Conservative and LIberal, Liberal and Conservative

My friend from high school, Timothy Koons-McGee got me to thinking with an article he posted on Facebook. Tim felt it represented a fair explanation of the 2 major political viewpoints in this country. I respectfully disagreed. The following are my views comparing the two dominant ideologies.

Let me first say that in order for such a discussion to be fair and balanced it is imperative that you show each side in the best light; and that you give each the benefit of the doubt. This will disappoint some of you who are all fired up during this most political of seasons. I beg your indulgence.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-NY) was perhaps the most fair-minded of politicians in my generation - one who clearly saw the weaknesses of his own party, and recognized the virtues in the other. Here is a brief bio from Wikipedia and Arlington National Cemetery

Born: 16 March 1927, Tulsa, Oklahoma
Died: 26 March 2003, Washington City

The Moynihan family moved to New York City when he was six where he attended public and parochial schools, shined shoes, and graduated from high school in Harlem. He attended City College of New York for a year before enlisting in the Navy's V-12 officer training program at Tufts University where he graduated with a B.A. in 1944. He served in the Navy until 1947, then earned his M.A. and Ph.D., also at Tufts. Moynihan served two Democrat presidents (Kennedy and Johnson) and two Republicans (Nixon and Ford), was US ambassador to India and the United Nations, served four terms in the US Senate, and in between government positions taught at Harvard, MIT, and Wesleyan universities. He wrote or edited nineteen books, George F. Will quipped that this was "more books than most senators have read". He was a committed liberal who defied orthodox liberal doctrine, frequently challenging the position of his own party. 

Liberals and conservatives are at opposite ends of many issues. One of the common observations of conservatives is how naive liberals are. Conservatives are very realistic in dealing with worldly events - business, economics, or terrorists; but extremely naive where politics is concerned. The liberal is the complete opposite - very realistic where politics is concerned and extremely naive where business, economics, or terrorists are concerned. Each is realistic and each naive; 180 degrees out of phase.

Liberalism faltered when it turned out it could not cope with truth. - Moynihan

The liberal believes in freedom as much as the conservative however that pretty much ends the common ground. The liberal believes that freedom is best assured by a benevolent government whereas the secular conservative believes freedom is the natural state and is best assured by government leaving us alone. The religious conservative believes freedom comes from God and is best assured by obedience to His commandments.


Out of that disagreement comes the appearance that liberals oppose religion, or at least people who are very religious. The liberal, believing that freedom is best assured by the government sees religious people as a threat. The conservative, believing that freedom is either a gift from God or the natural state,sees government as a threat.

The good in government is another area of disagreement. The liberal believes that government can do a lot of good; the conservative believes that government does little good outside of the military.

Somehow liberals have been unable to acquire from life what conservatives seem to be endowed with at birth: namely, a healthy skepticism of the powers of government agencies to do good. - Moynihan

Charitable works is one of the largest area of disagreement with the liberal wanting to do big things through the power of organizations such as unions, activist groups, or state and local governments. Conservatives want those same good works performed, just by different groups - charitable organizations, churches, and individuals. Each side wants good done, each side sees pain and suffering in the world; we just see different solutions to the problem.

Government cannot provide values to persons who have none, or who have lost those they had. It cannot provide inner peace. It can provide outlets for moral energies, but it cannot create those energies. - Moynihan

Fairness is another area of disagreement with the liberal seeking fairness in everything, including the outcome of events. The conservative is perfectly content with unfair outcomes as long as the opportunity for success was equal. To the conservative mind, liberals have taken the virtue of fairness and by over emphasizing it, have made it a vice. The the liberal, fairness is a virtue and therefore cannot over emphasize it. With apologies to Barry Goldwater (who famously made a similar observation concerning freedom) the liberal mantra might be summarized as follows - "Extremism in the name of fairness is no vice".

The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself. - Moynihan

Lastly, we react differently to political events - liberals reacting emotionally, and conservatives reacting rationally. Therefore we find liberal politicians ignoring rational explanations for their policies (although rational explanations could be given) in favor of emotional tugs. The constant insertion of race or class warfare is designed to get an emotional reaction. Conservatives tend to be much less successful in motivating their base with emotion unless that emotion is patriotism or love of military. So we find the conservative politician making rational cases for their viewpoint and largely ignoring emotion. Each can get what they want from their respective constituencies but have to use different methods to achieve that success.


In summary Americans of both sides generally have the best interests of the county in mind. I wish more of us gave the other side the benefit of the doubt. The divisions that our politics engenders is not productive. It plays into the politician's and activist's hands. Why not act like adults and simply agree to disagree without demonizing those with whom we differ. 

