My Conservative Roots

For years people have been telling me I was too conservative. Conservatism, as I understood it, always favored the preservation of American values like a strong family, a strong work ethic, American made, meat and potatoes. The Constitution was revered and almost worshiped. I always believed that I was conservative until the past several years when the worst President in history took over and changed everything. Now people are always telling me I’m too liberal. How could that be?

This all prompted me to write Conservatism Under The Microscope last month in which I explained how the conservatives of today actually worship the liberals of yesteryear. And, if you really boil it down, many of the greatest people and ideas in history were liberal. Well I wanted to expand and enhance those ideas in this post.

In that last post I explained the definition of conservatism which means resistant to change and wanting to preserve the ideology of the past with strong traditions. Well the conservative of today is nothing like that. The recipe for today’s conservatism translates into protecting wealth with an artificial flavoring of Christianity. It is ridiculous how conservatives of today and Christians have joined forces because both ideologies are complete opposites. I’ll explain more about this later.

I listen to Rush Limbaugh almost everyday and he is constantly hammering the Democrats for being soft on terrorism because they do not support the Patriot Act or the Military Commissions Act. Both of these new laws contradict the Bill of Rights which has existed for centuries. So I would think conservatives by their very nature would want to protect the constitution, more specifically the Bill of Rights. It should be the liberals wanting to change things, right? How did this get so screwed up?

My conservative roots tell me the Constitution should be the fundamental dogma of all Conservatives, so why would they even hint at changing this sacred cow? The Bill of Rights is my fundamental dogma by which I lead my life. The majority rules unless the majority conflicts with the Bill of Rights, in which case the Bill of Rights will trump the majority every time. That is conservative ideology at it finest so why do they consider this ideology liberal?

My conservative roots tell me the family is the most important thing in my life – this should be another staple in the ideology of all conservatives. Instead, they want the needs of corporate American put ahead the needs of American families. Whenever laws are proposed that favor people or families versus corporate America, Corporate America always wins because of heavy conservative favor. Why? Because, again, conservatives of today are not really conservative anymore, they are pro big business fascists disguised as Republicans.

My conservative roots tell me the elderly are sacred and should be protected. So why do conservatives want to end Social Security or at least limit it when so many seniors are dependent on it to survive. Conservatism, especially if they are Christian as they claim, should believe that poor people come first before the needs of the rich or specifically the needs of corporate American, right? This is exactly how Jesus would want it; the needier should be protected and helped by those whose can provide (help your brother in need). This Christian ideology has existed long before the corporation was created but conservatives forgot about it. Actually they did not forget about it, they are just showing their fascist roots again.

If we apply the new conservative rules to Christianity then the Christian ideology is very liberal. Putting the needs of the poor before the needs of the rich is very liberal according to today’s conservatives. Jesus existed and served the poor people of his time. I don’t ever remember Him walking into Caesar’s palace and giving him wine or fish. Nor do I remember him promising a place in His kingdom if the correct contribution was made. I also don’t remember hearing Jesus speaking out in favor of war; He was a man of peace. So how Christianity and conservatism aligned is still a mystery to me.

My conservative roots tell me marriage has never been defined in our culture so wanting to now define it as only between a man and a woman and limit it is a very liberal idea. Conservatives should want to leave the law alone (remember earlier, resist change) but instead they want this unnecessary and sweeping change to marriage. This is only wanted to preserve their false Christian image. Republicans don’t really give a shit about this.

My conservative roots also want to protect American jobs. For some reason the conservatives of today are against this. I realize the market changes and jobs must change with this pattern but what I am against is when jobs are eliminated only to secure more wealth and higher profits. Conservatives, by their nature should also want to “conserve” American jobs. Whatever happened to the “Made in America” conservative image of a couple of decades ago? I’ll tell you what happened to it, it was outsourced for cheaper labor. Conservatives should be against outsourcing to protect American jobs and preserving the “Made in America” values of the Reagan area, but why aren’t they?

Today’s conservative is only concerned with protecting the wealth of the few at the expense of the many, with legislation designed to give an advantage to the few. I think I just defined apartheid. Anyway, the whole idea of a corporation exists only to protect the wealth of the investors within the company. Investors wanted a way to reap the benefits of profits without any risk. Hence the corporation was born. Now if a corporation goes bankrupt, the investors and the executives escape with no penalties or liabilities, leaving the employee behind to foot the bill with their pensions. A true conservative would want to stop this and help the working families but not the new fascist conservatives. The new bankruptcy laws are another example of corporate America being favored over American families.

Today’s conservative only uses Christianity as a “smoke and mirror” show to herd the mindless horde and trick them into believing they actually care. American’s today are too stupid and gutless to actually dig into the facts and discover what is actually happening. They willingly submit into the “Matrix” because it is safer there. It’s definitely more comforting than to accept what is really happening to them.