WHY I AM A CONSERVATIVE

True conservative politicians actually seek to limit their own power. They do not seek to tell me whether I can smoke or not, what kind of food I can eat, what kind of light bulb I can use, what beliefs I can have, what kind of doctor I can see. They do not force me to wear a seatbelt, or a helmet. They do not seek to take my tax dollars to fund things such as art that disparages my religion or abortions, which violate my religious and moral beliefs. They do not seek to make Americans slaves to the dictates of government, but rather to make government a slave to the dictates of her people.

They do not create laws out of whole cloth from the bench, but realize that a contract is legal and binding to its meaning at the time it was signed. Our Constitution is a legal contract between the American people and their government. If a judge can interpret the Constitution any way he wants to, then it makes the Constitution worthless. Liberal judges do this on a regular basis of late, oftentimes overriding the will of the people to create a new right that never existed at the signing of the Constitution. Original intent is not code word for racism, it is exactly what it sounds like. A contract must be preserved to mean exactly what it intended to mean when it was signed, otherwise you have committed a breach of contract. When a conservative swears to uphold the Constitution of the United States, they actually mean it.

True conservatives are committed to preserving our freedoms. They do not seek to give the government free reign over our lives. They trust individuals to make important decisions for themselves rather than to have them dictated to them. They realize that when Americans are left to their own devises with little government interference, they are more productive, more inventive and more creative.

Conservatives realize that a one-size fits all government solution from Washington D.C. will not work for all of the states. What is good for North/South Dakota, may not be the same thing that is good for New York. Rather than force the states to follow one dictate, they believe allowing states to compete for business and people generates some of the biggest and brightest ideas for economic growth. This also gives Americans more choices of where to live based on multiple factors such as taxes, job market, housing market etc.

Real conservatives are compassionate. They don’t want people to be suffering but they realize a mammoth bureacracy in Washington D.C. is ill equipped to handle cases effectively or efficiently. Hardworking Americans already pay 40% – 45% of their income in taxes. A lot of that money is wasted in Washington D.C, by both parties. Conservatives understand that Americans work hard for their money, and they are more capable of deciding how to use it then a government corrupted by money and power. It is immoral to steal money from the people who earned it to give it to someone as political payback in pork spending and/or earmarks. Charity should be a personal thing, something you do because you personally want to help someone. Charity should be church function too. Today, charity is a federal function that has become a behemoth treating people like numbers rather than individuals, and corrupted by fraud and waste. We pay more to manage federal social programs than it would cost to cut a check for a decent salary to each and every recipient.

Conservatives believe that the foundation for a strong society is the family. They seek to strengthen that foundation instead of tearing it down. They want to encourage marriage and adoption and personal responsibility. They want fathers and mothers to be responsible, they want children to have both parents if at all possible. They want to give women as much information as possible before they make the permanent decision to abort their child. They want to prevent a child from having an abortion forced on her by an adult who had no business having sex with her in the first place. They want parents to be able to discipline their children in the way that they see fit. They want parents to be able to share their religious culture with their children without having it undermined in the public school system.

Conservatives believe in true debate. They don’t seek to silence the opposition, they seek to have a debate on the issues. They don’t resort to name calling (racist, fascist, homophobe, zealot) in order to win a debate.

Conservatives are not racists. They believe every man or woman has the same potential for greatness and see the individual not the skin color. Conservatives don’t care about gender, they care about ability. No one should be rewarded or punished because of their skin color or their gender. What matters is do they have the ability to do the job?

Conservatives believe in the sanctity of life and defend the unborn with the same zeal that they used to end slavery. Abortion is an abomination. Planned Parenthood largely targets lower income minorities. Their hero, Margaret Sanger, advocated targeting the poor and minorities because she saw them as unfit to pass on their blood lines. The death penalty is another story. Some conservatives believe in protecting all life, others like myself, believe that there are some crimes so heinous that the death penalty is called for.

Conservatives love their country. They don’t think everything is perfect with the government, but they don’t disparage the country because the person in the White House is not from their party. Conservatives also love and respect our troops. Whatever you may think of their mission, our troops put their lives on the line whenever they are called to do so. That deserves respect not denigration.

