CONSERVATISM - Sounds good Neocon, but the world is not a perfect place and many conservatives including some of those in power fall short of your ideals, even if their rhetoric does support them. This also goes for some of the institutions conservatives love.
Corruption crosses party lines of course, but what I've seen in my life is the conservatives being the kings of corporate corruption and collusion vs. populist notions that our government is there at our bidding to do what's best for us. Privately many admit this is true. The most glaring examples were the S+L debacle, Enron and the recent energy crisis gougings. Deregulation they love usually leads to white collar criminality, usually by the same parties that contributed heavy to conservative campaigns.
Another beef I have with many so-called conservatives is their lack of conservatism when it comes to our environment. The right is almost always on the side of the pollutors, over-developers and other abusers of the environment. This can be a complex issue too but bottomline it should be conservative to want to conserve, but it isn't. The GOP only seems to care about the environment for PR reasons. But when they feel like they can get away with it they dump on all things environmental. Bush's thumbing his nose at the Kyoto Treaty was typical of this.
While we certainly need a strong defence, I also cannot understand why conservative, who are supposed to be military experts, want to waste so much of our money on Star Wars, which would have zero effect against our real enemies out there. Unless, of course, Star Wars is secretly an offensive weapon we could use to laser-beam surgically. In that case perhaps I would support it more. But Bush saying we need is to shoot down North Korean missiles is absurd.
Since I am a single and (hopefully) sexually active male I also am admittedly against the demonization of concensual sex and birth control. In my life whenever I've abstained from sex for any period it has just made me cranky and stressed out. Good sex with or without committment is good for you and is the ultimate natural dopamine rush. It's also good for your self-esteem, and you don't have to be married to enjoy it. In fact when I was married I found our sex lives were the first thing to go. Doesn't always happen but it's common. This of course is all tied in with religious conservatism which I am increasingly disappointed with. I respect everyone's right to believe what they want. I just don't like when they try and push it on the rest of us. And any religious extremism makes people bull-headed and blind to obvious facts. The Middle East now is the worst example.
Ironically right now, I find myself to the right of GW when it comes to the Middle East. I think we ought to let Israel clean their nextdoor neighbor's house and put down the terrorists, no matter how bad the PR, mainly because no one else has the balls and know-how to do it right. I'd also love to get off oil, lead the world in developing cars than run on hydrogen. Then we would not have to kiss the asses of the Arabs. Who knows what Bush is really thinking but I find he's now acting wishy-washy. And Bush is so in the pocket of the oil business he will never do anything to help us start getting off oil. He'd rather drill in our wilderness areas, as if that would solve the problem.
What about financial conservatism? Well, tax cuts to mainly the wealthiest Americans is dear to the heart of the GOP, but it's a recipe for huge government deficits and worse government services. Clinton proved that the best balance is to make the rich pay for many of poorer peoples services. The rich may not like it (though some have no problem) but without them we just can't afford many basic services without running into deep debt. Also, the US still has the lowest taxes of any developed country which is why rich people from all over the world love to move here. And of course rich people have plenty of write-offs so they never pay anywhere near the official tax rate.
Basically nothing is black and white, and few people are purely liberal or conservative. Actually the labels don't even work anymore because most Americans are in the middle or agree with some of one and some of the other. What makes America great is that we can all voice our various opinions without fear. Even if some of them are wrong. |
