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.