I Used To Think I Was A Conservative

[Prophet 451]

I don't like paying taxes. I would like taxes to be as low as possible but I realise that taxes are the price we pay for having a civilisation.

I believe wholeheartedly in the rule of law and that nobody, nobody should be exempt from the law.

I believe in civility, tact and restraint. All old-fashioned values.

I believe in the rights of man (and woman, naturally).

I believe that mixing faith and government brings out the worst in both and that faith is best served when it does not have to compromise as politics requires.

I believe that for one group to have a right which others do not makes it a special right.

I believe that capitalism is a fantastic tool for creating wealth but people cheat and so, we need rules.

So, I used to think of myself as a conservative. Because I considered that all of those were conservative values.


And then I grew up and I realised I was actually a liberal. Because while conservatives pay lip service to those ideas, they actively work against them in practice.

[mwb970]

1. You could write a similar "I used to think I was a Christian" post.

With the same results - conservatives paying lip service to an ideal while completely betraying it with their actual deeds.

It's what they do.

[Prophet 451]

2. I would but I'm not sure I ever was

I was raised Christian but I'm not sure I ever actually believed. These days, I'm a Luciferian Satanist.

But yeah, a few friends and I have renamed the version of Christianity that the RW pushes to "Cultus Americanus". It has very little to do with Christianity except lip service, it exists purely to convey divine approval on their agenda.

[shadowknows69]

3. I think I act more like a Christian is supposed to

Now that I'm a "lapsed" Wiccan/Eclectic Pagan, than anytime I ever called myself a Christian.

[Prophet 451]

10. I've noticed that a lot

Most of the Pagans I know (and that's quite a few) seem to follow Jesus's teachings rather more than most Christians. I think it was Ghandhi who said he would love Christians if he'd ever actually met one.

[Kleinflasche]

5. It's about honesty vs. hypocrisy.

It was written:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

People either believe in this, or do not. People also either have the integrity to tell the truth, or do not.

It was a given that to be an American, you had to have something resembling a fundamental belief in the purposes of the founding of this country, and could be reasonably honest about what you claimed.

Now, people seem to treat America - and Jesus's teaching too - as a piñata - smash them quickly to get the goodies inside.

[juno jones]

6. Pagan/Western Ceremonialist here.

It scares me that I know more about Christianity, it's bible, it's history, sects, rites and symbolism than most self-professed 'christians' out there.

I have a message for such 'christians' and sometimes only netspeak can convey the emotion:

Ur doin eet rong.

[Prophet 451]

11. Ditto

I work for Beliefnet IRL and the ignorance of many Christians to their own faith is frankly scary.

[shadowknows69]

4. I used to consider myself kind of a conservative Democrat

But the more I see our party rule from the center, I realize I'm pretty far fucking left on a lot of things.

[Badgerman]

7. That needs to be plastered on billboards all over the place, many do not...

realize that those are the very things they think they are voting for in Republicans, because no one ever pointed out to them that what is being slandered as liberal is all to often the defense of those values...not to mention the actual practising of them. Very well said.

[Wednesdays]

8. K&R

:kick:

[Kablooie]

9. Here are the ACTUAL conservative values:

I don't like paying taxes. The government should supply it's services without my taxes.

I believe the rule of law should be based on what *I* believe is right.

I believe in defaming and destroying anyone that disagrees with my views.

I believe in the rights of man excepting homosexuals (and in some cases women and non Christians).

I believe that mixing faith and government is important in a Christian nation and that faith is best served when it controls politics.

I believe that for one group to have a right which others do not is sometimes good policy.

I believe that capitalism is a fantastic tool for creating wealth and people should be free to use it any way they can to become as rich as possible, irregardless of the effect it has on others.

[Rex]

12. Don't sweat it, people who are bad robbed the treasury,

started two wars and then left us with the bill and clean up. Those people ain't conservatives either...they are parasitic lifeforms that destroy the lives of millions without taking a shred of responsibility.

[drmeow]

13. These are neither liberal

nor conservative values.

No one likes paying taxes and everyone wants them to be as low as possible - liberals are willing to pay more because they think government should provide certain services while conservatives think those services should be provided by private parties and taxes should be lower.

Both liberals and conservatives believe in the rule of law - liberals recognize that the justice system is not fair and that there are unjust laws which should be fought and the the juries should be able to use jury nullification in cases where the law is not just. Liberals also think that the drug treatment and rehabilitation should be part of our justice system. Conservatives think that the justice system is fair, that if a government makes a law it is just, and that the goal of the justice system should be punishment and retribution.

Civility, tact, and restraint are civilized traits, old fashioned or not. There are cases of politicians getting into fist fights on the floor of the House and Senate in the 1800's. Civility in politics has often been lacking. The lack of civility in current politics has more to do with the psychopaths running the right wing than the ideology of conservatives.

True liberals and true conservatives believe that religion should stay out of politics. People with power know that they can exploit religious people to believe that they should not be separate.

Liberals believe that certain groups have institutionalized rights that others have been denied for years and that government should help level the playing field for those people. Conservatives fail to see the inherent privilege that comes with being white, male, straight, Christian, etc.

Liberals believe that capitalism is a complete failure for some things (health care, for example) and therefore those things should be taken out of the capitalist system for the good of all. Conservatives think that rules block unlimited wealth and that there is nothing wrong with unlimited wealth while failing to see that the unlimited wealth tends to be gained at the expense of the majority of mankind.