Morning Joe 6/29/2012 -- Two faces of conservativism

On Morning Joe today the conversation was, of course, about the Supreme Court's ACA mandate/tax ruling, upholding the constitutionality, basically, of the healthcare bill. After listening to Scarborough, Michael Steele, and quotes from a David Brooks article, I realize more than ever that Conservative/Liberal and Right/Left mean nothing within the realm of the State. The two sides are parts of the statist status quo which have divided and conquered the private/economic realm. Statist Republicans are defending Roberts because they say he's thinking of the long run, and that had he opposed ACA it would have created much more polarization. This is the type of rationalization that's allowed progressivism to utilize an interventionist government to expand State power. The State in a broad sense is the multifaceted machine that protects the domination of the elite few over the many. State players range from tv show hosts dependent on a strong State to a Chief Justice more concerned with protection of a powerful State than with protection of the Constitution.

Statists fear a showdown between the forces of limited government/free market and the forces of interventionist government, because they fear losing control if the limited government forces win. The GOP has been a part of the expansion of State power for decades, and, now that a small faction within the party has joined with the Tea Party forces, the protecters of the status quo in DC, like Roberts, have to stop the advancement of the limited government forces, as the GOP establishment has to marginalize and prevent the limited government faction's growing influence from eating away at the power structure.

The other face of conservativism, the Burkean statists who protect the domination of the elite few over the many, pretend to represent the reasonable voices of the GOP, while marginalizing the limited government forces as extremists in the party who are causing unnecessary polarization and strife.

If Romney can't lead a true opposition campaign against the forces of statism, then ACA will be implemented, and we haven't seen anything yet. Control of healthcare and finances, the two major accomplishes of progressivism recently, are the last statist victories necessary for complete control. Statist Republicans will call this hyperbole, but then they aren't concerned with limited government and a free market.