Several reasons I am proud to be a CONSERVATIVE

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Quite eloquently Shakespeare asks, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." To Shakespeare no one could steal the beauty of a rose by simply renaming it but people like, Hitler, Stalin and Bush have attempted to prove him wrong.

To many, the term "conservative" implies a closed mind and a desire to fall in with reich-wing lock-steppers but to me, it simply represents good old-fashioned propaganda. In other words, by adopting a term that capitalizes on the inherently human trait to resist change, Republicans can rally people who fear transition to their cause. Einstein is correct: "The only constant in the universe is change." Once we accept his notion, transition emerges as an irresistible force in the long term.

For example, let us analyze the Republican Party. In times past, they were indeed or at least preached like fiscal conservatives but modern approaches by that party, which have gotten us nearly $9 TRILLION in debt, show the party has changed. Now, it appears fiscal conservatism is a purely Democratic ideal.

In years gone by, "less government" was an attractive notion Republicans proudly put forth but today that party, which rules the House, Senate and Administrative branches of government allows the BIG BROTHER of run-away bureaucracy to look over every shoulder and meddle in all our affairs.

Still people resist change. No matter how profoundly their party deviates from the ideals they personally support, they fear voting for real change and responsive, responsible representatives.

If I believe that we must conserve our natural resources and the beauty of our Divine gift, I'd say that view makes me conservative. If I seek to conserve our way of life and basic freedoms guaranteed to us by the U.S. Constitution for future generations, then I am indeed conservative.

Still, the BIG LIE of Stalin rules the day: "DEMOCRACIES DON'T WAR" is not only grammatically incorrect, it is also a perfect example of a Stalinist approach. Both Roman and Greek democracies warred. The British and U.S. democracies are certainly not know for their peaceful approaches, nor is ANY democracy in history. War isn't glorious and prolonging it is not in the best interest of those who risk their lives daily fighting for a cause that was never really attainable.

"Iraqi freedom" and the Utopian view of a true democracy in that country is not an attainable goal and giving up OUR freedoms is certainly not going to rid the world of terrorism.

The truth remains hidden to a closed mind. The human mind, like a parachute only functions after it is open. We can't fight changes but we can learn to look past the lies. Each day we make a choice.

In his Oration on the Dignity of Man, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola states that you have “free choice and dignity, so you may fashion yourself into whatever form you choose. To you is granted power of degrading yourself into lower forms of life, like the beasts, and to you is granted power, contained in your intellect and judgment, to be reborn into higher forms, like the Divine." Almost a manifesto for the Renaissance, his speech affirms the importance of a quest for true enlightenment and basic human dignity.

Every new day brings new options and God gives each of us free choice. Some in government will continue to attempt to steal our Divine legacy but the choice is yours. Will the names propagandists apply to people continue to "degrade" you into a lower form of life or will you embrace and defend the dignity our Creator endows to each of us?

[saltpoint]

1. I really do like the idea of asking people to reconsider who is doing the

conserving and who is not -- both on issues of the environment and the economy.

Repubican debt is now a record, and an abomination. You score a huge point there.

And to conserve the environment, and especially to re-establish humans' psychic and physical connections to the elemental laws of the natural world, is alien to many GOP representatives and certainly to the Kyoto-hating Bush administration.

And if we could have another Renaissance-like era in which Science were elevated to its deserved status, we might as a nation be more worthy of Einstein and others. The State of Kansas alone is not dragging us back; it's getting big help from fearful and ignorant people in the White House. The stem cell research issue is very defining. Senator Tallent in Missouri faces a stiff challenge in part owing to his early opposition (since revised) to stem cell research.

A bluer Congress would be a big first start. A bluer House is more reachable perhaps than a bluer Senate, but both goals are very worth the effort. Then in 2008 let's put a blue ticket in the White House and reconnect with our allies, our earth, and our truer selves.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

3. almost without exception, great thinkers in history agree with your ideas

Only pushing the envelope of archaic beliefs, will science continue to serve humanity. By opening our minds to creativity and scientific innovation, we become closer to the Great Creator; our ultimate Innovator. If Divinity intended for us to march in lock step and close our minds, we would not have minds at all and we would certainly be devoid of any ability to make free choices. Many on the religious right are choosing to miss out on the gifts our Creator intended them to use. As usual in history, it is lies of a tyrant that threaten to steal dignity of from working class, universal truth from the masses and indeed, even pillages any chance to understand the beauty of true Divinity.

[Jack Rabbit]

2. Conservative is the most abused term in the American political lexicon

Jesse Helms is not a conservative. Ann Coulter is not a conservative. Very few members of the Bush regime are conservatives.

