A Voice in the Wilderness In Defense of "Mere Conservatism"

“Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the government’s purposes are beneficial. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greater dangers to liberty lurk in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.”

-Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis

When I was in 3rd grade my youngest brother poured a glass of milk, thinking it was soap, into my fish tank and proceeded to clean the bowl with a toothbrush. I had lazily neglected to clean the bowl myself for some time and although it was a thoughtful gesture on my brother’s part, it resulted in both my fishes (Andre Dawson and John Wayne) being flushed down the toilet. As soon as I got new fish (The Hawk and The Duke) and fresh water that next week, some ground rules were put in to place as to when and how my brother would be able to visit with my pets.

Now obviously I didn’t believe he meant the fish any malicious harm. In truth, the very fact that he didn’t mean any harm combined with his youthful penchant to confuse milk for soap is what made him all the more of a threat to any unsuspecting little goldfish in the house.

Democrats in Washington today remind me an awful lot of my youngest brother all those years ago. The milky suds of liberalism have, despite the good intentions of those who advocate their usage, been confused for the thorough Irish Spring-like cleansing of conservatism this country’s economy, government, and culture has been in need of for many years. Republicans certainly have been negligent in keeping the fish bowl in proper, working order the past 8 years, but it seems clear to me that more milk certainly isn’t the answer to our current predicaments.

The problem with liberalism is liberalism. The problem with conservatism is conservatives. The Left chases after an ideology and political philosophy that is inherently flawed. The Right’s tenets are more closely aligned with the original intentions of our Founding Fathers, and have the added bonus of common sense and facts hedging those convictions. Unfortunately and unavoidably, they also have just as many fallen human beings running things as the Left does. I’ve yet to find a political party that has cornered the market on unethical behavior or incompetence. (But then again, the perpetual failures of our federal government are the reasons we as a nation have traditionally been leery of their schemes and prefer the voluntary nature of free markets.)

The difference here is that conservative principles, if actually practiced by our government and used as a political barometer by voters, will provide America with the best possible opportunity to succeed in the future. In short: conservative "things" (like adherence to our Constitution and the Invisible Hand of the free market), if followed correctly, work. Modern Democrats, however, are stuck with the consistently-proven-to-be-wrong liberal ideology of LBJ, Jimmy Carter, and Nancy Pelosi that cannot work no matter who is running the show.

As the fat swan said to the ugly swan: “I can lose weight, but you’re stuck.”

Barack Obama and Joe Biden don’t care any more or any less for their country than John McCain and Sarah Palin. In fact, the primary problem with the Obama-Biden ticket’s ill-advised support for things like increased spending, increased taxes, bloated bureaucracy, and precipitous withdrawal from Iraq is not that they don’t truly want what is best for America, but that they are so convinced what they propose will work.

On one hand it was sweet that my little bro wanted to do me a “solid” and clean my tank. It’s nice to have family members who earnestly seek the good of their siblings. But when his sincerity led to disaster, if I equally cared for him and his development as a person, it was my duty to sympathetically point out the error of his ways and firmly warn him that it cannot happen again. (Flush my fish once, shame on me. Flush my fish twice, you’re getting a wedgie.)

Two quick examples of the unreliability exhibited by liberals like Obama and Biden I’m talking about: First, it is a reality that by lowering taxes, government’s tax revenues actually go up. During his first term, President Bush and Congress (the ones who authorize any tax cut or spending proposal) cut taxes and since have seen record-setting revenues come in to the U.S. Treasury. The problem of the course was out-of-control spending in Washington. Some blame the War in Iraq, but when the levels of our GDP we spend on national defense are at historic lows (even for times of peace); the answer to the deficit is not found in Baghdad. When taxes are cut, in conjunction with curtailed spending, revenues go up and the deficit goes down.

Obama’s plan? More than $750 billion per year in increased spending projects and a $1 trillion dollar tax hike on that same 3% who already are paying more than their “fair share.” In a time of economic turmoil, largely caused by the implosion of lending giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (two big-government liberal institutions that Democrats like Obama took campaign money from but did nothing to heed warnings of their inevitable collapse), the man who blames Bush’s plans and mocks McCain’s has decided to do more of the thing Bush got wrong (over-spend) and none of what McCain has consistently been right about (across-the-board tax cuts).

What is a responsible, thinking, informed adult suppose to think of such thoughtlessness? Because he says he means well and “cares” more than the other guy, I’m to trust Senator Obama with the reigns of an economy he clearly doesn’t believe in (because he is a far-Left Socialist when it comes to economics)? Republicans have made mistakes, and McCain is no economic guru, but this is madness.

Second example: The single most important vote of Obama’s political career, and the most important foreign policy issue in 5 years, was the decision whether or not to implement the president’s “surge” plan in early 2007. Barack Obama, a man who has visited Iraq once in the past three years, decried the plan and insisted that military action would never work. He called for immediate, precipitous withdrawal regardless of the acknowledged potential genocide and civil war that would ensue. Fast-forward to Fall of 2008 and now the junior Senator from Illinois claims that his strategy for withdrawal is being proven right because troops are coming home after the incredible turnaround in safety and political progress the surge he voted against was responsible for.

This is a staggeringly reckless position to take. Hear me: whatever your feelings might be about why we went to Iraq, a war Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden voted for, no serious contender for Commander-in-Chief can so blatantly put aside facts of success, realities-on-the-ground, and the advice of men like General Petraeus (a registered Democrat) and still be considered a legitimate option for running the military.

Senator Obama might really want what is best for you and me, but his zeal seems to have lapped his abilities and voting record on the racetrack of this seemingly never-ending presidential campaign. He's a "new" breed of politician who happens to be the most liberal voting Senator. He has no noteworthy piece of legislation to his name, but can revamp the government and economy. Abortion is so “above [his] pay grade” that he’s certain it should be on-demand through the 3rd trimester and entirely federally funded. He went to a church for 20 years but never heard any of the same anti-American, neo-Marxist rantings from his spiritual mentor I found on YouTube (and the church’s own website). It's not his "hope" I fear; it's his judgment.

All it would take to turn this government and economy back to the “for us, by us” entities they once were is for Americans to stop voting based purely on race, or eloquence, or how much disdain you have for citizens of Red or Blue states, and actively pursue the truth behind the sound-bites and email donor letters you receive from the various campaigns.

Check out bi-partisan websites like FactCheck.org. If you usually watch nothing but MSNBC, tune in for half an hour of Glenn Beck on CNN Headline or Bill O’Reilly on Fox News. If the only monologues you are aware of come from John Stewart and Letterman, give Rush Limbaugh and Dennis Prager an hour of your time. Follow up on any and all facts either side reports that confuse you or make you mad. Learn more about this nation’s founding and history (pre-MTV). Take a second to investigate what type of economic system a country has to have for things like TiVo and iPhones to exist.

Do something. Read something. Seek the counsel of someone wiser than yourself. (Might I suggest starting with John Adams, Adam Smith, and G.K. Chesterton.)

It doesn’t really matter how much Barack the Organizer cares for our communities. Experience, passion and zeal are only helpful if pointed in the right direction.