What Color is the Conservative Flag?

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Truth-Pain:

Lately, we have been talking about certain tenets or beliefs dealing with government and civics that all factions and wings of conservatives can rally around. So what are those things? What are these pillars of conservatism that we all agree upon, regardless of where we are in the ideology spectrum?

I took this question to the esteemed members of this Blog. Each of us have our own Blogs, our own life-experiences that have influenced how we view conservatism; I can safely say we each have a particular view within the conservative tent that appeals to us more than others.

I chose four as the number. Four is an architectural commoner for me, as it implies symmetry, cohesion and basic support; pillars of foundation for lack of a better visual. I think we as believers of a conservative philosophies can express at least four items to imprint into a universal conservative platform. At the very least, its a good start.

I volunteer to step on the Elephant dung first. My choices, not in any way prioritized, are as follows:

* Smaller Government: Can there be a bigger Elephant (pardon the pun) in the room? If this is not the one banner to unite us, then we cannot be united. But what is small? Size of bureaucracy or size of budget? I will keep it simple just to get to my next one. I will pick budget. I recommend a Constitutional amendment that will limit federal spending to no more than 15% of GDP (excepting bona fide national emergencies). That's a full 5% more than God himself demands from his flock. I'm being generous.

* Non-foreign intervention: This is a sticky one, but I am not saying cutting the military unnecessarily. I am saying, eliminate wasteful weapons systems that will NEVER come to production, stop being the world cops for every little event that happens and calling for an end to being protectors of the European Union. We send the Marines abroad only when there is indisputable proof and blatant evidence that by not conducting pre-emptive action that it would cause grave and imminent harm to the United States. Liberating countries and spreading freedom through military means is a liberal bastion of thought. Where the hell it got into the conservative platform is beyond me.

* Free-but-equal trade: This is not a sexy choice, but I think there is no larger item that directly affects the economic model of a conservative country. We tear up every single NAFTA, CAFTA, CRAP-TA agreement we have and make new agreements with everybody. You subsidize your industry? so do we. You have cheap labor, sorry, our consumer goods have to rise a bit but we don't bleed our jobs overseas for the sake of 10% savings on our I-pods. I am simplifying of course, but you clearly see where my sails are blowing here. This goes somewhat cross-grain to my open market belief, but like all things, none can live in a vacuum.

* We celebrate conservation of the land: What? you say... are you talking environment? Isn't that a liberal stronghold? Yes it is! and I don't know why! Look, I am not for taking over large swaths of land by Fiat the way Teddy Roosevelt did, but the Genie is out of the bottle on that. Conservatives let liberals steal this prime item by using the land when convenient (oil, gas, lumber and coal industries) but looking the other way at clean water issues, air quality, and keeping our lips shut when the Exxon Valdez went "ooops" up in Alaska. Conservatives should conserve! Conservatism moves slowly and methodically towards change. That is natural to us. Who says we have to be business developers 100% of the time? Can we at least get a dialogue here?

OK, who is next?

JENNIFER:

Okay, I guess it's my turn. I'll stick with the theme and do my four most important conservative principles. Not in any particular order I will now type who is safe.......oh sorry, I've been watching too much Dancing With The Stars.....

* Small Government - I agree 100% with T-P on this subject, although I will take it a step further and say both bureaucracy and budget. I want the government involved in social issues, health care, education, etc. as little as humanly possible. Let me decide what is right for me and my family, not some out of touch with reality politician. When we put politicians in charge we are basically saying that they are more honest and capable of making decisions and nothing could be further from the truth. Stop the irresponsible spending, especially on bailouts that they have no business interfering with, in the first place.

*Preserving the Constitution - The Constitution of the United States is the cornerstone of our American government. Our forefathers developed the Constitution to set limitations on what government is allowed to do and establish our freedom. It has done so quite effectively for over 200 years and they would be appalled if they could see how liberalism is chipping away at it's fundamental principles.

