A recent article in American Thinker, a very conservative blog, almost made me laugh out loud. To prove their point that America is one step away from destroying themselves as usual they point to a quote by Rush Limbaugh who is complaining that "America
as founded is slipping away daily." He's kidding right? That America is
long gone and for the better. Keep in mind the vote was generally
limited to white male landowners when the country was founded. Laws of
the time permitted child labor in modern factories (which didn't exist
yet), blacks to be slaved, women forced to obey their man. I could go
on, but you get my drift. And though I lean more conservative these
days, at least on economical and freedom issues, I don't vote Republican
because I find that party to be too far away from my inner core.
The conservatives of today are not those I could never wrap my arms around. I find they have been hijacked by a backwards looking people who refuse to evolve into what should be a robust 21st century movement. Why aren't they leading the charge on over government involvement in everyday lives? Why are they not working to educate anti-gun citizens on what gun ownership means and how gun safety and care by manufacturers and owners can go a long way to resolving illegal guns (not all the way of course, but you need to start somewhere)? Why aren't they pointing out the slippery slope that all these feel good laws take away our freedoms while admitting that some are good for us (clean water and clean air are kind of nice, higher gas mileage cars is also a nice way for us to tell OPEC where to go once we are free of them)? Instead they focus on abortion, Jesus and other issues that were settled over a half century ago. You can be conservative and still move forward with the times.
Perhaps it is because I am not Christian and do not care if gays want to marry or am appalled that my children, already tempted by all the commercial excitement of Christmas, would be forced to pray to Jesus. Maybe it is because I don't look at a book written 2,000 years ago and was probably the best knowledge of the day, written as stories for a simpler people to understand, to take precedence over what science has discovered over the centuries.
The conservatives of today are not those I could never wrap my arms around. I find they have been hijacked by a backwards looking people who refuse to evolve into what should be a robust 21st century movement. Why aren't they leading the charge on over government involvement in everyday lives? Why are they not working to educate anti-gun citizens on what gun ownership means and how gun safety and care by manufacturers and owners can go a long way to resolving illegal guns (not all the way of course, but you need to start somewhere)? Why aren't they pointing out the slippery slope that all these feel good laws take away our freedoms while admitting that some are good for us (clean water and clean air are kind of nice, higher gas mileage cars is also a nice way for us to tell OPEC where to go once we are free of them)? Instead they focus on abortion, Jesus and other issues that were settled over a half century ago. You can be conservative and still move forward with the times.
Perhaps it is because I am not Christian and do not care if gays want to marry or am appalled that my children, already tempted by all the commercial excitement of Christmas, would be forced to pray to Jesus. Maybe it is because I don't look at a book written 2,000 years ago and was probably the best knowledge of the day, written as stories for a simpler people to understand, to take precedence over what science has discovered over the centuries.
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