Can we calk about the pink elephant in the room?
Once upon a time I was a moderate. I believed in Keynesian economics. I believed in using market forces to help institute desired policy. I believed in empowering people so that they could take charge of their own lives. I believed in incentives in business and personal tax deductions and rebates. I believed that people had a right to privacy. I believed that the government should stay out of people’s private lives, but that the government is needed to protect people from not just crime but from abuse through pollution and fraud. I believed in free speech.
That was then. I was a moderate.
This is now … and I still believe all those things. But now I find myself labeled as “left.”
Time was when I could look at a conservative and find some things about him/her I liked. I appreciated the talk about fiscal responsibility. I appreciated the talk about empowering individuals. I appreciated the generally positive view on the future, on opportunity, on making one’s own life. I even appreciated Barry Goldwater (who was before my time), who said:
Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy. They must learn to make their views known without trying to make their views the only alternatives.
and said:
A lot of so-called conservatives don’t know what the word means. They think I’ve turned liberal because I believe a woman has a right to an abortion. That’s a decision that’s up to the pregnant woman, not up to the pope or some do-gooders or the Religious Right. It’s not a conservative issue at all.
and even said:
The big thing is to make this country, along with every other country in the world with a few exceptions, quit discriminating against people just because they’re gay. You don’t have to agree with it, but they have a constitutional right to be gay. And that’s what brings me into it.
Goldwater was the conservative icon. And he espoused what I understood to be conservative principles. Like him or not, there was something to be admired about Goldwater’s views.
Goldwater couldn’t get elected dog-catcher in today’s Republican party. Today’s Republicans consider conservatism to be a partisan flag that flies above the Stars and Stripes, and an ideology that calls for the State to dictate personal behavior.
Today’s conservatives are for establishment of religion.
Today’s conservatives are for regulating what happens in the bedroom.
Today’s conservatives are for controlling what is said and done in the doctor’s office.
Today’s conservatives are for imposing religious doctrine like “intelligent design” upon science teaching in schools.
And all that talk about fiscal responsibility? After Reagan and the two Bushes ran up ALL national debt accrued since WW2, we know that’s not true.
All that talk about optimism for the future? After all the fear-mongering and gloom and doom rhetoric we get now from conservative leaders, we know that’s not true.
How can they call themselves “conservative” when they’re trying to impose radical change on our country?
These modern-day conservatives
They make no sense to me
They like to tell us how to live
I wish they’d let us beThese modern-day conservatives
Are holier than thou
About your life they’re positive
You must obey them nowThese modern-day conservatives
They like their power fine
They used to fight for liberty
Now you must toe the lineThese modern-day conservatives
They make no sense to me
They like to tell us how to live
But I’d rather live free.