Being conservative

There are a number of popular misconceptions circulating about American conservatism that have been spun by the progressive left-wing political machine, and that are also widely believed by progressive and even centrist moderate voters.
My purpose in writing this commentary is to set the record straight about what being a traditional American conservative is really all about. After all, I am one myself, and I ought to know my own mind better than any progressive leftist claims to.
So, without further ado, I present my rebuttal of common misperceptions by the left and offer a defense in my case as a traditional American conservative.
Admittedly, I feel a little bit like a defendant representing himself at his own trial, because I am not only rebutting accusations made against my political persuasion, but I also must argue in defense of what I believe in.
To be a conservative in America today feels like being an ostracized family member with a scarlet letter on his back, because popular culture—heavily influenced and arguably controlled by the political left—shuns anything remotely perceived as right of center. I am guilty until proven innocent by virtue of the fact that I identify myself as a conservative.
I suppose this is the left wing’s way of exacting some retribution for former U.S. Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s 1950s “Red Scare” and Hollywood blacklist of suspected communists.
Today the political left is conducting its own version of the “Red Scare” by stereotyping traditional American conservatives and trying to fit us all neatly into their little bottle of right-wing ideology, so that it can rubber stamp us all whenever our dissenting voices start to annoy them. The left wing then pulls tricks out of the little bottle in an effort to discredit each and every conservative voice that challenges it.
Among the more predictable little tricks is the accusation of bigotry.
The left seeks to immediately discredit conservatives, so that it can avoid debate of any kind at all with them. By accusing conservatives of a character flaw, the left tries to neutralize right-wing arguments by assassinating character and calling credibility into question.
The political left tends to see things in colors anyway, so it has painted traditional American conservatives as predominantly white, which ultimately translates into racism. Anytime there is found a bunch of mostly white Americans under one umbrella, racism is naturally and automatically suspected by the left. Even though there are plenty of socially and/or fiscally conservative blacks, Hispanics and other races in America, conservatism is seen by the left as mostly white and generally racist. Any racial minorities who fall under the right-wing umbrella are either misled, ignorant, gullible, or just plain shallow and unenlightened. The left wing has all but concluded that there can’t possibly be any remotely intelligent people on the right; especially minorities who don’t know what’s good for them.
Unfortunately, conservatives are dismissed as idiots before they even have a chance to defend themselves. That is the second trick that the left pulls out of its little ideological bottle: Conservatives are all just plain stupid, so there’s no point in debating the issues with them.
In other words, neutralize the opponent with absolutist blanket statements that paint all conservatives as one color…and a singular level of intelligence.
Diversity, after all, is supposed to be an invention of the progressive mind, and to have conservatives practicing it sort of takes the fire out of left-wing ideology and steals the thunder from its storm.
As far as the political left is concerned, conservatives are supposed to be closed-minded, simple reactionaries whose views are so extreme that they become irrelevant in the arena of ideas and circles of debate. Conservatives like me aren’t supposed to be reasonable people who think for themselves and deliberate about their opinions. We are supposed march lock-step to the trumpets of conservative talk radio. We are supposed to let the Rush Limbaughs, Glenn Becks, Sean Hannitys, and Michael Savages et al do the thinking and speaking for us. We are supposed to fit neatly into the left wing’s little ideological bottle, after all.
Nothing perturbs a leftist more than a conservative who refuses to be a peg shaped to fit into a particular hole.
When conservatives defy the left-wing stereotype, then that’s when the left launches its credibility assaults with character flaw bombs meant to assassinate who we are and sabotage what we believe in. The resulting carnage includes racism, sexism, homophobia and xenophobia, among many other forms of irrational thought.
The political left has worked very hard over the years to corner the market on tolerance, open-mindedness and compassion, while alienating conservatives as the antithesis of these virtues. In large part, it has succeeded where popular perceptions are concerned.
Common misperceptions of conservatives these days are that they are intolerant, closed-minded and uncompassionate.
Being a conservative myself, I can say categorically that these beliefs are not based on anything factual, or even substantive. The misconceptions about conservatives have been fabricated by the left wing for one distinct purpose: To discredit and make them irrelevant to the political debate.
Leftists routinely misinterpret and take what a conservative says out of context.
For instance, when I say that I oppose affirmative action, the left-wing reaction is to automatically assume that my opposition to a program that promotes minority equality in the workplace is because I am a bigot. There is no effort made to get clarification, and no attempt to understand why I oppose reverse discrimination. It is just assumed that I do so because I am an intolerant racist, sexist homophobe.
Another example is when a conservative like me opposes abortion or welfare, and supports a privatized option to Social Security. First, I am closed-minded and not being reasonable. Then I am being an uncompassionate slob.
Why, because I think that abortion rights ignore the fundamental human right to life for the unborn child? Or because I think the welfare system is being abused by people with no intention of improving themselves or the lives of their children? Or because I think the individual is being cheated out of a much better retirement with compulsory FICA withholdings?
Once again, the left never has and never will make any effort to understand my reasons. What matters is that I fundamentally oppose things that the left wing supports. As such, I am the enemy not to be understood and certainly not to be negotiated with; not one iota.
The left’s ruthless and merciless attitude toward conservatives seems inconsistent with the image of tolerance, compassion and understanding that it tries to market itself with to the apathetic populace. Go figure.
Yet, in spite of its own contradictions, the left wing is somehow able to require conservatives like me to be more open-minded and tolerant of it. Go figure again.
I used to get really angry about being stereotyped as a mean-spirited bigot by virtue of my political ideology.
Not anymore.
