Chuck Grimes wrote:
>
> As far as I can tell the method of compassionate conservatism is to
> corrupt traditional liberal or social welfare state discourse with an
> over lay and comingling of nineteenth century homilies on competition,
> volunteerism and individual entrepreneurialism, coupled with an
> intensified dismantling and reconstitution of what remains of the
> federal welfare state.
So-called compassionate conservatism is an old staple of libertarian ideology cf. *libertarianism* by John Hospers. They argue that once the coercive act of taxation is abolished, private philanthropy will again flow taking the place of the welfare state. It's not that people don't like giving aid to the poor, they don't like being coerced into doing so. However, the idea is to strengthen the class power of the rich over everyone else, making the poor and working classes completely dependent and thus completely at the whim of the rich. All of the Goldwater-Reagun-Gingrich ideas about privatization and the consequences of state welfare programs revolve around these ideas as well as old Malthusian arguments about the poor multiplying and putting pressure on the food supply if they are not condemned to starvation and celibacy.
> But there are some interesting things to be seen. For example I think
> I have figured out how you drop from a heady Marxism of the Stalinist
> variety straight through your own asshole and arrive inside out as a
> typical fundamentalist christian rightwing jerk-off.
A lot of Stalinist Marxism is not very heady but stale formulas drawn up by writers who were mediocre at best. I'm talking about the theoretical Marxism-Leninism manuals that were put out by the M-L states. Of course many brilliant left writers were political Stalinists because they saw the M-L states as the only game in town as far as socialism is concerned.
Its not that a big jump from Stalinism into conservatism. Both rely on complete devotion to state power and use of that state power to vilify, defame their critics. Most of J-M Le Pen's consituency/cadre are former members of the PCF which was probably the most Stalinist Communist Party around or at least in Europe.
Here is is a quotation from Deng Xiaoping in 1987 which is also an excellent description of a capitalist firm:
"The greatest advantage of the socialist system is that when the central leadership makes a decision it is promptly implemented without any interference from any other quarters. We don't have to go through a lot of repetitive discussion and consultation with one branch holding up another. From this point of view our system is very efficient." quoted in M.Meisner *The Deng Xiaoping Era* 1996.
sam Pawlett