POLITICS AND NATURE

“It is in the area of spending that the Republican Party’s performance, in its seven years of power, has been most disappointing.”

Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative, 1960

Am I a Conservative?

A conversation the other night with a good friend quickly led to discussions over politics, the website, and various and sundry other topics. The confabulation led my buddy to question my political leanings and to assure me that I, in fact, was a Republican. As interesting a theory as this is, I have given it a great deal of thought over years of sitting on the political sidelines examining the degree to which politics affects the social order. What follows is a short analysis of politics in America which will, it is my hope, further explain my personal political philosophy and how I believe the parties affect the federal government.

My own political development evolved through twenty years of serious thinking, a small bit of teaching, two academic degrees in political science, and a variety of professional experience from being a janitor to working as a finance manager. In between there were stints in teaching, working on guitars, bartending, hotel management in beautiful, cool places, and sales in addition to a number of jobs for short periods. I worked for major corporations and independent businesses and have recently started working on being a sole proprietor in a business of my own. I have traveled extensively, throughout Europe for three months in 1990, but most of the time in the United States. I have taken planes, trains, automobiles, and a bicycle, covering a fair amount of the United States. I think I’ve missed North Dakota and a good chunk of the Northeast (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut, and I don’t think I’ve been to West Virginia).

I helped my brother build a cabin in Alaska, led a raft trip down the San Juan River, played guitar in packed bars, on street corners, outside Rome’s train station, and at rest areas around the country. I spent some time listening to the Grateful Dead, and attended a Rainbow gathering back in 1995. I ski, both at developed resorts and in the back country, and have run a number of 50k and 50 mile races (simply finishing the race is the goal, there is only one 50 mile race I haven’t finished despite trying twice, the Zane Grey Highline Trail Race outside Payson, AZ). I’ve been poor most of the time but have the nice ability to re-enter the business world at any time with the experiences I’ve gained.

I do not claim to be the most motivated or intelligent individual on the planet but I’ve lived an interesting and fun life thus far which has brought me into contact with a lot of people. A good chunk of the people I know and call friends are conservative. I, however, am not.

Conservative Ideas

I believe in limited government, whenever possible. I am a capitalist. I understand the importance of the 2nd amendment. I know the critical nature of family to fostering values and respect. I Love the United States of America. I think it is imperative that the government shows leadership to the world. Liberty is the foundation of my personal political philosophy. I disagree with censorship and political correctness. I don’t have any problem with the death penalty, as long as it is used for extreme cases where doubt has been eliminated. I think taxes should be low and spending should be sparse. So, there you have it, I am an unabashed, unashamed, and unapologetic liberal.

What? You Say? How can this be? Well there are many reasons. For a complete discussion of liberalism, one of the first articles published in this journal provide an overview of what I believe liberalism is. It’s called, poignantly enough, The Truth About Liberalism. Imagine that.

Conservative thought contains a certain appeal in its anti-government, pro-individual rhetoric. Unfortunately, as Mr. Goldwater pointed out 47 years ago, it is simply rhetoric. True conservativism is rare. And I live at the forefront of the ideological sphere of true conservative thought, in the home state of Goldwater, McCain, Kyl, Flake, and Shadigg. You see, once gaining the ultimate power in the front lines of the so-called “culture wars”, people who claim they are conservative learn that people want the stuff government provides for them.

There are certain talking heads/voices who proudly proclaim their own conservative credentials but that is as easy as me sitting here writing over my own liberalism. They don’t have the ability to fashion policy, make change, or maintain the status quo. They affect people’s thoughts which, in turn, affect votes thus guiding policy makers.

But the difficult, painstaking, brutal reality of governance is left to the people in the state house or in the bowels of the Ervin building. Right wing pundits and prognosticators are not good at creation and they find the messy, bloody business of crafting actual policy in the face of a media sponsored division of the populace unsavory at best.

It is for this reason Karl Rove should have been locked away in the basement at Pennsylvania Avenue, with multiple televisions and a hotline to the nation’s largest newspapers and an unlimited bank account for the use of buying off inept creatures willing to support any political action for a fee. Instead, Bush wanted Rove by his side, taking the actual steps involved in governing the nation in a room with Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. For years they even kept Condi Rice knocking on the oval room door, wondering what the goals of any specific action should be and wishing they would just let her join the boys in the fray, but it was not to be.

The Grand Old Party and My Affiliation with It

I do not believe; as certain other liberals proclaim that the GOP is evil incarnate or its systemic abuses illustrate how rotten its ideology is to the core. Most of the people I’ve known in my adult life have been Republican. I like Republicans. I don’t like what the leadership of the party has done over the past seven years while holding ultimate power.

They refused to take on issues like:

The national debt,

International diplomacy,

Appointing professionals to head federal agencies,

National dependency on fossil fuels,

Limiting power of the federal government over individual Americans,

Working with international treaties,

Acknowledging national problems like climate change,

Corruption in D.C.,

Protection of federal lands,

Projecting positive notions of governance,

Poverty,

Health Care,

Social Security,

Medicare,

Medicaid,

Pollution,

Secrecy in Government,

And…..

Dealing with the 50% of the population that does not agree with them. To name a few.

Republican failures have been epic and I, for one, believe that four more years of outdated thinking fueled by extremist ideology and supported by voices of hatred and division will leave the United States poorer for the experiment.

Limited government is important but these clowns have not tried to do anything moving society away from government. Unlike the last President who proclaimed the “era of big government is over.” But that is probably not going to change people’s minds. Too long loud calls of “Liberal” and “anti-American” and “Traitor” have exuded from the songs of the privileged against anyone who disagrees. It is an unfair and preposterous abuse of the ideals laid out in the “Conscience of a Conservative” and poor Barry has given birth to an ideology based on control in the name of liberty.