Current Conservative Philosophy

I got this from a blogger on Political Animal. He posts under the name 'bellumregio'. I think it's an awesome summary of how the conservative currently in power think and act.

1. Republican Party doctrine = American values

2. There are no universal human values beyond the values recognized and sanctioned by the Party. If there were than there could a moral human position AGAINST the Party and that is illogical since the Party embodies morality.

3. related to this is the belief that the group represented by the Party- the true Americans- are beyond good and evil. Whatever is done in the name of the True Americans and for the Nation is justified. Atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein are evil but atrocities committed by the United States cannot be evil. This is logical because the Party represents the moral order. Americans do not torture. Amnesty International, international courts, the Red Cross, the United Nations- these are all irrelevant and obstructionist because they are predicated on the belief that there are universal values outside of the Party and beyond the Nation.

4. Patriots are selfless men and women who are not interested in their own prestige but the prestige of the Party and the True American nation. Europeans and Canadians are failures. They are irrelevant. The Power of the Party and the true American Nation do not need to value their opinions. Only the powerful matter.

5. The Party is always winning. The leaders are always correct. Loss is the failure of those outside the Party- usually the traitors within the borders of the state or within the Party. The ideology of the Party is always aware of the undying power of the enemy although the enemy, by definition, is always too weak. This contradiction cannot be resolved.

6. All of history is the relation of power units. All life is a struggle. Detente and pacifism are trafficking with the enemy.

7. All truth is in accordance with the Party. Facts are irrelevant. Whatever the progress of the war in Iraq, whatever the course of history, whatever the motivations of the actors- all flows into the narrative of the Party and the success of the True Nation.

8. “From the viewpoint of an organization which functions according to the principle that whoever is not included is excluded, whoever is not with me is against me, the world at large loses all the nuances, differentiations, and pluralistic aspects which had in any event become confusing and unbearable to the masses which had lost their place and their orientation in it.”

Actually was written by Hannah Arendt Origins of Totalitarianism 1958