Whither the Conservative Movement? pg. 17
rhetoric to support the contention that taxes are nothing more than the government taking money away from the people.
It seems pretty clear that President Bush’s over-riding ideology is not conservatism. The direction of where Bush’s ideology lies was hinted at by Bob Dole’s remark that the free market is the best way to guarantee the rights of the individual. The statement is a very brief synopsis of Milton Friedman (1962). While Friedman is one of the founding intellects of the conservative movement, he is definitely outside of mainstream conservatism. In fact, Friedman was a disciple of Ayn Rand and had quite a bit of input into the founding and dispersal of objectivist philosophy. This provides a direction for investigating possible ideological connections with GW Bush.
President Bush’s rhetoric fits into the model of individual liberty as painted by Rand. Objectivism is, in Rand’s own words, a philosophy of selfishness (Rand, 1989). This is not an evil thing, in Rand’s view, but is simply a statement of the rational idea that each man works in his own best economic interest (Rand, 1999). In order to say a man is free, he must be able to hold on to the fruits of his labor. Any loss of income is a de facto loss of liberty. This is similar to traditional conservative ideology.
Rand, however, goes a step further. In her ideology the only legitimate concern for government is ensuring that men do not use force to compel action by others (Rand, 1989). Exactly how this is possible without forcibly taxing people is not clear. Rand, herself, never fully solved this problem. She did, however, make references to some sort of “voluntary taxation” that people would support when they saw it was in their best interest (Rand, 1986). Again, how this would be accomplished in not clear. This creates a paradox for any politician who tries to implement this political philosophy.
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It seems pretty clear that President Bush’s over-riding ideology is not conservatism. The direction of where Bush’s ideology lies was hinted at by Bob Dole’s remark that the free market is the best way to guarantee the rights of the individual. The statement is a very brief synopsis of Milton Friedman (1962). While Friedman is one of the founding intellects of the conservative movement, he is definitely outside of mainstream conservatism. In fact, Friedman was a disciple of Ayn Rand and had quite a bit of input into the founding and dispersal of objectivist philosophy. This provides a direction for investigating possible ideological connections with GW Bush.
President Bush’s rhetoric fits into the model of individual liberty as painted by Rand. Objectivism is, in Rand’s own words, a philosophy of selfishness (Rand, 1989). This is not an evil thing, in Rand’s view, but is simply a statement of the rational idea that each man works in his own best economic interest (Rand, 1999). In order to say a man is free, he must be able to hold on to the fruits of his labor. Any loss of income is a de facto loss of liberty. This is similar to traditional conservative ideology.
Rand, however, goes a step further. In her ideology the only legitimate concern for government is ensuring that men do not use force to compel action by others (Rand, 1989). Exactly how this is possible without forcibly taxing people is not clear. Rand, herself, never fully solved this problem. She did, however, make references to some sort of “voluntary taxation” that people would support when they saw it was in their best interest (Rand, 1986). Again, how this would be accomplished in not clear. This creates a paradox for any politician who tries to implement this political philosophy.
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