that throughout history have produced an increasing standard of living:
Private Property
Rule of Law
Free and Competitive markets
Limited Government
Again, we are being historical empiricists, here.
So YOU need to decide what YOU stand for. We already know that these things are absolutely necessary for economic growth. So where are YOU on these issues?
They ALL cut toward Conservatives. Not a single one is even remotely associated with Leftism.
So YOU need to take a look at what we know leads to freedom and what leads to human suffering!
the founding fathers had it right. WE screwed it up, tossing Federalism to the curb and creating the horrible bastardization of good sense known as direct election of Senators! Also, we did the same thing with creating an income tax, a powerful central government, and a meddlesome Supreme Court.
For crap’s sake, go back to what we know works!
THAT’s what Conservatism is all about–A historical empiricism where what has been demonstrated to work is valued and retained while that which has been shown to be of no or merely ephemeral value is discarded!
When you ask WHY I am a Conservative, THAT is the answer. I want to conserve or retain what has been shownempirically to work. Not get suckered into the Rationalist circle-jerk, unproductive, onanistic, will o’ the wisp intellectual dead end of Leftism.
Legend is that the will o’ the wisp would be seen and eagerly followed by foolish travelers. But what they saw was merely an illusion, and they were soon lost forever in the swamps, adding their organic matter that would fool the next travelers.
Similarly today there are those who are forever lost in the Lefty fever swamps, snapping viciously at the hands of their erstwhile friends who are trying to help them get out of there. Soon to be mere fodder that decays and fools others…
In many ways a free society is truly caught between the Scylla and the Charybdis.
In Greek mythology, a certain narrow straight of water was bordered on one side by the Scylla. The Scylla was a giant six-headed monster (think Godzilla with six heads), and naturally, mariners did not want to get too close to this aggressive beast. Get too close and the Scylla would destroy your ship.
But on the other side of this narrow straight was the Charybdis. The Charybdis was a whirlpool that would suck a ship down to the bottom of the sea if you got too close.
So the “trick” for the mariner was to shoot between the Scylla and Charybdis and miss them both! NOT an easy task. You don’t want to be “Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis.”
In modern government, the Scylla is laissez-faire or excessively Libertarian government. But the Charybdis is the stifling, Gestapo-like force of government coercive regulation.
One side says to its citizens and to other countries “Do whatever you please, just don’t bug ME.” The other side says, “You vill do vhat I zay or you get a bullet to zee head!”
And there are REAL problems with both of those approaches…
please realize that Republicans are about restoration. They are conservative–they want to conserve what has been shown to work. They also believe that some people in the past were very wise and we should be humble enough to be taught by their example.
Leftists, OTOH, are iconoclasts. THEIR knee-jerk reaction is to tear the whole thing down and remake it in their image! They believe that most everyone in the past was a benighted bigot and WE know better. Actually, THEY know better! Naturally, the focus is not on humility, but on narcissism–on the temporal proximity fallacy.
And that is the fundamental difference between those on the Left and those on the Right. Conservatives want to be guided by the past–there was good to be gleaned there; Leftists want destroy and replace the past–there was nothing good there anyway.
California and Saudi Arabia are, in fact, very similar. Hear me out:
Saudi Arabia has this amazingly lucrative resource, oil, but they are also plagued by Wahabism. The government has to constantly work to pacify the Wahabi kooks while still selling oil.
California also has rich resources, but is plagued with Wokeism. It has to pacify the “Woke” kooks while managing extraordinary natural resources. And to make it worse, the woke kooks have entirely captured government!
BOTH ideologies are intrinsically violent, and both are a real threat to civil society. Yet both are countenanced and even openly encouraged by many. And both are a lead weight on their state’s economy.
true: Lefties have a freakin’ COW over vigilanteism, but have no problem at all with armed and violent Lefty protests with rioting and looting. Gee, I wonder why that is?
Actually, I DON’T wonder…
I think the reason why Lefties freaked out about Kyle Rittenhouse obviously acting in self-defense is that it showed in plain relief the scummy underbelly of the Left. They want YOU to be defenseless and for THEM to have all means of inflicting harm.
THAT violence is indeed part and parcel with ALL Leftism! The violence is NOT an unfortunate and irrelevant part of Leftism. It is the beating heart of Leftism itself.
Leftism depends on force and coercion in a way that Conservatism does not.
Yeah, if you ask me to in two words say why I am Conservative, here they are: “Moral Agency.”
It’s part and parcel of the whole Lefty deceit thing…
And it has been clear to me, personally: Leftists hide who they really are. They virtually always dodge and weave if they will even engage at all. Conservatives, OTOH, will most often tell you what they actually believe and why.
Leftism = No debate, just shut up and buy this cat in a bag!