For further elaboration, please click here.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. that is quite eloquent, concise and well worth reading, Jack Rabbit

I like where you write, "Concerning personal liberty, I can't think of an administration, even Richard Nixon's, that was more hostile to the idea than this one. Warrentless wire tapping? Based on some nutty unitary executive theory? Bush has reversed the American Revolution by assuming for himself all the powers of the British Crown that the colonists described as tyranny. On the other hand, King George never lied to start a war.

I have my differences with conservatives. I think regulation of private business is a fitting and proper use of government. It is also the place of government to protect the rights of citizens. To that end, the federal government used its power properly to end the enforcement of Jim Crow legislation in the South and to assure that all citizens have the right to vote. The Bushies seem to have a real problem with that last idea.

Nevertheless, I think conservatives, liberals and progressives have more similarities than differences."

Yes, indeed, similarities far outweigh the difference when it comes to people. We all want basic human dignity and a reasonable future for our children. Maybe in November we can find a way to send DC a unified message. How can we vote to show that Americans care about economic prosperity and basic human dignity for our children? I admit, the Democratic Party, like ALL human creations, lacks perfection but a big vote for that party certainly sends a message. How long will we -- no CAN we -- afford to endure these fiscal and moral attacks that only serve to take bread from the mouths of our children?

[msgadget]

18. Indeed, many more similarities than differences

when politicians are doing the defining. Excellent post.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

22. after sleeping on this idea, something else occurs to me

Most likely Bush is only attempting to maste propaganda as he repeats the phrase "DEMOCRACIES DON'T WAR" over and over again but it is also conceivable that he no longer believes we have a democracy in the U.S. After all, our government is regularly in a war (or is the correct term, waring?)

[BR_Parkway]

5. and 5 puts it the Greatest where more people can see it - nicely done

[The Magistrate]

6. Well Said, Sir!

You have written an excellent and instructive piece.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

8. thank you but, I deserve no praise

At best, I am only human, at worst I am a hypocrite. You see, I too fall into the trap of resisting change, even if the face of irrefutable logic, which proves I should embrace transition. I refuse to let tyranny alter the basic precepts that make our country great. While Einstein sought to "think like God," I might be content to simply think like Thomas Jefferson. Along with other Founders, Jefferson put forth the notions that we are "endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable Rights, among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness." After all I've written above, I find myself floundering in hypocrisy as I resist changes to those concepts.

I resist those who might quench the tiny flame of freedom that has illuminated these words for over two-hundred years.

I fight against those who might steal the true RIGHT TO LIFE, which in a sense, is our basic right to reasonable health-care, regardless of our economic means.

I deplore those who might steal our basic human liberty and in so doing rob us of any sense of dignity.

I despise those who might destroy our chances of attaining happiness by making, not only me but also all people, afraid to live to the fullest because ultra-rich fools have unleashed an insatiable monster to spy on and oppress humanity.

[cascadiance]

7. Conservatism/Liberalism masks the REAL war (authoritarianism/democracy)

Calling people conservatives or liberals these days has more meaning when using them as epithets than trying to be really analytical about the other person's positions. The real war is for all of us to have checks and balances on those who are trying to gain increased and unchecked power over the rest of us. Most of those are in the Republican Party. But there are some like those affiliated with the DLC that are in the Democratic Party too. And there are many of us Democrats and Republicans that are equally victimized by these power grabbers!

Of course Democracy is also an abused term. Bush keeps trying to "prescribe" it to other countries, when he really knows nothing about what it really means. He's giving it a bad name by throwing it out inappropriately, when he still hasn't started ANY Democracies yet. They are still puppet governments answering to our powermongers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Democracy works best when it is generated by those it governs. There's a reason why it works in Turkey and not many place else in the Middle East. THEY wanted it and THEY created it there under the leadership of Ataturk. We didn't have France occupy us to help us generate our own Democracy. We borrowed from their history to create ours and had their help in our Revolutionary War, and have a gift statue of theirs as our national symbol. But WE created our Democracy with the likes of Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, etc.

The real battle we have now is against the oligarchs that are trying to globalize their control through entities like the WTO, etc. with centralized power by the Bushies and the corporations that they answer to. We need to somehow get away from "conservative" and "liberal" epithets and change the frame of disucssion against fascism and other ways of taking away from citizen's control over their government.

As Fawlkes would say...

"People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Government should be afraid of their citizens!"

[Jeffersons Ghost]

9. Not only Bush but also many others in the US "prescribe" our way of life

Indeed, a quick overview reveals our government historically tends toward ethnocentricity. This anthropological term describes a tendency to view one's cultural values, beliefs, norms, etc. as superior to any other culture or society. Ethnocentricity becomes devastating when a more powerful or advanced culture attempts to "help" a less powerful culture into the future. In our 50th state, back when whalers and missionaries first landed, an ethnocentric approach nearly wiped out Hawaiian Natives to a person. The current leaders in DC should have taken more history, philosophy and anthropology and less law.

