2005-10-19 16:59:00
What Is A Conservative? Again, here are a few things listed in my dictionary.
Who are the biggest promoters of preserving "existing conditions?'
None other but the environmentalists, who despise most Republicans, and are closely aligned with the Democrats.
The interesting thing is that environmentalists are big on conservation, which basically means to be "conservative" with the land. That fact they are called ultra liberal is perhaps the greatest misuse of the language in the history of our country. These people do not endorse liberal change with the environment, either good or bad, but are extremely conservative to the point that Jerry Falwell looks like a flaming liberal in relation to the two belief systems.
So how about the second part of the definition regarding "institutions." Who is the more conservative here?
In many cases it is the Democrats. As previously stated they want to keep Social Security the way it is. Republicans want to liberally change it. They want to preserve the Department of Education, the Republicans want to alter it or do away with it.
Democrats want to preserve the status quo with unions; Republicans want to change them. Republicans want to bring democracy to the Middle East; Democrats want to leave things alone. Republicans want to overhaul the UN; Democrats want to keep it the way it is. Republicans want to remove barriers to trade and Democrats want to keep them in place.
Now the Democrats want to make some changes such as bringing universal health care, but my point is made which is this. Democrats are at least (or more) conservative than Republicans on this first point from the dictionary.
The fact is that the Republicans resist the Democratic ideas for change and the Democrats do the same toward the Republicans. Both parties are conservative in this area. Since the Republicans are presently proposing more change (being more liberal) for the past few years then one must conclude that the Democrats have, of late, been more resistant to change, or the more conservative of the two.
I think most would agree that in this area the Republicans are the more conservative.
I've already made the point that the environmentalists want to conserve and preserve. But ask yourself - which president in recent history put the most emphasis on conserving energy, rather than liberally going after more of it?
It was the liberal Democrat Jimmy Carter. He instructed us to turn our thermostats down, supported a law limiting the speed limit on highways to 55 miles per hour and sought to decrease the size of our cars to conserve fuel.
Which party is less conservative and more liberal in this area? Yes, Republicans are the liberals. Many of them believe that extreme conservation is not necessary that humankind has the ingenuity to create all the energy we need so we can liberally use all we want.
My point here is not to categorize one party as good and the other evil but to make the case that the difference between the two parties has been defined with an illusion or fallacy. That illusion is that the Republicans are conservative and the Democrats are liberal.
It's time we faced the fact that this differentiation is simply not true. If anything, Republicans are more liberal as a whole than the Democrats.
Consider this. All these years Republicans have hated Democrats because they are liberal and they are not that liberal. Democrats have likewise hated Republicans because they are conservative and they are not that conservative.
This brings us to the key question on this first fallacy. If the core difference between the two parties is not that one is conservative and the other liberal, then what is it? If they are fighting for a reason that does not exist, then is there even a reason for the fight to continue? Does each party hate the other for what is really in themselves?
Better fare hard with good men than feast it with bad. Thomas Paine (1737 - 1809)
Copyright © 2005 by J J Dewey, All Rights Reserved