*Individual Freedom and Empowerment - There is power in knowing that it is up to us to determine how we live our lives. It is our duty and responsibility to protect and defend individual's freedom and rights granted to us by the Constitution. Individual Freedom has empowered people throughout the years and they have accomplished many great things because of it. We want to be free, to choose our own destiny, to make our own choices and to have the power over our own mind, body, lives, and soul.

*States Rights - We desperately need to give the power and responsibility back to the states, especially in regards to education. All states are different and need to be treated as such. One policy that might make a lot of sense in Alaska, might not work so well in New York. We need to remember that the government did not create the states, the states created the government. Too many have forgotten that important fact! One size fits all may be great for sweatshirts but in government it just doesn't work. The Tenth Amendment states.......

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

ROBERT:

Since I haven't yet been voted off the island here at CC, I will press on and add what four items on which I believe the conservative philosophy should rest. This is easier for me since T-P and Jenn have already served as guinea pigs.

* Respect for the original intent of the framers of the Constitution. Distinctly different from strict constructionism, originalism is the theory of interpretation that relies upon the framer's intent. The articles within the Constitution are both broadly written and narrowly defined. The Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial does not specify the definition of speedy, but the Sixth Amendment does specifically guarantee the right to counsel for a trial.

It is important that the intent of the founders be respected if the document is to remain viable. Adding new rights and eliminating old ones are not within the purview of courts. The courts were constructed so that the Constitution would be applied to federal and state decisions, not to be the creator of phantom law.

* Respect for states rights. Jenn covered this one, but as usual we are of like mind. I need not discuss the concept here, as it is evident in the text of the Constitution that the federal government was to be limited to specific areas of concern, and the other areas left to the individual or to the states. A prime example of the intrusiveness of the government into state affairs is the condition of education in this country. The Constitution does not give the fed the responsibility of educating children, therefore the education standards should be written and enforced at the state level. It is how citizens can actually control the outcome of the affairs of the states, as local control is far more effective and responsive to citizen desires and concerns.

* Capitalism. In his first inaugural address in 1801, Thomas Jefferson said "A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government."

I am not sure anything else need be said.

* Strength and Integrity of the nation. Alexis de Tocqueville stated "America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great."

America's integrity is in question. Not because of the war in Iraq, and not because we seek to eradicate those who would attack us. It begins at home, where about 1 in 5 people have a healthy disrespect for the very legislative body that rules with an iron fist so many aspects of our lives. Our government, as individuals, acts selfishly with only the thought of today. How can the decisions of our federal government around the world be respected when her own citizens do not have confidence in the very people for whom they vote?

Conservatives must define the role of the United States in the world, for the reality is that as America goes, so does the world. It can be seen in this current economic downturn which is affecting the entire world population. The economic situation didn't start in North Korea or Somalia or the United Kingdom. It began in America because of irresponsible lending practices by banks that were not regulated by government. It is our own domestic actions that cause doubt and lack of confidence in America.

There you have it, short and to the point. Will they let me stay here another week?

Craig

What am I trying to conserve? When I look at the world, even the history of the world, what we have in America is unprecedented and unique. Imagine going to a room at a convention center in any city in America and sitting with 2 or 3 dozen other people and its up to you to form a new nation. You have just come through a period of abuse and oppression at the hands of a monarch. Older relatives have told you stories of how they fled their homeland because of religious persecution. Some of the people in the room with you own other human beings and treat them as chattel. What are your priorities, what do you insist upon, what points do yield and what informs your decisions?

Imagine being able to access the words and thoughts of people throughout history through youtube videos. You could watch History Channel depictions of past civilizations and determine what worked and what didn't work. If you had the works of great philosophers and thinkers who had studied these questions long before you, what would you find? What would be your priority? The absolute essence of who we are as Americans, what draws the rest of the world's citizens to our shores, legally, illegally, by stowing away on a ship, by milk cartons and inner tubes tied together with shoe laces launched into shark infested waters, by H1 visas and through asylum, by charter or military transport, by hook or crook is freedom from the tyranny of government. Whether it is the stifling tyranny of Eurosocialist regulatory and entitlement schemes or the dictatorship of a Zimbabwean thug, their people want to come here. Whether it is the oppression and corruption of the ejido system or laws in Mexico that don't permit dark skinned Indians to migrate to the cities or a People's Republic that can't feed its people in Asia, they want to come here. But why?