Disgusted

I am so disgusted by the politics of our generation that I am taking a leave of absence from this blog. The insanity that is the American left and their obsession with controlling us is leaving me nauseous. I am not quitting the fight, just choosing another way to engage that can be more effective. I now believe that raising money to fight these Bolsheviks is how I can best serve the cause of the American dream and freedom.

Diversity

What is behind the obsession with diversity that liberals have? Where is the virtue in diversity? I have no objection to it; I just fail to see any particular good or bad in diversity or lack thereof. It seems as if our liberal friends believe that "divided we stand" is somehow a good thing.

Actual Mug Shots

What do these mug shots have in common? It isn't race, it isn't gender; so what is it (hint: look at their clothing)?

We Must Be Crazy

I recently received news about oil reserves in the US that is staggering. Here's the quote.

Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the Rocky Mountains lies the largest untapped oil reserve in the world. It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush mandated its extraction. In three and a half years of high oil prices none has been extracted. With this mother lode of oil why are we still fighting over off-shore drilling?

They reported this stunning news: We have more oil inside our borders, than all the other proven reserves on earth. Here are the official estimates:

- 8-times as much oil as Saudi Arabia

- 18-times as much oil as Iraq

- 21-times as much oil as Kuwait

- 22-times as much oil as Iran

- 500-times as much oil as Yemen

- and it's all right here in the Western United States .

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study, says we've got more oil in this very compact area than the entire Middle East -more than 2 TRILLION barrels untapped. That's more than all the proven oil reserves of crude oil in the world today, reports The Denver Post.

If this is true, then that is astounding. We are allowing ourselves to be held captive by a few crazy environmentalists and judges. Are we nuts? H/T Gary.

The President and Malcolm X

President Obama has been quoted that the autobiography of Malcolm X resonated with him. Here is the actual quote.

Only Malcolm X’s autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me. The blunt poetry of his words. His unadorned insistence on respect. He promised a new and uncompromising order, martial in its discipline.

That is high praise from a man who is quite a wordsmith himself. Lets examine some of the quotes in that book. Our first quote is short, but seems to be the Obama playbook.

By any means necessary.

The second quote worries me even more.

You will never get real freedom and recognition between black and white people in this country without destroying the country, without destroying the present political system, without destroying the present economic system, without rewriting the entire constitution. It will be a complete destruction of everything that America supposedly stands for.

Any questions about what is really going on?

Corruption

Michelle Malkin has a story that shows "the Chicago Way" that the Obama administration uses to get things done. In this instance they are blatantly trying to buy the vote of a Utah Democrat.

Tonight, Barack Obama will host ten House Democrats who voted against the health care bill in November at the White House; he’s obviously trying to persuade them to switch their votes to yes. One of the ten is Jim Matheson of Utah. The White House just sent out a press release announcing that today President Obama nominated Matheson’s brother Scott M. Matheson, Jr. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.

Taking the most charitable possible interpretation; one that this is just a coincidence, she writes:

Is the White House so fantastically blind and tone-deaf that it failed to detect the blood-red flags and blaring alarm bells that Scott Matheson’s judicial nomination would raise coming on the very day President Obama is wooing his brother, Jim?

I am so grateful for the alternate sources of news like blogs, talk radio, and other Internet resources. ABC, NBC, and CBS would never report about such corrupt behavior by their favorite politician.

Contrast

Here are photos of the last 2 Presidents, each addressing an elementary school group. Note the differences.

An Interesting Article

I ran across an interesting article today ranking the House and Senate members as most liberal or conservative. Surprisingly some of the more well-known characters were not on the list. Among the most liberal senators are John Kerry, Chris Dodd, Dick Durbin, and Barbara Mikulski. President Obama's replacement, Roland Burris is ranked in a tie as the most liberal senator.

The most conservative senators' list has these well-known people: Jim Imhofe (most conservative), Jim Bunning, John Thune (beat Tom Daschle for his seat), and GOP leader Mitch McConnell.

On the most liberal House member list was very few names that I recognized although Jesse Jackson Jr, Henry Waxman, and Louise Slaughter were familiar to me. Among the most conservative House members are California's Tom McClintock, John Shadegg, and Mike Pence.

You have to love Oklahoma. Their two senators, Imhofe and Coburn, are ranked in the top 4 most conservative senators. Arizona and Texas each have two House members ranked in the top 10 most conservative. So my 3 new most favorite states are Oklahoma, Texas, and Arizona. Utah, often proclaimed as the "most red" of the 50 states did not have a single senator or House member make either list. Utah may be the most Republican, but they are not the most conservative.

The most liberal delegations are all in the Northeast with the exception of Hawaii - Massachusetts (most liberal delegation), Vermont, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. The most conservative delegations are in order: Idaho, Kentucky, South Carolina, Texas and Georgia. Once again that "most red" of the states, Utah, is missing from the list.

