate -- isn't coming down at all.

see our page on Fiscal Irresponsibility

Limited role for government

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

- Ben Franklin

One of Dr. Spade's close friends voted for Ross Perot.

While this is by turns amusing and horrifying, he did cite a compelling incident.

During a town hall meeting, a woman asked Perot a question about prayer in school. Her wording was long and convoluted, but it was clear she liked the idea. Perot eventually cut off her rambling, said, "Pray at home," and went on to the next question.

Conservatives used to think this, too.

Separation between church and state mattered not because the church was less important, but because it was personally important. God was not for government meddling.

Lost you on this one? It's hard to change people's views of religious roles, so try this...

The government can get your library records, your book purchases, your online viewing habits without a warrant. Conservatives used to believe that the government shouldn't enter your home -- much less your mind -- without awfully compelling evidence.

Dr. Spade still believes it.

The free market

Though the Bush administration has backed off its disastrous protection of the steel industry, it hasn't left the road of protectionism.

It's now negotiating with China to limit textiles that can be sent to America, to boost our domestic textile industry.

That's a noble goal, but either you believe in the free market or you don't. Dr. Spade believes in the free market, and wishes conservatives did, too.

We still sell timber, mining, and grazing rights at below market cost. This isn't good for business, and it isn't good for the nation. The conservative Economist argues in favor of removing all subsidies for industry. They believe in the free market. They also endorsed Kerry for president, after endorsing George W. Bush for his first term.

The latest Energy bill included $85 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for energy companies. We still spend billions in farm subsidies, the vast majority of them to enormous corporate food producers.

Politicians who hold a high moral standard

Republicans love to talk about moral values, when pointing at Democrats.

It matters, for instance, that Bill Clinton smoked a joint ("never inhaled") but it doesn't matter that George W. Bush won't even discuss his drug use, or that he was arrested for drunk driving (as was Dick Cheney, and Treasury Secretary John Snow).

It matters that Bill Clinton had an affair, but not, apparently, that Newt Gingrich did (a staffer 23 years his junior, leading to his second divorce). Nor that prosecutor Ken Lay did, nor Henry "youthful indiscretion" Hyde (remember him? the judge for the impeachment attempt. Did I miss any significant Republicans in the impeachment?)

Dan Rostenkowski embezzled thousands of dollars while head of the Ways and Means committee, yet he is still a party insider, pushing for a hard line on Social Security and encouraging current representatives to stick to their principles.

Compare that to, say, Al Gore: vilified by Republicans for being... too stiff.

Not an adulterer.

Not a cheater.

Not a crook.

Too stiff.

Accountability in government

The President LOVES to talk about accountability. For other people.

This administration has doubled the number of documents classified each year (despite independent audits saying the practice far exceeds security needs and drives up government spending). It won't allow access to its energy policy discussions. It has fewer press meetings than any another in a generation, and the President meets with reporters only for scripted interviews.

The President and Vice President refused to meet separately with the 9/11 commission, and then only for an hour total. They're still refusing to release records -- to the commission members only, not publicly, and not with a security risk.

The recent Transportation Bill, all 1,752 pages and $286 billion of it, was not available for public review until it was passed. "Transparency is the best disinfectant," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense.

The President stood in front of the nation and detailed thousands of pounds of chemical weapons in Iraq that weren't there. Regardless of how you feel about the war in Iraq, the reasons we were given for going were not true. Who should be held accountable?

The Republican answer: no one.

See our page on Security.

A strong national defense

Recruitment is falling for both full-time military and for Reserves. For the first time in more than a decade, the army won't fill its recruiting targets.

We all know why.

We all know that more support -- not more well-wishes from liberals, but more modern body armor, more protected transports, and more troops on the ground -- would help.

Reserves are being asked to do full-time tours, many of them extended past their original requirements. We need more full-time soldiers, as both John Kerry and Hillary Clinton have proposed. Call their motives political if you like -- Dr. Spade can't read their minds, but he knows what they have requested.

Customs officials can't get the equipment they need, thanks to cuts by the Bush administration. The Coast Guard has been denied hundreds of millions of dollars of funding for port safety originally promised to it by the White house, as part of a measure to reduce the impact of the recent tax cuts. The Transportation Safety Administration wants more sophisticated scanners and more personnel.

