Remember When . . .

Remember when conservatives were opponents of big government?

Remember when conservatives warned of the threat of too much power being seized by the president and the executive branch?

Remember when conservatives thought excessive federal power was a great danger to Americans’ freedom?

Remember when conservatives believed in checks and balances?

Remember when conservatives placed their freedoms above their fears?

Remember when conservatives would have been apoplectic at the assertion that the president has the inherent right to do whatever he wants?

Remember when conservatives believed in the strict construction of the Constitution?

Remember when conservatives believed that the people should have privacy from the government and the government should not have “privacy” from the people?

Remember when conservatives believed government ought to be controlled by the people, rather than the people controlled by the government?

Remember when conservatives wouldn’t have bought the argument that giving up our freedoms is good for us?

Remember when conservatives would have ridiculed the argument that a resolution to go to war in Afghanistan gives the president the authority to spy on American citizens?

Remember when conservatives claimed to be Jeffersonians?

Remember when conservatives wanted the federal budget to be balanced?

Remember when conservatives warned of the dangers of passing massive debts on to our children and grandchildren?

Remember when conservatives would have been horrified at mortgaging the future of the United States to China?

Remember when conservatives would not have supported a president under whom federal spending has increased at a much faster rate than it did under Lyndon Johnson (or any other president since World War II)?

Remember when conservatives valued truth and would not back politicians who mislead the public?

Remember when conservatives were skeptical and would not simply swallow anything an administration says, no matter how patently false?

Remember when conservatives opposed needless foreign wars and “nation-building”?

Remember when conservatives thought it is wrong to place American troops in danger, get them killed, and spend enormous amounts of money for purposes that do not clearly involve America’s vital interests?

Remember when conservatives valued competency above cronyism?

Remember when conservatives railed against corruption in Congress?

Remember when conservatives would have denounced the incompetence of a government that completely botched the handling of a massive natural disaster in our own country?

Remember when conservatives stood for conserving anything beyond the “right” of oil companies to make obscene profits and the “right” of the superrich to have ever-lower taxes?

Remember when conservatives thought for themselves, rather than allowing themselves to be spun like tops by Karl Rove’s propaganda machine?

Remember when conservatives had not become evidence for their own argument that power corrupts?

Remember when conservatives were . . . conservative?

Remember when “conservative” was something more than four syllables strung together into a word devoid of meaning?

Remember when George W. Bush and Dick Cheney had not stood the definition of “conservative” on its head?

Remember when conservatives would have recognized Bush and Cheney for the radical destroyers of American values that they are and been outraged that they have the audacity to call themselves “conservatives”?