It is rumored that Thomas Jefferson was unhappy with a couple of the revisions to his original writing of the Declaration of Independence. Principle among the changes he objected to was changing the wording of that famous phrase "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Hapiness." It is rumored that he originally wrote what he took from John Locke's Two Treatises of Government, Life, liberty and the pursuit of property. Jefferson understood and believed what Locke wrote. He knew that the key to freedom is the ability to own and dispose of property as you see fit (property and contract rights). Jefferson hung around long enough to eventually become president, of course, but also to participate in the Constitutional convention. In the 5th and 14th Amendments, you will find in the due process clauses of those amendments the phrase, life, liberty or property.

Property rights secure our freedoms (religion, speech, right to bear arms, assembly, etc,) and protects us from the tyranny of government. As it turns out, it is also the key to our prosperity and anywhere you find prosperity in the world, you will find either tyranny or property rights and since there can be only so many tyrants, to me the essence of classical liberalism, conservatism, what I want to conserve, is free exchange secured by property rights. The strongest critique of John Locke was by Karl Marx who in his Communist Manifesto said "the theory of communists may be summed up in a single sentence: Abolition of private property." How does one "spread the wealth?" Through the abolition of private property.

Rules of Engagement ....

... Or better yet, -Knuckle-draggers Beware-

I know the title and body of my posting may inflict some fury on the gathered few here. So be it. Call this a moment of calibration before we head along a beaten path (yet again...). I promise to keep it short (not.....)

So a couple of Bloggers get together and tell themselves, "You know, we just got our butts pasted in the elections, the GOP has ______________ (fill in the blank of your favorite cliche), conservatives don't know who the hell they are anymore, and we just elected a guy who has never run anything close to a Dairy Queen. Let's try and break it down and see what happened to us, shall we?" That is the essence of why this came to be. We're not rocket scientists, we're not party apparatchiks, we're not learned folks or scholars. We are four regular Americans, of wide age-range and backgrounds, ... strong individuals who in spite of having varying views and ideas about where the conservative movement should go, all agree that we love the word: Conservative. It unites us in far greater levels than the individual policies to which we differ.

So here we are, a week and days into it, with some great postings from the main contributors (Robert and Jenn) to warm up the kind audience, a terrific level of comment traffic, and a measure of excitement from the four of us that has re-kindled our desires to do something grander than we imagined capable.

All good,... well, almost.

Ladies and gentlemen. This is a plea from me as a person and individual who loves my country more than I love my party, my ideology and myself. The posting "the more things change, the more they stay the same", and the comments that followed made me think that the biggest problem the movement (if we can even call it THAT anymore....) has, is ourselves. Some bullets for you:

* Keep calling people names, go ahead. It is amazing to me that after all this time, all the hard lessons, all the negativity we know that comes with pejoratives, ... that some of us still lob the occasional name-calling bomb for effect. Look, I've done it myself in my own Blog. I'm not on a soap box. What I am saying is that using sophomoric names to make a grander point -while getting a chuckle from a knuckle-dragger here and there-, does little to further your point of view. Holster that crap. Make a point about some body's policy or opinion but elevate your integrity and opinion-reputation by divorcing the policy from the person on your sights.

