Conservatism

I read John F. Lawrence's Feb. 15 column, "Merger Mania: House of Cards May Collapse," with great interest. It's about time someone brought such matters to the public's attention. As Lawrence so correctly points out, a real estate agent giving the sort of advice given by so many investment bankers would be suspected of drumming up business. Unfortunately, some people have lost sight of the long-term effect of all this and have focused on short-run profits, etc. Let's hope the "House of Cards" doesn't fall in, and that government restrictions can be brought to bear to prevent illegal practices.

If you've been holding your breath to see whether Mitt Romney would pivot to the center now that it's a two-man race between him and President Obama, you can exhale; he won't. Romney made that clear in his victory speech after last week's primaries in the Northeast. Instead, at least for now, the presumptive nominee's campaign will focus relentlessly on what he sees as the president's wrongheaded approach to the economy. His message boils down to this: Obama favors government intervention in the economy, "a path where our lives will be ruled by bureaucrats and boards," a path that "leads to chronic high unemployment, crushing debt and stagnant wages.

In Charles Krauthammer's column ("Fixing Doublethink, Left and Right," Opinion Feb. 4) he muses over the fact that from his perspective, "conservatism" has a good image domestically whereas in those countries where communism is breaking up, the word "liberalism" wears the white hat. Then, speaking from his own set of "silent assumptions" (like we all do), he says the confusion would be cleared up if all agreed that "conservatism" would mean more individualism and less state control, and "liberalism" would mean less individualism and more state control.

The modern conservative movement began 60 years ago with the publication of a book by a 26-year-old first-time author. Reflecting on that work teaches us something important about the nature and trajectory of modern conservatism, about the energy that propelled the movement and about serious problems with the movement today. The book was "God and Man at Yale. " The author was William F. Buckley Jr. GAMAY (as conservatives often call this iconic work) was an attack on the young author's alma mater.

According to the conventional wisdom that liberals accept climate change and conservatives don't, Kerry Emanuel is an oxymoron. Emanuel sees himself as a conservative. He believes marriage is between a man and a woman. He backs a strong military. He almost always votes Republican and admires Ronald Reagan. Emanuel is also a highly regarded professor of atmospheric science at MIT. And based on his work on hurricanes and the research of his peers, Emanuel has concluded that the scientific data show a powerful link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

After years of wrangling over the tone of his State of the Union messages, the President's top aides have decided to "let Reagan be Reagan" in this, his seventh and apparently final annual address, and emphasize the conservative themes that have been the hallmark of his political career.

Ruth Calvert has seven radios strategically placed throughout her Orange home. And every weekday morning, it is not unusual for all of them to be broadcasting the same station. That way, Calvert explains, she is never out of earshot of one of America's more prominent voices--Rush Limbaugh. "The hard thing is remembering to turn them all off," said Calvert, who is president of the only California chapter of the National Rush Limbaugh Fan Club.

The right-of-center Hungarian Democratic Forum won unexpectedly strong endorsement in Sunday's election finale and claimed the role of pathfinder in Hungary's march toward democracy and capitalism. The party's clear victory over rival liberals from the Alliance of Free Democrats reflected a burgeoning wave of conservatism that is washing over Eastern Europe in the wake of socialism's retreat. With virtually all of the ballots counted early today, the Forum had 42.

Faced with increasing economic problems and growing ethnic unrest, Soviet society is shifting markedly to the right, the chairman of the Soviet Parliament said Sunday, acknowledging a conservative resurgence after nearly six years of political reforms. Anatoly I. Lukyanov, chairman of the Congress of People's Deputies, said that "the demand for order and stability" has become a national priority and that the country's politics will have to reflect it.

Orange County isn't known for its cuisine or its architecture or even a crop, like Iowa's corn. No, to the rest of the nation, Orange County is famous for its politics. This is the place where a Republican politician is treated like the returning war hero in a John Wayne movie and a Democrat, almost like the faceless enemy. But then, there aren't many elected Democrats and none ranked higher than small-town mayor. So when Richard M.