Conservatives do not expect the government to solve their problems. Conservatives know that the best person to solve your problems is you. The government more often than not creates more problems when they try to solve one. For instance, social security. Money collected in Washington for Social Security gets spent faster than it is collected, and now the Social Security system is in deep trouble but there aren’t very many politicians willing to tackle the problem. My generation will more than likely never see our Social Security contributions. Whenever someone comes up with a new idea for allowing people to save for retirement a different way, they are accused of throwing old people down the stairs. Instead of tired old rehashed political rhetoric, conservatives would like solutions.
Conservatives think logically rather than emotionally, and that doesn’t mean that we don’t have any feelings, but rather we remove the emotion from an argument to see the facts. If someone tells me an idea is good because it will help a lot of people. That may sound good and make me feel good, but is it true? Affirmative action for instance. Affirmative action is supposed to give minorities in disadvantaged areas the opportunity to attend college by giving them extra points because of their race. Sounds good that we are going to help poor black people get to college and better their lives, but if that person had a sub-par education up to that point, getting them into college isn’t going to help them to be able to get through college. If you don’t fix the first, the second is meaningless. Secondly, students who are successful in getting through school have their achievements minimized because they got in through affirmative action. Clarence Thomas is an example of having his substantial achievements ridiculed because of affirmative action. Lastly, it tells minorities that they are not able to compete fairly with white students. Now, I am seeing that affirmative action is actually a racist policy rather than a good thing…get the picture?

Conservatives either love God or respect those who do. They don’t seek to force people to keep their religion hidden in the privacy of their homes. Our founding fathers repeatedly referred to God, Providence, or the Creator in speeches and writings. They said public prayers and referenced God in our founding documents. Freedom of religion is NOT freedom from religion. Freedom allows the free expression of religious beliefs by any member of society, including politicians. The only thing prohibited in the Constitution is for the Federal government to declare a national religion. Merely believing in God or mentioning God does not force you to be a member of a religion.

Conservatives welcome immigrants from all across the globe. We are proud that so many people want to come and live in our country; however, we also believe that people who come here should follow our laws, learn our language and love our country. We don’t want drug dealers, rapists, murderers or terrorists sneaking across our borders. We don’t want illegal immigrants coming to America to exploit our welfare system and make hardworking Americans pay for their food and their medical care. We also don’t want illegal immigrants to be exploited by smugglers, or unscrupulous employers. We are willing to welcome you here with open arms, but we want your loyalty to be to the United States of America, not your home country and we want you to respect our laws. We want to know that your intentions are good. That you want to make a better life for your family, not come and be a drain on our social programs. Every other country asks the same thing, but somehow in our country you are racist to ask these things.

Conservatives are not perfect and they don’t expect others to be, but that doesn’t mean that they minimize serious moral frailities. “Everyone else does it” is not an excuse. A person’s past is not as important as their present. If they don’t let their mistakes mold them into a better person, then their frailities will be magnified under the political microscope. If you make a serious moral mistake while you are in office, the conservatives will ask you to step down. They only judge your character based on current behavior, but they will not stand by you if you violate your most sacred trusts. They will forgive you, and they will be there to help you, but they will not protect your political office for you. Character matters to conservatives.

My final reason for being a Conservative is that Conservatives have a core set of principles that they stick to. They may change their mind on minor things, but on the main things: less government, sanctity of life, family values, freedom of relgion, original intent etc., those values will always stay the same. True conservatives will not change their minds on these issues because of money, fame or power and if they do, they were never a true conservative.

PLAYING GAMES WITH MILITARY FUNDING

I have had it with these politicians who voted to send our troops to war, and then try to tack on Amnesty for illegal immigrants or other domestic pork spending to the War Funding bill so they can accuse the President and those who oppose the bill of betraying the troops. Our men and women are over there because Congress sent them there, they are putting their lives on the line everyday, for what? So they can have the Senate play games with their funding in order to score political points? They deserve better than that and to add insult to injury the Senate pulled this stunt between Armed Forces Day and Memorial Day. Two holidays celebrating the sacrifices of our troops. I'd like to take everyone of those idiots out to the woodshed for a good old fashioned thrashing. Please call your Senator and tell them to strip the amnesty and other domestic spending out of the supplemental appropriations spending bill. We need grassroots activism right now and there needs to be a backlash for these morons.

VICTIMHOOD

When I was sixteen, I got a job at a local campground where a lot of other teenagers from my high school were working (mostly guys). I was often left in charge of the campground store, the food bar and once even the front desk. On one occasion I was left in charge of all three at the same time, while the guys who worked there were invited to go swimming in the campground pool (during work hours).

Once when I was in charge of the store, one of the guys who worked there came in looking for some screws. As I turned to look on the corkboard for the screws he needed, he flicked my butt. What I didn’t know was that the boss’ wife saw him do it.

A little later, my boss called me (and only me) down into the basement and spent 30 minutes yelling at me and telling me that he should fire me for my behavior. I wasn’t given a chance to defend myself and out of sheer frustration and anger, I broke down into tears. I couldn’t believe that I was being treated this way and the guy who actually did the flicking, didn’t get a talking to at all.

