JOHN KASICH – NON-CONSERVATIVE FOR PRESIDENT!
At an Associated Press event in January, 2014, Ohio governor and Republican presidential candidate John Kasich said these words in defense of his big government efforts to drastically expand Medicaid in Ohio under Obamacare:
“I have the right to shape what conservative philosophy means.”
He then outlined his “conservative philosophy” of endless welfare spending, insinuating that anyone who opposed his plan to spend billions of dollars per year was guilty of not caring for the poor as much as he did; a talking point he often used in his push for expansion.
Fast forward to today…
The Republican establishment says that Donald Trump isn’t a true conservative, an accusation that with merit based on his recent endorsements of socialized healthcare, funding for Planned Parenthood, a system of tariffs, and a progressive tax scheme; yet many of those willing to disqualify him for these policies are erroneously standing by Kasich.
As a recent article by Ben Shapiro at Breitbart.com shows us, Kasich is every bit the non-conservative Trump is, with qualities closer to what you would expect from Democrat nominee.
In the Breitbart piece, Shapiro provides examples of Kasich’s Democrat-lite approach to government. For example: when asked about his Jeb Bush/Barack Obama approach to immigration—which means it’s softer than a baby’s bottom—he avoided answering the question entirely:
“I think that a lot of these people who are here are some of the hardest-working, God-fearing, family-oriented people you can ever meet.”
Of course, nobody asked him if illegal immigrants are good, God-fearing, or family-oriented. What they did ask was whether illegal immigration is creating an economic risk to America. He eventually answered the question a little later, in a different way, when he told the New York Times that conservatism needed to be redefined:
“Hopefully, in the course of all this, I’ll be able to change some of the thinking about what it means to be a Conservative.”
So, what does this new definition of conservatism look like to Kasich? Using words that made him sound more like a televangelist asking for money on TV than a presidential candidate, he said:
“I think conservatism is about giving everybody a chance, demanding personal responsibility, but allowing people to pursue their God-given purpose.”
Translation? Kasich thinks that big government = conservative, such as: amnesty for illegal immigrants, support for Common Core, and explosive expansion of Medicaid using money from Obamacare.
The televangelist analogy actually works pretty well for Kasich. He once told a major donor that he took Obamacare money to expand Medicaid in Ohio because:
“Now, when you die and get to the meeting with St. Peter, he’s probably not going to ask you much about what you did about keeping government small. But his is going to ask you what you did for the poor. You better have a good answer.”
Is it just me, or does St. Peter sound like he’s a tax-and-spend liberal?
When Megyn Kelly wasn’t bickering with Donald Trump about her feminist perceptions regarding the non-war on women, she found time to ask Kasich about his perspective on God and government at the Republican debate last week. Here’s how Kasich answered her:
“The working poor, instead of them having come into the emergency rooms where it costs more, where they’re sicker and we end up paying, we brought a program in here to make sure that people could get on their feet. And do you know what? Everybody has a right to their God-given purpose.”
While Kasich likes to invoke God to justify his tax-more/spend-more approach to wealth redistribution, God apparently has no position on Kasich’s policies when it comes to the homosexual agenda. This week, Kasich took the position that same-sex marriage is immoral, but that the Supreme Court ruling making it the law of the land out to be binding, and that religious people ought to attend homosexual wedding. It should be noted that Kasich refused to endorse a bill that would have protected religious business owners from being forced to violate their beliefs about homosexual marriage.
George W. Bush once redefined conservatism, calling himself a compassionate conservative, and we all know how that turned out. Government got bigger, spending increased, and the economy eventually collapsed. And from the ashes of that collapse, we ended up with Barack Hussein Obama.
We don’t need another non-conservative. If Kasich wants to mold the conservative movement in his own image, let him go for it. Or let him run as a Democrat. Or better yet, let him go back to destroying Ohio and leave America alone.
David Leach is the owner and publisher of The Strident Conservative where he is proudly politically-incorrect and always “right.” He is also a frequent contributor at RedState.com.
His political commentaries can be heard daily on KLZ560 AM and other Crawford Broadcasting stations.
Contact him at david@stridentconservative.com