North Korea is a serious problem, and we have no comprehensive policy to deal with it. Old nuclear sites in the former Soviet Union are being watched by guards who haven't been paid in months (John Kerry proposed significant support for securing them).

Osama bin Laden (remember him?) is still at large.

Dr. Spade realizes many of you support the invasion of Iraq, but whatever your reasoning, consider this. There is one, and only one, nation in the entire world that we know for certainty lacked either the means or the will to launch a chemical or nuclear attack on the United States, even when its regime was facing utter defeat.

And that's where we have our military, our focus, and all our hopes for a safer America.

Fiscal responsibility

Before Reagan: world's biggest creditor nation.

After Reagan and Bush,Sr.: world's biggest debtor.

After Clinton: budget surplus. Hate him if you must, conservatives, but call a spade a spade. He done good.

Bush, Jr.: biggest deficits in history, one, two, three.

Republican control of Congress and the Senate. War, increased spending, and tax cuts for the wealthy. Not one veto of a single spending bill.

White House projections for reducing the deficit are utterly false, as even conservative papers admit (the projections omit, for example, any money spent for the war in Iraq).

Spend, fabricate, deny.

Checks and balances to keep government agencies in line

The Founding Fathers introduced all kinds of balances to protect not only against abuse by any one branch, but also against what John Stuart Mill (On Liberty) called "the tyranny of the majority."

Senate approval for judicial nominees was as essential as the President's naming of them. There was a reason more than a simple majority was required, and installing judges while the Senate was not in session was a clear violation of the principle.

The filibuster, evolved later, was consistent with this principle. For some issues, more than a simple majority is necessary to accurately reflect the will of the people. Republicans have not spoken out against the filibuster in times past, but now that they have a slim majority in the Senate and a President who needs Senate approval, they'd like to do away with it.

Convenient, yes, but fair? Wise? Dr. Spade does not believe in removing checks to government power.

Ready to call a spade a spade? Let's check one last conservative value.

Healthy skepticism of government and its functions

"When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny."

- Thomas Jefferson

We're supposed to report on our neighbors, invite the F.B.I. to look at what we've been reading, accept watch lists for airlines, carry national I.D. cards, allow more classified documents exemption from public review, and believe the administration is "doing all it can" on every issue.

Dr. Spade would, in fact, cheerfully accept national I.D. cards if he felt they would do any good. But given the track record of the F.B.I., he's skeptical... as any good conservative or liberal should be.

Why this innate trust in our government now? Isn't it a conservative ideal to doubt that the government can do things well?

In his June 1, 2002 article (New York Times), Geoff Porter gives a terrific example of F.B.I. bureaucracy:

Porter, a professor of Arabic, wanted to offer his skills in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. But the interview followed a standard form testing only an official version of Arabic used for state speeches and the like, not one spoken on the street: "No colloquial Arabic, in any dialect, appeared anywhere on the F.B.I.'s Arabic translation test."

Porter was unable to state the two kinds of dialects in which he was especially fluent, since the form had no space for comment.

Neither he nor any of his colleagues were invited to apply their skills at the F.B.I., which a year later revealed it had more than ten thousand hours of untranslated Arabic tapes, due to a shortage of interpreters.

This is the agency that can not only monitor your email and browsing and reading, but can do so without review or accountability.

Dr. Spade feels the F.B.I. should be able to do such things with a warrant. He also believes such warrants should be available readily and promptly. But without them, there is no record and no accountability. Dr. Spade, unlike the current administration, genuinely believes in accountability. Especially for the government.

This means that the President must seek Congressional and/or Judicial review when he wants to change a fundamental right, explicitly given in the Constitution. When putting someone in prison, for instance, they should have a lawyer, a fair trial, and a chance to hear the charges brought against them. Guantanamo Bay is an embarrassment, as The Economist insists.

The Economist is quoted here so often, modern conservatives may question if it really is a "conservative" magazine, though no liberal would doubt it. The Economist firmly believes in all the principles stated above. That sounds conservative to Dr. Spade.

Old-school conservative. Before skepticism of government, high moral standards, and fiscal responsibility became traits best found on the Left.