* I have a little saying on my blog, "nothing is an absolute, ... absolutely nothing" (you DO get the contradiction in terms, .... right?) A fine fellow blogger commented that I sounded arrogant in a comment a few clicks before he pipped-in. Maybe. But what I was trying to say was that we have to stop nuancing everything to death. That some things, -some things- are as black and white as the shine on my dome. Especially when it comes to the basic tenets of what conservative philosophies entail. And yet, my nuance comment was interpreted by another Blogger as some obscure and bland form of conservatism to which she was not subscribing (I am paraphrasing, by the way). This blog is about discovering ourselves, educating others to things that are no longer apparent. Sure there is room for interpretation, but splicing a hair to its infinite molecular level just to show others the cleverness of your debating skills -while cute-, really detracts from the efforts herewith. Simplify.

* Don't just take a s**t, be kind enough to leave one! .... , Meaning, don't be content with just doing a low-level fly-by, dropping a few nukes and getting the hell out of dodge to miss the mushroom cloud,... stay awhile. You had the stones (or ovaries) to blast away at something you thought stupid? Cool, love it! Now shift from your left butt-cheek to the right one, and tell me something I don't know. Tell me a story. Tell me what you would do to correct that which you deemed so stupid to make your nose-hairs curl up. Believe me, I love a good ideology brawl,... but don't land a punch and jump over the ropes,.... where's the honor in that?....

Fella's.... the demographics are changing. My mom has a saying, "If by 20 you're not a liberal, you don't have a heart. If by 40 you're not a conservative, you don't have a brain" (she definitely did not plagiarized that from Biden ...). While that may have been true in her day, ... we're not in Kansas anymore. Younger electorates will veer towards that which is easier, that which promises more, that which espouses more permissiveness of behavior, that which is more "global" in view, that which professes to spread the wealth around, and that which is certainly cooler in perception. None of those things I said describe a conservative ethos of life. We can't afford to alienate people by the messengers. Its easy for Limbaugh to bellow about how "if conservatives ran as conservatives they'd win!"... really? He should get out of his southern command more often Mr. Snerdly. We have a ton of baby-boomers coming into retirement who are scared crap-less that their 401k is worth dog-meat and you want to preach the virtues of "rugged individualism"? Conservatism does not have to be wrapped in the same tart candy wrapper any more. Let's get with the times people.

Reality bites,... and the reality is that we as conservatives have to re-package our ideology in a whole new way, in a whole new tenor, in a whole new angle. The conservative CPU is still on windows 98, sort-of-speak. Stop the name calling, stop the "we are good, they are evil" lingo, stop the "we are free market purists and they are Marxists pigs"...(while true, at least get creative with it....). Let's wrap ourselves in new tunics, get a better bull-horn, and start winning hearts and minds... one beloved American at a goddamn time (I give Rev. Wright credit for that morsel of writing elegance)

Look, we did not start this blog to be another Los Alamos nuke testing ground. Sure we will get the occasional lunk-head or Coulter wanna-be whose opinion-horizon is all lipstick and no pork-chop. Let them spew. The rest of us, should march to a different kind of drummer. 'Cause the beat I've been hearing in some of the comments already sound like an orchestra from the ice age.

Ok.... back to our regularly scheduled programming. My IQ just dropped 30 points ...

Construction Underway ...

How is it that the word "Conservative" has become a four letter word, instead of a 12 letter ideology? When did conservative thought become "old"?... when did the GOP become synonymous with mostly Caucasian white males living in fly-over country, who are flag-wavers and cling to guns for moral support? How did the political movement of Goldwater and popularized by Ronald Reagan, suffer such a devastating shot to the solar plexus? When did being a conservative stop being "cool" and began being old, square, religious and dinosaur-ish? I don't know. I think I know, I have ideas on how this morphing took place, but I can't put it in a nice synopsis for you to digest. I just don't know.