[Fovea]

10. Spot on!

You got it completely right.

Abortion isn't the only choice the NeoCons are against.
They are theocratic totalitarians and never met a system of social control they didn't like.

Of course they thought they could
'do business' with the Taliban. There isn't a lot of daylight between them on sexual mores.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

14. thanks realpolitik but what happens if we decide NeoCons aren't an enemy

The Moon is not our enemy when it reflects dim illusive light because that is her nature.

Is it fair to attack those who are afraid to open their eyes because those they trust are liars? No one ever won a heart or mind by falling into the same old game of giving them a name before shackling them with blame.

Those NeoCons, as you put it or Reich-Wingers, as I often write are just like you and I, with pride as a guide. They want to be able to feed their children next year and buy gas for their cars, just like many of us. I say let's lift a chain or two off the backs of our brothers and sisters that suffer in realms even darker than our own. Make it easy by rising above a display self-righteously smug pride. No one needs say, "I told you so," they know what we preach. Often being first to toss aside a sword of contention is extremely challenging but someone must be first or rivalry continues indefinitely. It is this very rivalry that the true enemy of 97% of the world's population seeks to nurture. Evil thrives on fear, hate and conflict.

Three percent of the population controls much of the Earth's wealth and resources and, as best I can tell, they are sociopaths without even the morals or conscience of Charles Manson. The manner in which this real enemy manages natural resources and disasters, suggests they are blatant fools but they know how to hide their weaknesses in the same way a crafty animal hides a painful wound.

[Old and In the Way]

11. You "get it"

The political labels "liberal" and "conservative" are used to seperate and divide this country, much like those maps of red and blue states. The end result is a ideologically divided country, unable to change course or adapt to changing events. Those in the media, particularly radio, who have been spent years branding liberalism as somehow evil are certainly not the anti-thesis. They deserve their own special label: criminals. When the herd, in the pan next to ours, figures this out, we can rid ourselves of the criminal opportunists who exploit language to further their un-American agenda.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

21. there are other labels to divide us

While some call us "black" or "white," I have never seen a truly black person and albinos are extremely rare. Indeed, you portray the media predators eloquently but what of the religious bottom feeders that teach us we must polarize into different beliefs, only to destroy each other in the name of God. Jesus, like Mohamed, Buddha and Confucius would never advocate killing others in the name of Divinity. What name do these animals deserve and which dark corner of Hell is reserved for them?

[BeFree]

23. I am an American

.... is the only label that we should use. Most any other label is divisive.

At a time when we all need to come together to defeat the ten-headed tyranny at the top of our government, it behooves us to be unified, yes?

The intention, therefore, is to find common ground. The common ground is this: We are Americans, and America means freedom from government abuse.

[Gregorian]

12. Simply brilliant.

We can do better.

You really know how to write. And think. What an inspiring post.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

13. why should I write, when Divine Genius can speak for itself

Perhaps writing means a bit more, now that I no longer seek fortune or fame. Now I must wonder if these scribblings are of any value to the least member of humanity here on Earth.

Perhaps if, instead of just saying it, I allow Pico to proclaim that a new Renaissance can follow these dark times it seems more true. I will say, in nature, day always appears to follow the night.

Perhaps I am simply another poor soul chained in a cave beside you, who thinks he saw a flicker of illumination dance across those shadows of illusion we call "reality."

[Gregorian]

15. At least you see the light.

How long? I ask how long will it be before we all see?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

16. putting it in perspective, enlightenment first shined in print in 350 BCE

The Republic by Plato represents ten Books and each one originally fit onto a single papyrus scroll. Much of the writing consists of dialog between Socrates and others interested in his notions. After a discussion about justice proceeds in a manner one might expect of Socrates, it takes a startling turn as Thrasymachus asserts that he knows what justice is and suggests the definitions others present are “nonsense.”

In Book 1 of The Republic, Thrasymachus says, "I declare justice is nothing but the advantage of the stronger" Robbery and violence generally represent injustices but when practiced wholesale by rulers becomes justice, because it serves the interest of those stronger rulers. In this approach, since the rulers do not obey the laws they impose on citizens, they are essentially unjust but still able to claim they are just, in a sense. At one point, Thrasymachus says, "You will understand it more easily, if you consider the perfect injustice; one which makes the unjust man most happy and makes those who are wronged but unwilling to be unjust miserable."

According to Thrasymachus, tyranny is a type of wholesale plunder but if a citizen commits theft or violence, they will face disgrace and punishment. When someone robs or commits atrocities against a whole nation and then reduces them to slavery, however, the people will eventually forget ugly names like theft or violence, only to call him fortunate, in spite of any past unmitigated atrocities.