I could have spent my entire life convinced that all men were sexist pigs who treated women like dirt and that I would never get any where because I am a woman, but I didn’t. I knew that he was the exception rather than the rule. I quit working for him and found a different job. The benefits of capitalism – if you don’t like your job go find one that you do like.

A friend of mine had everything going against her. She was one of five children. Her parents were divorced when she was a teenager, her mom got custody but worked nights so there was no discipline and no boundaries. They lived on welfare and occasional child support payments. My friend experimented with drugs, dropped out of school and found herself pregnant at the age of 16. According to statistics, she was statistically likely to continue the cycle of welfare dependence – but she didn’t want to live that way.

She took her baby with her when she went to her GED classes. She worked a full time shift and shared babysitting duties with her mom at the same time she was taking her classes. When her mom kicked her out because she was threatened with losing her welfare benefits, my friend struggled to make ends meet, but continued to work because she wanted something better for her child.

She met her husband at work and they married but continued to struggle financially, even though she had worked herself up to manager, she was putting in long hours for very little pay. She decided to look into going to college and she and her husband bought a run-down mobile home on contract for deed. She struggled through college while working off and on when necessary. She and her husband only had one car and had to work their schedules around the use of that car.

She finished school with honors and found a job. After a few years out of school, she and her husband were able to buy a house. She went from being destined to be on welfare to paying more than her fair share in taxes because she was determined to make something out of her life.

I tell you this because she has a brother who is only one year younger than her. He was raised in the same circumstances, but he is a perpetual victim. He has lived off of the charity of family and friends. He has a daughter that he was prepared to sign away his rights for, until they told him they wouldn’t waive his back child support. He won a legal settlement through tragic circumstances(near a half a million dollars). When he got the settlement he bought a brand new car, a used mobile home and quit his job. He did not send any of that money to pay back child support or put any away for his daughter’s education. Less than a year after he received the settlement, the government confiscated the $3000 he had left in his account for back child support. Shortly after that, he got his girlfriend pregnant, a girl who was a high risk pregnancy, but he refused to get a job because they would take his money for child support. His girlfriend worked through her entire pregnancy while he stayed at home.

After the baby was born, he chose to stay at home and take care of the baby. The government suspended his drivers license and warned him that they would issue a warrrant for his arrest if he didn’t pay his back child support, but he refused to get a job and a few months later, the cops showed up to arrest him. He doesn’t take any responsibility for it, he blames everything on the government, or his ex-girlfriend, or his parents and even his daughter. He expects to get rich by waiting around for it to happen without even realizing the irony of that since he already had nearly a half a million dollars that he blew through in less than a year.

Here is my point. If you don’t like your circumstances, then change them. If you aren’t making enough money, then go back to school and get a degree. A person with an Associates Degree will make on average $8000 more a year than someone with a high school diploma. With a bachelor’s degree, they will make $23300 more a year than a person with a high school diploma. The more advanced the degree, the more money you make in comparison.

It doesn’t matter what race you are, it doesn’t matter what gender you are, it doesn’t matter where you live in this country or your circumstances of birth. If you desire a better life, you can make it happen. I am not saying that it will be easy, but everything worth anything is worth working for. Immigrants who move to America from communist or socialist countries often find themselves starting a business. It is because they recognize what many of us who have always lived here don’t. That America is a land of opportunities. That you could have been born to the poorest family in the country and if you work hard and set goals, you can become rich.

Yes, things happen that aren’t fair. Sometimes the government gets in your way, sometimes things happen that get in the way of your goals, but like a beautiful porcelain sculpture, sometimes you have to go through the fire to become a more solid person.

I am tired of hearing about how women don’t have an equal chance with men in the business world. They absolutely do, but we often take time out of our careers to raise children and that should not give us an advantage over a man who doesn’t take any time off.

I am tired of hearing about how this country is still racist. Of course there are still people out there who are racists (and they aren’t all white), but the large majority of Americans are not racist. The people who keep telling you that you can’t get anywhere because of your skin color or your race, need you to be a victim for their own power. This country was founded in 1776. Less than a hundred years later, over 600,000 Americans died in the Civil War (more than all our other wars combined) to end the question of slavery forever. The same party who argued against freeing slave in the 1800’s are the one’s arguing that blacks can’t live without welfare, that they can’t get in to college unless we make special rules for them with affirmative action. Affirmative action is just a way for Democrats to deligitimize the accomplishments of blacks and other minorities.

You don’t have to be a victim. You don’t have to sit around for the rest of your life blaming the fact that you aren’t successful on everyone and everything around you. You can buck statistics, you can buck expectations and you can succeed. All you have to do is believe in yourself, be willing to work hard and you can be successful. God Bless America.