The American Spectator

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(Page 4 of 14)

p> MISSED THE BUS br> Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Paging Dr. Smith : /p>

With all respect to Mr. Tyrrell, there is a simple reason that so-called conservative politicians aren't really jumping in to debate the health-care problem. There are no more truly conservative politicians. Although Mr. Hillyer points out several more conservative politicians in You Can Go Home Again, I would respectfully disagree that these men and women are actually conservative.

There's one very simple reason why conservative ideals are falling out of favor. Because even the conservative movement isn't being entirely honest. More importantly, 'conservative' politicians are not arguing for and advancing conservative ideals and policies. Somewhere along the way we lost sight of the important debate.

The fact is, we lost the real debate. The debate shouldn't be how government power should be applied. Or by what "side," right or left, the government should be controlled. The debate should be about the proper role of government and the proper amount of governmental power. We lost this debate around the time we accepted that we live in a democracy (how many "conservative" commentators talk about the American Republic?) and that we, the people, have constitutional rights. Thankfully, the Spectator is still running articles that point out that the Bill of Rights didn't create rights but acknowledged them, I'm still not seeing any that make the point that the term "constitutional right" should apply only to government power. How easy is it for government power advocates (also called "liberals") when even their "conservative" counterparts don't really challenge them on the central purpose of government?

p>I do fear that state run health care in the US is inevitable. Not because the people really want it, but because conservatives won't stand up and start making the arguments we need to be making. We need a unified effort to change the whole debate, not just aspects of it. We need to start talking about the purpose of government overall, not just its roll in this or that. br> -- Charles Campbell br> Austin, Texas /p>

It is not enough to complain about long lines, poor services, etc. when arguing health care. Doctors are at the top of the "fix it" group, they won't give up this position, no matter how hard the insurance industry works to dislodge them as they try to take more control.

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