The strain of conservatism that propelled Arizona lawmaker Russell Pearce to a powerful perch in state politics could also prove to be his downfall. Pearce, president of the state Senate, will face off Tuesday against fellow Republican Jerry Lewis in a recall election in their suburban Phoenix district. The election is the culmination of a nearly yearlong effort to oust the controversial Pearce, arguably the state's most powerful politician. Supporters champion his gruff, unwavering commitment to conservative ideals, while critics call him a bully whose tactics are divisive.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry plunged into a New Hampshire fair on the second day of his presidential announcement tour in the brash and bold style that has been his trademark. With his entourage of Texas Rangers at his elbow, he strutted through the crowd, brown cowboy boots on his feet and Lone Star cuff links on his sleeves, giving sharp salutes and thumbs up to some voters and grabbing the shoulders of others in a warm and lusty hello. He was swarmed, to be sure. But even at an event organized by conservative groups, some kept their distance as Perry worked his way through the lunch line and sat down at a picnic table, where he closed his eyes and offered a blessing before biting into his hamburger.

Sixty-two years ago it was the father, evangelist Billy Graham, who captivated Los Angeles with an old-fashioned tent revival that launched his career as America's most influential preacher. Today it is his son, Franklin Graham, who hopes to use Southern California as a launch pad for a national religious revival — this one aimed at Latinos, who represent fertile soil for Christian evangelists. Graham's Festival de Esperanza , or Festival of Hope, kicks off Saturday evening at the Home Depot Center in Carson, somewhat spiffier grounds than those available to the elder Graham, who in 1949 pitched his revival in a tent on Washington Boulevard and Hill Street.

Conservative Utah has bucked the national GOP trend of embracing hard-line ? and arguably inhumane ? laws meant to make states inhospitable to illegal immigrants. Two weeks ago, Utah Gov. Gary R. Herbert signed into law a bill that will grant work permits, and a path to legal residence, to undocumented immigrants and their immediate families. And conservative Arizona, which last year passed the anti-immigrant law known as SB 1070, defeated a second slate of such measures, including one that sought to deny birthright citizenship to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants.

The House is expected to vote Thursday on a resolution demanding the speedy withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, a crucial first test of conservative support for the war among the new Republican majority. The measure, put forward by liberal Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio), is designed to appeal to the fiscal conservatism that has dominated the Republican agenda since the start of the year. In a letter to colleagues, Kucinich highlighted the $113 billion President Obama has requested in his 2012 budget for the war, which is in its 10th year with mixed progress.

Of all the mischaracterizations of social conservatives, none is more stubborn and pernicious than the notion (promulgated by liberals and eagerly snatched up by credulous media voices) that groups and politicians that espouse a "values" philosophy seek to impose a draconian moral code on a dissenting populace. This notion not only demonstrates a lack of understanding of conservatism and its self-imposed limits, but it also betrays a refusal to face the fact that nanny-state preoccupations are the province of the American left.

In one of the lingering outposts of optimism in the battered Golden State, Republican Tom Campbell is raising money for his U.S. Senate bid outside a house so large the bathrooms have signs on their doors: "Men" and "Ladies." On the lawn, a lush green denial of the drought, Campbell spins into his stump speech. Behind him, the setting sun brilliantly illuminates the southern San Francisco Bay, bouncing breathtakingly off the San Mateo Bridge and the San Francisco skyline in the distance.

Seizing one of his last chances to shape the body that will pick his successor, Pope John Paul II on Sunday named 37 new cardinals--an unusually high number--including three from the United States and one from the former Soviet Union. The new "princes of the church" will expand the College of Cardinals, the elite body that advises popes, to an all-time high of 178 members.

According to the conventional wisdom that liberals accept climate change and conservatives don't, Kerry Emanuel is an oxymoron. Emanuel sees himself as a conservative. He believes marriage is between a man and a woman. He backs a strong military. He almost always votes Republican and admires Ronald Reagan. Emanuel is also a highly regarded professor of atmospheric science at MIT. And based on his work on hurricanes and the research of his peers, Emanuel has concluded that the scientific data show a powerful link between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

As Senate Republicans turned up the volume Thursday in their campaign for belt-tightening on Capitol Hill, they declared war on a $1.1-trillion bill that would avert a looming government shutdown this weekend. But the maneuver put them in the awkward position of warring with themselves. Or perhaps, they would argue, their former selves. Before last month's game-changing election, many leading Republicans counted themselves among Congress' most successful sponsors of pet projects.