From the Rust Belt is a political blog dedicated to advancing conservative principles and to promoting political leaders within the Republican Party who adhere to those principles. What are conservative principles? Glad you asked:
1) Individual Liberty: Individuals should be free to pursue their own happiness, so long as their pursuit of happiness does not infringe on another man’s basic human rights to life, liberty, and property. Government should not be in the business of legislating morality or cultural norms, nor should it be in the business of mandating community service or protecting individuals from their own choices.
2) Personal Responsibility: Responsibility is the necessary companion of liberty. Government should not be in the business of bailing anyone out — from the ordinary citizen to the largest bank. Free men and women must live with the consequences of their actions, both their successes and their failures. Those who know they must face the consequences of their actions are far more likely to act responsibly.
3) Limited Government: Government should adhere closely to the role prescribed for it by the United States Constitution and should not overstep its constitutional boundaries. Government should never violate the Bill of Rights and should refrain from seizing for itself extra-constitutional rights and responsibilities that are delegated by the Tenth Amendment to the states or to the people.
4) Fiscal Responsibility: Government can and must spend less, avoid deficit spending, and stop passing the cost of its many programs onto the American taxpayer. Progressive taxation, which discourages hard work and punishes success and prosperity, should be replaced with a flat tax that places equal responsibility on every American for the funding of his government.
5) Free Markets: Our economy should be based on free market principles, which is to say that there should be minimal government intervention into domestic commerce or international trade. Markets are self-correcting; those who act responsibly are generally rewarded, and those who act irresponsibly generally punished.
6) Strong National Defense: Government should pursue a robust and realistic foreign policy that seeks first to secure our national interests abroad, while also promoting the inalienable human rights to life, liberty, and property for all mankind. Our armed forces must also have all of the resources necessary to defend our homeland and our interests abroad.
From the Rust Belt operates not under the premise that liberty is easy, but rather that it is the optimal condition to foster happy individuals and a healthy society. The mission of this blog is to renew the American commitment to liberty and halt the leftward lurch of our government that began with the New Deal, advanced under the Great Society, and is now nearing the finish line under the Obama administration.
From the Rust Belt 