Acceptable moderate betrayals?

It appears there are some betrayals of principle that republican conservatives seem to be less upset about than others. Ironically in some instances a horrible betrayal that has an immediate effect is often accepted as par for the course, yet certain populist attitudes, even if there is slight chance that that attitude it will manifest itself in sudden or major a change of policy, is grounds for immediate excommunication.

OK, I guess I'm sort of talking about Pat Buchanan. Pat Buchanan ironically would consider himself to the right of what currently passes for conservative orthodoxy (CO) on the issues of free-trade and foreign involvement. The gatekeepers of CO on the other hand have labeled these positions "populist." Buchanan agrees that it is popular, but makes a convincing case that it conserves the vision of the Founding Fathers.

It is a bit of a stretch to say that just because a thing is popular it is necessarily bad or that a politician who runs on these issues is necessarily low. In the case of the two above mentioned issues it is quite disingenuous and it hurts the party After all, it would be nice to win more elections and it is tiresome to lose elections based on betrayals of fiscal conservatism. Add to that the consideration that usually a politician has only sold out on the fiscal issues after wetting his appetite on the moral issues. To quote Ivanhoe "ruined on all sides, ruined on all sides!"

Fiscal purity is nonexistent because of the current state we have reached where representatives are expected to "bring home the bacon" or rather get as much of the pork barrel spending directed to their home state as possible. Newspapers openly tout politicians pork barrel spending directed homeward as a reason to send them back to Washington. The only way a politician can claim fiscal conservatism is to point to efforts they have made to keep the over-all budget down while directing their share of the booty toward more worthy projects.

Fiscally conservative is relative to the other pigs on the sow, so moderate is but a small step away, and it helps with re-election. One can even wrinkle ones brow or shed a tear if one needs to bolster ones reputation for fiscal continence without actually holding back. So I suppose it is understandable that folks have a hard time trying to hold a specific malefactor to account for stepping over a line that nobody has drawn or even talked about drawing. It is alarming enough that this issue has taken such a hit because of lack of definition so it is natural to attack on issues that can be defined.

This is why I would suggest that anyone who is against free-trade not say so directly, but instead talk about holding other countries to account for unfair practices. This will save American industry (and American jobs, be popular, and nobody can accuse you of being a populist. Trust me, if you can't end free-trade just by cracking down on all the countries that are cheating us then you probably aren't sharp enough to play in the big leagues anyway. Just make sure you don't hurt the interests of a certain lobby (for a country that relies on free-trade) and you can probably do whatever you want as long as you pronounce it properly.

Next it is a prudent approach to have a strong defense, it is necessary to have a sufficient defense. I would propose that a way to strike a middle ground on those two acceptable positions would be to be for more Special Forces (very popular) air power, and a smaller highly trained Army and Navy backed by a larger reserve and national guard. Without mentioning any names don't get on the wrong side of the you-know-who and you will have accomplished the nice trick of having kept that lobby in the fold without being an unpopular endless war party. They don't have anywhere else to go anyway, but they can be spoilers.

So yes there can be a party of principle that is popular enough to win most every election. I am not sure that party is the GOP, but it could be with a slight realignment of emphasis. We need to change the perception of what are acceptable betrayals and what conservative orthodoxy consists of in the first place. The founders protectionist principles secured a middle class, there is no reason it shouldn't get their votes now. I should add corporate welfare,but that needs another entry to do it justice.