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As an example of independent thinking, how many nationally-known conservatives in the US were opposed to BOTH of our Wars on Iraq (1991 and 2003-?), from well BEFORE the start of each war! And, this was in the face of nearly unamimous support for these wars from within Buchanan's own Republican Party.
On the subject of tariffs, haven't the major American parties traded places at least a couple of times in our history? Lately, the Republicans have become the doctrinaire free-traders, with the Democrats (plus Pat Buchanan) pushing a return to tariffs. But, wasn't the infamous Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 established by Republicans? This Act led to recipricol tariff hikes by most European countries, eventually spreading tariff wars around the world and (according to some) becoming one of the primary causes of the Great Depression on the early 1930's, in turn leading to the rise of facism in the mid-1930's - eventually leading to the horrors of WWII.
The real problem with workers and their pensions is the virtual destruction of powerful labor unions in the USA by pro-corporate, union-busting forces at both the federal and (some) state levels. Republicans have long expressed a thinly-veiled hatred of unions, and the longer-term effects of this are starting to be felt. It's been quite some time since any major US corporation has felt the sting of a really determined, industry-wide union action. This is something that would definitely get all parties focused on the pension problem, and maybe even desparate to resolve it, in favor of American workers.

yup public education or if you're pulling rank...private education today with the pubescent mind.
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Bravo!!

McCallum

Trickle down economics do indeed work well. The catch is that it is a double edged sword. Few conservatives are willing to examine, understand and realize the proper construct of the state (or states) but instead have bought into Randian ideas of consumerism and consumer valuation as a means for determining worth.

In adopting a Randian view (just do it), conservatives (beautiful losers to coin a term dropped on them by a rather fine fellow) have become the radical individualists of this age. They want no restraints on how they do business(or who they do business with) and wish to make it a life without structure other than what is defined by the individual. All this must go forward while still working within the confines of a culture and society that somehow retains a sense of structure. They want the benefits but none of the costs. They want the cheap goods, the profits from their investments but none of the hang-ups involved with the resulting destruction of the culture that brought them forth.

Take a trip around the nation. Everything looks very much the same from town to town unless you happen to get off the main road and find yourself in the 'historic district" of some old mill town. Antique shops are a dead give away that this was once a vibrant mill town now destined for weeds and cracked side walks.
The Old Rust Belt has seen this for sometime but the Textile Belt in the South is especially troubling. What one should understand on that matter is that as industry has left, the individual citizen must move into place to cover a maze of taxes that once came from the departed industry. This means higher water rates, higher sewer rates, higher property taxes, higher sales taxes and so forth......it does trickle down.

As localities lose their means of maintaining, they must turn to the government. No amount of service jobs can produce the culture of self reliance that marked this land. The free traders have hammered out their chains as well as ours.

Deo Vindice,

McCallum