Last week my best friend Tina wrote a blog post titled, "Will the reasonable conservatives please stand up?" In the post she laments the fact that many "conservatives" will call your own beliefs into question if you don't subscribe to certain conspiracy theories making the rounds out there. She wonders where the "reasonable" conservatives are these days ... the ones who remember what we used to preach before Obama got into office and some people basically lost their minds. (This summary in no way does justice to the blog post - you can read it here: http://allynsalley211.blogspot.com/2013/02/will-reasonable-conservatives-please.html)
I sympathize with her. I really do. I have been repeatedly blasted by a reader because I dared to suggest that the president's birth certificate was genuine. I am frustrated by the fact that people I know and respect, intelligent people, have become convinced that the president is a closet Muslim. Some of my fellow conservatives have merrily gone down the rabbit hole, and woe betide you if you don't follow them.
Tina's fear is that the real message of conservatism is being lost amid all this noise. I am forced to agree with her. What happened to preaching fiscal responsibility, limited government, giving people a hand up?
Instead, conservatives like me are caught between a rock and a hard place. We are yelled at by people on the right for not following them into these false issues. People on the left (and this includes some Republicans) don't like us because we cry out against what is going on in Washington these days. It's hard to get respect from anyone.
It is hard to debate these people. For example, they are convinced, despite all the evidence to the contrary, that snopes.com is a liberal shill. Snopes.com is actually a very handy website for debunking urban myths and false information, and contrary to what you might have heard, is not owned by George Soros.
So is this the new definition of conservative? That we believe and pass on false stories and wild conspiracy theories that are not based in fact? That we preach these things above and beyond what we need to be discussing, which is how to fix the mess this country is in thanks to people from the president on down?
As a conservative, I cannot support the massive growth of government and debt that has occurred under President Obama. And listen, it's been over four years; George W. Bush isn't in office anymore, time to quit trying to pass the buck.
But I am not going to waste time attacking the president personally. I'd rather discuss his policies and how they are hurting the economy and the country. I'd rather propose solutions to what we're going through rather than plunging into shadowy conspiracy theories.
So, in my opinion, what is a conservative?
A conservative believes in the Constitution's set up of a limited federal government. He or she believes that we currently have a spending problem, in that Washington is spending and borrowing us into a disaster in the future. That we don't need more government in our lives, but less.
A conservative believes that there is merit in strengthening the family and giving people the opportunity to better themselves. That we can't tax our way into prosperity. And this just scratches the surface.
To quote my friend Tina, "Is conservatism going to be associated with 'far-out right-wing conspiracy theory', or with a sound series of principles that can be explained and defended?"
The choice is ours. I choose the latter. My hope is that the majority of my fellow conservatives will do the same. While there still is a country left to save.
Sunday, March 03, 2013 - www.newssun.com/col-030313-ware