Conservative, Not Republican
When I was trying to figure out who I was politically, a long-time conservative
friend of the family told me, "When your government gets really out of
control (and it will), you will know because your personal freedoms will be
the first to suffer. You will see restrictive intrusive laws, abandonment
of Constitutional principles and spending like there is no tomorrow.
The people doing it will NOT be conservatives."
Here we are today where looking around we see an unprecedented assault on personal freedoms, a none-too-subtle attack on the word and spirit of the Constitution and runaway spending unmatched in history. The people directly responsible for all this say they are conservatives, but are they? Are they focused on conservative issues? Do we see them arguing for tax simplification? Are they doing anything to control federal spending? Has government gotten smaller or less restrictive under their watch? Do I need to keep asking?
The people running this country (the Bush administration and the religious right wing of the Republican Party) are NOT conservatives. I didn't truly believe I would see it happening in my lifetime. I was proud to be a Republican because I believed the Republican Party carried the banner of conservative ideology. I became a Republican understanding that we are the protectors of conservative ideas. Now I look around and I ask, "What has happened? What went wrong? We got the majority and it all fell apart. Are conservative ideals a flawed futility?"
We know the answer, don't we? We (conservatives) didn't get the majority! Religious right-wing Republicans and got the majority. Pretending to be conservatives, they swept the Country (almost) and have pressed their ideology into government. There is nothing wrong with conservative ideas and politics. What is wrong is that today's self-proclaimed conservatives have abandoned conservative principles and taken the Republican Party with them. Republican politics have become anything but conservative.
What Ideals?
- Small government
- Personal freedom
- Fiscal responsibility
- Defending America
- States' rights
- Limited federal powers
- Freedom from religious intolerance
- The spirit of the Constitution
That's Right, right?
Your
're joking, right? Today, our Republican president has grown the federal
government in every significant area while reducing service to the public
and increasing fees (read, taxes) for almost everything. His huge deficit spending program is exactly the equivalent of raising taxes. Somebody has to pay the cost of the largest financial
deficit the world has ever seen. Conservatives used to call that Third
World Economics. So much for small government and fiscal responsibility,
but Republicans are conservatives, right? So we must be doing well in other
areas.
Surely you know what's coming. What about personal freedom? Can you spell, USA Patriot Act? It gives the government the power to attack those personal freedoms, like privacy, that we all believed were protected by the Constitution. That's not enough? What about attacking gays and those female gays? Keeping the government out of our personal lives, letting people do what they want as long as they don't interfere with others, has been a long-held Conservative principle.
Still not enough? States' rights remain intact, right? Sure, but what about things like right-to-die laws and marijuana legalization and other state laws that are aimed at giving individuals control over their own lives. Oops! The Justice Department, guided by our own Republican administration, has actively attacked states' rights in every instance of departure from the Administration's position. On what grounds? Virtually always, it has been religious grounds. Now that's consistent with the Constitution, isn't it?
Oh yes, tax simplification; it hasn't even been on the radar. On the contrary, tax rules have become the most complex ever as the Bush Administration maneuvers the tax system to provide special privileges to wealthy contributors. These are not even the types of tax incentives that stimulate business. It is simply a process of moving money and power away from average working people and small businesses and into the hands of a few major corporations.
The Weakness Is In The Split
Traditional
conservative ideals and ideas are in a weakened state. Political moderates
are viewed as liberals by the New Conservatives whereas, traditional conservatives
were once more likely to be moderates. Whew! Is that confusing?
Not really. The introduction of Christian religious political reform
has split the conservative side of politics. The Religious Right, as
we like to call them, have redefined conservatism to mean reinterpreting the
Constitution and forcing us to live in a religious based society. If
that sounds contrary to the very reason for the Constitution and the spirit
of the founding of this nation, you've got the point. It is also destroying
the fabric of the Republican Party.
When the meaning of the Constitution must be redefined by the church through the filter of biblical interpretation, we have what we fought to destroy in Afghanistan, a religious state.
The Alignment Problem
Are
we Democrats and Republicans or liberals and conservatives? We
don't know! Republicans don't fit into the circle of conservative thinking
and ideology any more than Democrats don't fit into the circle of liberal
thinking and ideology. The parties have lost focus. They are not
aligned with traditional American conservative or liberal values. They
are driven by election victories and money. The parties look for the
most popular position that will gain votes and reel in the money. Such
a non-ideological focus draws them away from conservative or liberal positions
and toward the money issues or the emotionally charged issues. Neither
party is at all interested in protecting the Constitution, the values that
gave us the freedoms we have (or think we have) or the basic principles of
democracy. They are only interested in votes.
I choose America, I choose freedom!