Democrats' Double Standard

By now you have heard that the Democrats are threatening to use the "nuclear option" to cram socialized medicine down our throats. My how times have changed. Click here to see a video show Democrats calling such actions an "arrogant power grab". You should recognize several of the faces. The first two even had recent promotions.

I wonder if this has anything to do with Congress' historic low approval rating of 10%.

Contract From America

Sounding like Newt Gingerich's 1994 Contract With America, the Tea Party Movement is drafting a new Contract From America. They are asking for input on the following items that they will be releasing April 15. Items to be voted on are:

• Amending the constitution to require a balanced budget and a two-thirds majority for any tax hike.
• Permanently repealing all tax hikes scheduled to begin in 2011.
• Requiring every bill in Congress to be made public seven days before any vote can be taken and all government expenditures authorized by any bill to be easily accessible on the Internet before the money is spent.
• Requiring each bill to identify the specific provision of the Constitution that gives Congress the power to do what the bill does.
• Permitting all health insurance plans to be sold anywhere in the United States through the purchase of insurance across state lines. Allow small businesses and associations to pool together across state lines to buy insurance.
• Adopting a simple and fair single-rate tax system by scrapping the internal revenue code and “replacing it with one that is no longer than 4,543 words — the length of the original Constitution.”
• Imposing a statutory cap limiting the annual growth in total federal spending to the sum of inflation rate plus the percentage of population growth.
• Allowing Americans to opt out of Social Security and Medicare and instead put those same payroll taxes in a personal account “they own, control and can leave to whomever they choose.”
• Preventing any regulation or tax on the Internet.
• Improving education by eliminating ineffective and wasteful programs, giving parents more choices from pre-school to high school and improving the affordability of higher education.
• Authorizing the exploration of proven energy reserves to reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources from unstable countries and reduce regulatory barriers to all other forms of energy creation, lowering prices and creating competition.
• Prohibiting the Federal Communications Commission from using funds to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine.
• Creating a Blue Ribbon task force that engages in a complete audit of federal agencies and programs.
• Blocking state and local governments that receive federal grants from exercising eminent domain over private property for the primary purpose of economic development or enhancement of tax revenues.
• Preventing the EPA from implementing costly new regulations.
• Placing a moratorium on all earmarks until the process is fully transparent. Also requiring a two-thirds majority to pass any earmark.
• Making all lawmaking regulators, including presidential appointed czars, be affirmatively approved by Congress and signed into law by the president.
• Audit the Federal Reserve System.
• Making sure the federal government does not bail out private companies. The government should also immediately divest itself of its stake in the private companies it owns from recent bailouts.
• Amending the constitution to require congressional term limits. No person shall be elected to the Senate more than twice or to the House of Representatives more than four times.
• Making all regulations “sunset” after 10 years unless renewed by congressional vote.
• Broadcasting all non-security meetings and votes on C-SPAN and the Internet.

The new contract stands in contrast to the 1994 document, in that it originated with the people and not from elected officials. More than a thousand ideas for the contract were submitted and edited down to 20 through the help of hundreds of Tea Party activists and a series of online surveys.

Personally I find this document much stronger than the Mount Vernon Statement covered in our last post. This document is full of substance; substance that will make a difference. The Mount Vernon Statement is a desperate attempt by the elites to remain elite.

The Mount Vernon Statement

A group of conservative leaders have drafted a document providing a framework for what they believe called The Mount Vernon Statement. This appears to be a pre-emptive move to retain the leadership of the conservative movement; a move that appears to be designed to not lose their prominence to the rapidly expanding Tea Party Movement's Contract From America.

The key points of the Mount Vernon Statement are as follows:

• It applies the principle of limited government based on the rule of law to every proposal.
• It honors the central place of individual liberty in American politics and life.
• It encourages free enterprise, the individual entrepreneur, and economic reforms grounded in market solutions.
• It supports America’s national interest in advancing freedom and opposing tyranny in the world and prudently considers what we can and should do to that end.
• It informs conservatism’s firm defense of family, neighborhood, community, and faith.

I think there is more substance to the Tea Party Movement's statement which we will examine in our next post. See you then!

28th Amendment?

A friend of mine sent me an email proposing a new amendment to the Constitution - a 28th amendment. I love this one.

"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators and/or Representatives; and, Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators and/or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States".

How can you disagree with something so obviously right? What possible argument could there be against this? Its so obvious, so simple, and so needed that it is brilliant. Whoever thought this up deserves a medal.

February 11

Did anyone notice that February 11 has come and gone without Iran's promised "harsh blow to the global arrogance" promised by Iran's President Ahmadinejad.

You Gotta Love It