To Thrasymachus a tyrant is happy and fortunate because he breaks the very rules of justice that he imposes on the weak. What a weak citizen calls "justice" is essentially slavery and the strong need not obey those rules. Later, philosophers like the aristocrat Niccolo Machiavelli, will expand these notions to challenge traditional morality.

After listening to Thrasymachus, Socrates refutes him: “If the weak can prevent the strong from becoming a tyrant and then taking what they want, they are in fact strong! As one might expect the voice of the master quiets Thrasymachus but at the beginning of Book 2, Glaucon and others renew arguments that anyone would be unjust, given the opportunity, if injustice brings personal happiness. The students ask Socrates to prove that it is better to be just, since unjust individuals often enjoy happiness with rewards as just people suffer poverty and disgrace.

In much of the rest of The Republic, through the words of Socrates, Plato attempts to prove that just individuals are actually happy, while unjust people, such as tyrants, generally tend to be unhappy because inner peace cannot be bought with gold.

[BeFree]

24. Old same old, eh?

Today, a corporation may pollute and get away with it. But if a single person is caught polluting, he may immediately go to jail.

A corporation may produce a truly dangerous and deadly item and suffer no ill-consequence. But if you fail to fasten your seatbelt, you could pay a huge fine.

There are many instances of the powerful getting away with murder and the least powerful being falsely accused. Same old story writ large today.... just as written 1700 years ago.

Our problem, today, is how do we commit justice? And in so doing will we be truly happy?

I believe happiness follows justice. Therefore I commit myself to seeing that justice is done.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

26. this book doesn't have a happy ending

Summary: Book VIII of The REPUBLIC

The discourse begins with Socrates heralding the need to backtrack. Now that the true State and true human are clearly illustrated, the students revive the notions introduced earlier in dialog, which describes the nature of corrupt individuals and forms of government. They begin with four defective forms.

Taking the ideal aristocratic State as a starting point, Socrates describes its disintegration into timocracy, the first and least unjust form of corrupt government. The timocratic man then, reflects the State in that he is contentious and ambitious. Oligarchy comes next, heralding a government ruled by wealthy property owners who, in terms of individual men, is the avaricious son of the timocrat.

The democratic State arises when a third middle class forms between the ultra rich and the very poor. Through an alliance with the poor, the new middle class sparks a revolution, overthrowing the complacent rulers. Afterward, Socrates says, magistrates are elected by lots from a widely varied population in the State. Democracy is presented as a sort of blissfully depraved, disordered State, and its representative is a man ruled by unbridled appetites tamed only by an enfeebled moral sense.

By slowly closing the door on democracy, Socrates shows how each State's central quality engenders its own dissolution. Socrates puts forth that an insatiable desire for freedom evolves democracy into tyranny. The tyrant, as result of ruthlessness during ascendancy, must invariably either kill or be killed. He chooses to kill, and continues killing until all opposition, good or bad, is annihilated. In the end the tyrant enslaves the entire state upon threat of death or expulsion; and thus excessive freedom becomes the harshest slavery.

[BeFree]

27. Showing...

...once again, the burden lies on the shoulders of the least powerful and most freedom seeking of people.

The price of liberty is continous vigilance.

Freedom comes from liberty, and the pursuit of happiness grows ever stronger in those who seek justice, for their liberty requires everlasting resolve to make everyone free.

[0007]

28. I'll second that!

[MissMarple]

17. K&R Sensible and thoughtful, no political posturing. Good show.

We seem to be on a roll here, getting down to basics. :applause:

[MODemocrat]

19. Conservatism went out the window under Bush

I'd like for someone, to explain to me just what is meant by being conservative. I've never known them to be conservative in the right ways. They take away from the ones who are in need just to satisy their own greed. I have "conservatives" in my family,(no, I'm not bragging) and they wouldn't have the slightest idea how to conserve.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

20. thanks MM, to both Albert Einstein and Sir Isaac Newton math was basic

If it makes sense to dedicate around $500 BILLION a year toward making enemies by killing people, it stands to reason that we can afford to use a mere billion to feed all children in the world and perhaps make a few friends. If you lived in the Mid-East and U.S. military actions caused the death of a totally innocent friend or relative would you consider becoming a "terrorist" to defend your homeland?

Using the same $500 BILLION for defense argument, we might decide to spend another small portion of this whopping figure and offer the best educations in the world to our children. There is no reason a taxpayer or their child should go deeply into debt for a college education. What do we want; dead children overseas or informed, educated children in America?

[mmonk]

25. America is divided into two camps

Reactionaries and those that aren't.