Delia: Oh but I am a conservative: I’m not entirely sure what you are, although I’ve read your posts on several issues, and admire your often gritty comments.
But you’ve confused the idea of a conservative with a mossback; the man yelling at kids to keep off his grass; people who oppose gay marriage and think that their civic duty ends when they vote against new taxes.
Some “Conservatives” support the use of US treasury funds to build roads and clean water systems in Iraq,remove landmines, protect other countries shipping lanes from pirates–but oppose spending our own money here to clean up our own air and water –that we all own–that some bloody company and its unionized work force fouled while making a profit that went to shareholders and overpaid workers. That’s not conservative–its a lot of things, but not conservative. It may even be a bit stupid.
Other self-styled conservatives think Wall Street is the United States. Its not: Main Street is and always has been the backbone of the US.
Other so-called conservatives seem to believe they can go off and make money and write books and all will be well: never mind the vesigal problems of racism, pollution, poor medical care and greedy unions–all problems caused by government tampering or private use of commonly owned things like our water.
I kind of think that protecting our water from people who want to dump chemicals in it is pretty conservative: preserving the staus quo one might say.
These “I oppose therefore I am a conservative” types opposed gay marriage night and day while state employee unions wound a noose around the neck of almost every solvent state, locking in pension benefits and health plans that’ll sadlle us all for generations. Shrewd bunch those “conservatives.” Not exactly the shrewdness of the Yankee traders, is it?
The “I oppose” “conservatives” sat and wrote books for 10 years while Dennis Hastert made the House into a lobbyists lounge for big business. That’s not conservatism. Its shortsighted, uninformed wimpiness that helped the GOP favor greedy lobbyists. The American voter isn’t stupid and can tell what it is. The conservatives got “taken” by the GOP and recognizing that is no sin: its a necessity.
Calling Obama a pimp is childish: if you want to compete on ideas and not name calling (a game the Dems always win), you’ll lose. Oops. You are losing–you lost! Winston Churchill, by the way, pushed and supported free milk for poor kids almsot 100 years ago, along with free schools and more. He was hardly a leftist.
You can “stand astride history yelling stop,” as Bill Buckley used to say, or you can act to remedy problems caused by the government in the past, and protect the people who don’t want polluted water and air for some company’s benefit; who don’t want non-violent drug users locked up in expensive max security prisons for the benefit of the prisono guards lobby; etc. (I am pro death penalty–don’t call me a softie).
And if you want to make it better, get out and spread the message. Try to figure out what a conservative is for, not just against.