I have had to teach myself to laugh and chuckle at the gross misrepresentation of conservatism by the left wing. The accusations made by the left against the right are so baseless that they sound like stand-up comedy jokes…without the punch lines.
I just can’t help but think that leftists are really being facetious and sarcastic when they are calling me a racist, homophobic bigot or a sexist pig.
But I also have to remind myself that the left wing is entirely serious in its accusations, even though it knows that what it charges against conservatives is laughably baseless, unsubstantiated and largely false. The point is to sabotage conservatism by branding it as an evil ideology; or at the very least, an antiquated way of thinking that is far outmoded by more progressive thought.
As such, it is imperative that we conservatives don’t just sit back, laugh and take it the way Stan Laurel would verbal abuse from Oliver Hardy. When the left makes an accusation against conservatism, conservatives should speak up and denounce it.
Yeah, I know that anything we say in our defense lands on deaf ears, because the court of the progressive left is set up much like the old English courts of law where a defendant is guilty unless he can prove himself innocent of a crime.
But that shouldn’t stop us from telling Oliver Hardy that the mess we are in may not be Stan Laurel’s fault at all, but rather Ollie’s.
Truth be told, Ollie got the two of them into as much or more trouble with his self-righteous indignation of others than Stan did with his bumbling.
Speaking as a traditional American conservative—not to be confused with left of center new or neo-conservatism—I’ll spell out in very clear, concise and succinct English language my values, the virtues I hold dear to, and the principles that I believe in.
First, I am not a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe or a bigot of any kind. I don’t hate all non-Christian beliefs. I am not an anti-government or anti-tax lout, either. Those would be anarchists—not conservatives—anyway.
I have close friends and family members who are ethnic minorities. I have a foster child who is mixed race.
I supported my wife in going back to school for a college education, and put my own graduate education on hold so that she could complete hers. I perform domestic tasks because I want my wife to know that I believe in a fair division of labor, and that these chores are not below me.
I have a gay brother who I love and for whom I am there to support if or when he ever needs it.
I believe in immigration, and that America should remain open for the oppressed, the tired and the huddled masses to come here legally.
I unconditionally and categorically support religious liberty for all belief systems, because religion is a cornerstone for family and community stability, and more often than not, promotes positive behavior and spiritual wellness.
As a traditional American conservative, I am not—let me repeat that—I am not anti-government or anti-tax. Did I make that clear enough? If not, then read the first line over again.
I am fed up with local, state and federal governments that seem to only be getting bigger and more intrusive. I am against big and intrusive government. I believe in a government with limited powers, and one that respects those limited powers.
I don’t like government that acts in the name of compassion, but ends up just becoming larger, more intrusive in the lives of individuals, and a glutton for revenue.
Being a traditional American conservative is all about enough government and enough taxes. As the national TEA party stands for: “Taxed Enough Already.”
What I don’t like is government doing for people that the vast majority of them are capable of doing for themselves, like providing for retirement, health care, employment, income, and even school lunches, which my mom always made sure I had when I left the house for school every morning.
New York City government has already outlawed certain transfats and lipids in foods sold within municipal limits in an effort to battle obesity and diseases caused by unhealthy eating habits. The city of Santa Barbara, California, has also made the sale of fast food meals with toys illegal, because city leaders say that the toys entice children to eat food that is unhealthy and bad for them.
Should it really be the government’s role to tell the individual what they can or cannot eat? Where is the line drawn between empowerment of the individual consumer to make choices for themselves and the government to make choices for them?
Essential liberty to choose to do the right thing is being trampled by municipal, county, state and federal laws and regulations meant to protect the people from themselves, because we are not capable of being trusted to do the right thing or make the right decisions.
Modern American government has become far too paternalistic in its approach, its management and its enforcement or delivery.
Consequently, we are allowing government to do things for us, make choices and decisions for us, and provide for us that which we should be capable of doing, choosing and providing for ourselves.
I believe in the old proverb, “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.”
I believe in the individual: Individual initiative, individual ingenuity and innovation, individual pursuit of opportunity, individual fortitude, and especially essential liberty of the individual to do what is right. I believe that the individual is capable of righting wrongs and solving problems, and that the government does not always have to be there to do it for us.
I believe in self-sovereignty of the individual above the sovereignty of the state.
I believe in common sense laws and their enforcement; not redundancies in the law or regulations so weighted down in bureaucracy that their enforcement is inefficient and ineffective. Most importantly, I believe in laws and regulations that do not trample on opportunity and essential liberty of the individual.
I believe in a government that is a supporter of individual prosperity, rather than a barrier to it.
I believe in a government that promotes opportunity by empowering the individual to make a better life for himself, his family and his community. I don’t believe in a government that takes the initiative itself to try to better our lives for us.
I believe that fundamental rights secured by the U.S. Constitution, freedom and essential liberty are given by the grace of God; not the grace of government or men.
I believe in the unalienable rights articulated by founding father and former U.S. President Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in the Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
To make a long story short, this pretty much sums up the values, principles and virtues of the American Revolution, which traditional American conservatives like me are devoted to preserving. Jefferson’s conclusion also sums up the values, virtues and principles to which American conservatives hold dear.
If believing in the things that I do still makes me an extremist or a bigoted, ignorant wretch in the eyes of a leftist, then so be it. I can go on forever trying to explain that the left’s perceptions of conservatives are grossly exaggerated or outright false, but that will not change the mind of one whose mind is closed to correction.
There’s nothing more I can say or do that would convince a closed-minded left-wing progressive that I’m not at all what they have conceived me to be in their own minds.
Take it or leave it. That’s the choice.