Tonight, as I had an online chat with the esteemed members of this Blog, it hit us that we have to begin a process of re-education in terms of what it is to be a conservative. The conservative brand name is now the Edsel of political-think. So if you are going to peel off the skin of something that has suffered the erosion of its public relations luster, you have to re-invent the wheel. Seriously. You have to destroy the matrix, kill the blueprint, vaporize any semblance of its imagery and perception and retool the assembly line. This is not to imply that the engine does not work, or that in the hands of a good driver it won't pull the horsepower we all know and love, it simply means that the public is not buying it. It is sitting in a bloated car-lot, with its 6th coat of turtle wax, with the stupid colored triangular flags adorning its antenna,... while passers-by go straight across the street to try the liberal brand of chariot. So be it.

This is our call to arms to all of you, no matter which "wing" of conservatism appeals to you. Blogging alone is not gonna' do it. Spewing off in somebody else's blog? Cathartic? yes,... long term gain? Negligible. The tried method of attracting voters by attacking other forms of ideology does nothing but make people defensive and makes us look mean. Dumb. Calling people who follow opposing political doctrine all sorts of names and labeling them as communists or socialists -while probably fun-, does not allow us the higher ground and we come across as a bunch of louts and sophomores. Bomb-throwing may be great, but not when you don't have the luxury of public trust and poor imagery. We don't need it.

In the coming days, weeks and months, we here are Conservative Convictions are going to dedicate ourselves to doing something quite extraordinary in both scope and ambition. I am tempted to spew the beans and give you and insight into what is coming, but as a sign of respect to the kind persons who have invited me to be part of this metamorphosis, I will not disclose squat. Let me just say this: If we get to do half, HALF of what we briefly discussed casually over a few hours of banter, this Blog is going to develop into a serious player in the re-definition of the conservative movement in America. Bold statement? You bet your ass.

To our contributors and like-minded friends, tell us what you think. Give us your ideas, your fears, the events you feel betrayed your faith in conservatism and the items in the platform of your party that you think helps or hinders the cause. Tell us the events of the past that reflect conservatism at its finest, and those political figures that damaged the philosophy. Tell us what you need. Tell us what we can do to fill the voids of knowledge in your gray matter. Tell us, how to help you. Give us a wish list, a list of things that you feel conservatism should stand for. Talk to us, become part of the process, become one with the inertia of things to come.

In our hearts we believe that if you put conservatism side-by-side against any other ideology, no matter what the agenda is, conservatism will trump the other just on the merits of its own logic, history and available data. We don't have to yell it or blow our horns. Just lay it side-by-side, connect the dots for those unable to fully understand, and let the facts jump at the masses. We don't have to expose the virtues of conservatism by putting any other ideology down, we don't have to. Conservatism can stand on its own wheels. Just make those wheels look good enough for the passers-by to admire them...

To those of you who do not agree with conservative values and stop by just to raise some hell? Go ahead. As the rules of engagement state so clearly, we welcome all opinions as long as they are cordial and free of the sort of language Truth-Pain uses in his own back yard. But if you are here to Bush-bash? Save it. I can do that better that you can ever imagine. If you are here to pick a fight and tell us we are this or that? That's to your peril. We should not allow any emotional button-pushing to take our eyes of the greater goal. We should be here in this medium of communication to try and save a cause and philosophy of citizenry greater than any one individual. You want to help us? (seriously) Tell us why you think conservatism sucks. Why is your philosophy better? ... Tell us what parts of conservatism you disagree with and why. Go ahead, lay the lumber and lay it hard. Break our the mirror of perception and show us, ... show us what we look like.

There are thousands of Blogs born every day but very few of them make any significant ripples in the waters of the American mind. We are hoping this one makes a serious dent to the existing Edsel model of Conservatism. But we cannot do it alone. I pledge to you that I will wander to your individual Blogs and assist as I can to expand your own networks of influence, while at the same time working my tail off to make this place our "coffee-house" of information. Let's get to work. I am going to do some serious house-cleaning at my own blog, while working concurrently with all who participate in this one. It is and should be a symbiotic movement where we take individual actions in our own blogs to refine and make them laboratories of though, while bringing the best ideas here for dissection and argument. I think its going to be fun to do this, I really do.

Bring it on ... (Sorry, couldn't help myself)