Conservatism Under The Microscope

Wednesday, November 15, 2006
I read excerpts from Bill O’Reilly’s new book which does a great job of describing the culture war in our country between liberals and conservatives from the conservative point of view. At one time I was deeply rooted within the conservative camp so I can relate to much of what he had to say.

In a recent town hall interview with Oprah, Bill O’Reilly made a point to categorize Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy as being a conservative. How ludicrous is this??!!! Even more frustrating is he believes Jesus Christ to be conservative too. Before we analyze why it is so ridiculous let’s take a look at the definition of both liberal and conservatism.

The definition of conservative is resistant to change and adhering to traditions. The word “conserve” is even in the word conservative. Liberal, by comparison, means tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition; a person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties. Based on the definitions, which one of those words best describes Martin Luther King, and even Jesus Christ for that matter? If you said liberal then you are correct.

This may come as a surprise to the Right Wing but both Martin Luther King and Jesus Christ were liberals. They both fought against the established cultures and government in support of radical changes. They favored human right for everyone regardless of color, creed or sex. They supported the poor and the sick.

Let’s compare staunch Republican and Democratic ideology and see which side Martin Luther King and Jesus would be on: (click to enlarge)





*If certain neo-conservatives believe that God creates everything in His image and controls everything (free will does not exist in humans) then it is safe to say that God created gays too. So if He created gays then he would want them to have the same rights as heterosexual people. Neo-conservatives should then want this to swing Democratic, so I am giving them this one.

**You either believe that God gave us a brain to use and to think for ourselves or you believe that God gave us this brain only to behave as puppets under His command. So this could go either way based upon how you believe in God. My God gave me a brain to use and think for myself so this is Democrat.

***Amendment 2 was a heated debate in Missouri concerning tax money supporting stem cell research. Of course, Republicans are vehemently opposed to this but Democrats want to help find cures to help the sick. In a recent speech President Bush said he opposed Amendment 2 because he does not believe some people should die so that others can live. If he actually believes this, then why in the hell are we in Iraq???!!!! This was such a stupid thing to say that I am awarding this to the Democrats.

****This is the same argument as the gay rights issue. He either put the drugs and the plants here for us to use or not. Drugs, like alcohol, should be perfectly legal unless you abuse them. Then you should not be treated as a criminal but as someone needing help. Instead of going to a state or federal penitentiary to serve jail time you should go to a state or federal run rehab clinic to dry out. This makes more sense but the Republicans never want money to go to help people, they only want money to help corporate American get richer. This is the conservative mind-set in a nutshell; they will spend money to punish but never to help.

I could go one and on, listing hundreds of issues but I will stop with these. Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King will support very few Republican supported issues but the majority of the support will be Democratic. You can see how the Republican marketing machine has wrongly convinced Christians into believing they support Christian values. There may be a few but overall, the Democratic Party supports more of the Christian values.

Another important thing to realize is change is impossible to stop. It WILL happen!! Life changes everyday so you can either roll with it or resist it and be left behind. Just like running water over time will carve through rock, new ideas will constantly change our culture. Change cannot be stopped, only delayed.

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