Why conservatives are hopeless
..is illustrated by this unscientific poll for World Net Daily:
If you had to base your vote in November on 1 issue, which would it be?
Border security/Illegal immigration 63.43% (548)
Oust all incumbents 12.50% (108)
Abortion 7.41% (64)
Same-sex marriage 4.63% (40)
Taxes and spending 3.36% (29)
War in Iraq 3.24% (28)
Other 2.43% (21)
Property rights 2.31% (20)
Environment 0.35% (3)
Gas prices 0.35% (3)
What makes them hopeless is not the relative ranking of the hot-buttons. It's that "property rights" came in so low, given that property rights are the key to every other issue on the list...even illegal immigration, if you accept the dodgy notion of "public property". Incumbents? They don't respect property rights. Abortion? whose bady/whose life (depending on where you fall on the issue) is it? Marriage is all about property. Taxes? Whose money is it? Iraq? Whose country is it? Whose environment, whose gasoline?
That this shot right past the readership does not bode well for American conservatism.
Comments
Posted by: Chad
Posted on: June 14, 2006 02:04 PM
That isn't even a scientific study... That is also a snapshot in time.
Right now... for conservatives, immigration is a top priority because that is what is being discussed. During normal times, I would place spending, war on terrorism, taxes, and smaller government on an even playing field.
Posted by: Chad
Posted on: June 14, 2006 02:05 PM
Most conservatives elect based on people who have conservative principals.
Posted by: Jeffrey Quick
Posted on: June 14, 2006 02:26 PM
Sure, it's a snapshot. The WND polls are also biased as hell, in terms of the possible answers.
But you want to talk about conservative principles? Is there any conservative principle more fundamental than private property? Unless of course you take the label "conservative" literally (i.e., trying to preserve the status quo), in which case the bourgeois Marxists of the Democratic Party are the real conservatives, as recently pointed out at http://www.lewrockwell.com/suprynowicz/suprynowicz43.html