Ideological Differences

[talon]

I've given it some deeper thought - it's not as sudden as it seems, because I've been pondering these matters since the 2008 elections - and even with the proliferation of "tea parties" and "coffee parties" and "green parties" and "libertarians" and the extreme "left" and extreme "right", I still consider myself ideologically conservative - that's the small "c" conservative and not the Republican capital "C" Conservative.

I am perhaps as far from the Republican capital "C" Conservative as it's possible to get, both ideologically and in the flesh.

Not one of their top 10 issues makes it into my top 10 issues.

Let me enumerate my current top 10 small "c" conservative issues(in no particular order):

1. "Repeal the USA PATRIOT Act" - I started out fighting the passage of this law, and now I'm fighting for its repeal. There are parts of it that give me nightmares about how a president could abuse it. I truly believe the only reason Bush didn't use all those clauses is because he wasn't bright enough to realize he could - that or he was so completely out of touch with Americans that he didn't feel it was necessary.

2. "Balanced Budgets" - This includes reduced spending, spending limits, conservation of resources, and paying down the national debt - and if that means we need to enact short term taxes that have expiration limits to get our country back onto track and viable again, I think we should do that. What do we do when we overspend in our personal incomes - we tighten our belts and pay out more to get out from under our debt load. The nation, in this regard, is no different from the individual.

3. "Bail Outs" - I never agreed with the bail outs. I am fundamentally opposed to using tax dollars to support private enterprises. There is no single private business that's "too big to fail". If a private enterprise is faltering, it needs to fix its internal problems or fail. I think when a business gets so big it can't fix its own internal problem, it needs to fail so the smaller businesses in its shadow can fill in and possibly replace the "too big to fail" business.

4. "Gene Patents" - No living organism should be owned by anyone. For a business to own a gene patent gives them control over the person or plants that express that gene, even when it's a natural mutation and not a lab-created version. Allowing businesses to "own" a gene is a contravention of life and liberty that has such staggering consequences that we should be repulsed by the very idea of gene ownership.

5. "War" - We are currently engaged in more wars than any one nation whose borders are not being invaded has a right to be in. We are sticking our noses into affairs that are not rightfully ours and doing so at a tremendous cost to our country and our citizens that we may never re-coup. We need to be paying close attention to what's happening here instead of whining about birth certificates.

6. "Torture" - The American Government should not condone or be engaged in acts of torture. Period.

7. "No Knock Warrants" - I can see the need for being able to stealthily enter a suspect's residence, but I've also seen it badly, badly abused and am therefore categorically against it. I consider it a violation of our Fourth Amendment rights.

8. "Eminent Domain" - I acknowledge that sometimes the community has no choice but to use land owned by someone for public needs. I disagree that "public needs" include hotels, resorts, and strip malls. I want a firm decision that eminent domain can only be used by such works that are paid for by tax dollars: roads, sewers, public utilities, public schools, train tracks, public airports, and other such public works.

9. "Human Rights" - I'm not too particular about any specific set of human rights, I'm greedy - I want them all: people should be free to marry whom they will according to the dictates of their hearts and needs, people should be safe in their own homes, people's ID should be stringently protected - even from the government, people should not face discrimination based on personal attributes (such as, but not limited to, gender identity, color, ethnic origin, body shape or size, religion, wealth, age, politics, or fashion sense) nor should they be harassed because of those attributes or lack of them, people should be accorded dignity and respect, and so on. No torture, no taunting, no bullying, no harassment, no violence, no matter who the other person is.

10. "Corporate Regulation" - no more monopolies, allowing businesses to grow "too big to fail", no huge wage gaps between least paid employee and highest paid employee in a corporation, no passes on polluting or violating civil rights, no "sweat shop" conditions, regulations and enforcement on outsourcing, importing, and exporting. In other words, greater oversight on corporations to make sure they aren't breaking laws or bending them so badly they may as well be broken.

There's more, of course (health care, animal rights, other environmental issues, and more) , and sometimes the "top 10" shifts as some things become more urgent - or less urgent. But you can clearly see here why I am neither a Democrat nor a Republican nor a Libertarian or any other current political party. I am a Musketeer Party, I guess: all for one and one for all.

Now let me tell you why I am not capital "C" Conservative: The following issues are, as far as I'm concerned, non-issues and I won't waste my energy and resources on them:

1. "Death Panels" - Palin ran with this and many of the Tea Partiers I know in person and whose blogs I once read seem determined to believe this means there will be panels deciding who lives and dies, when the truth of the matter is that these are end of life plans the patient creates so their family and the medical establishment that may be caring for them will know what to do when circumstances come up. It's like a more detailed advance directive for health care when you're no longer capable of making decisions yourself.

2. "Taxation without Representation" - Sorry, Republican capital "C" Conservatives, but you have representation - you keep voting them into office. The only people in the US who have no representation are the residents of Washington, D.C. and I know for a fact that a great many of you howling you're being taxed to death don't live there. That means you have representation. All you have to do is get those elected employees of yours to listen or vote them out, not march on D.C.

3. "Socialism" - That seems to be a favorite word among the Republican capital "C" Conservatives, and it doesn't mean what they think it does. Socialism is when the means of production are owned and controlled by the state - ie we're all government employees who own nothing, probably not even the toothbrush we used this morning. Everything belongs to the state, including us. Advocating for certain benefits to be universal does not a socialist state make.

4. "Bail outs" - Dudes, Bush is the president who pushed through these bail outs, Obama merely carried on. Sure be angry that the bail outs are still continuing and that Obama chose to fulfill Bush's rulings, but be angriest at Bush who started it.

5. "Stimulus isn't Working" - Another Bush-begun economic policy that Obama is carrying through. It seems to be working in the short run and maybe that's what Obama wants as he and his advisers try to formulate something that will work better and for the longer view. Denying that it does seem to be working is lame.

6. "Birthers" - If he passed the extensive and detailed back ground check, why are all y'all still whining about this?

7. "Second Amendment" - Obama has strengthened the Second Amendment or none of the Republican capital "C" Conservatives would have been able to carry firearms in a national park, let alone to political rallies. The Republican capital "C" Conservative gun fears are shown to be unfounded.

8. "Loss of Heritage" - No one can take your heritage away from you. It's your responsibility to keep it, not the government's. That would make us a socialist state, if the government were in charge of maintaining our national heritage.

9. "Eliminate Special Interests" - This strikes me as terribly funny as it seems the Republican capital "C" Conservatives desperately want their special interests given consideration.

10. "Reduce Business Taxes" - Small businesses pay more than their fair share of the taxes while big businesses pay considerably less than their fair share. Reducing business taxes will not help the small businesses as much as it will big business. Corporatism is a form of socialism whereby the business owns the country and its citizens instead of the government owning them.

Those are the issues that seem to concern the Tea Partiers the most.