Conservatism: Upholding American Standards Since 1776

I am a conservative. According to some staff members here at The Bay Eagle, that automatically makes me a lunatic. Therefore I am a backwards looking reactionary who only cares about myself and who thinks that everyone should bend to my will.

I am a conservative. Therefore I have a defined moral standard. I discriminate between right and wrong and do not compromise on absolutes. I believe that some things are made sacred. I believe that life, liberty, and property are guaranteed to us as Americans, and that no one should be able to take those away. I believe that people should earn their livings, rather than sucking hard-earned monies from hardworking Americans through welfare programs. I believe it is acceptable to be religious; I believe that the idea of divine forces is not absurd, and that people should be free to openly practice whatever beliefs they may have. I believe that government regulations should be held at a minimum; after all, our nation was founded as a reaction to tyrannical government. I believe that life is sacred; everyone has a right to live. I believe that everyone has the right to political freedoms. They have the right to practice their own political beliefs and not come under fire for advocating those beliefs (case in point: conservatives are NOT lunatics simply for being conservative). I believe that everyone has his own rights and that I am obligated to accept that they may have those rights, but I do not believe that I have to promote or adopt those beliefs.

I am a conservative because I enjoy the ideas of earlier times. I wish to conserve the policies and morals of before, but I do remain open to more practical concepts. Unfortunately, some other respectable staff members at this newspaper seem to think this means that conservatives ignore technological or scientific developments. For anyone to say that we “prefer things the way they are” while referring to technology or science is absolutely absurd. We may well prefer the morals of an earlier time, but every conservative accepts the roundness of the earth and the heliocentric theory. Unfortunately, some of those same intelligent staff members here seem to think that conservatives are children of millionaires. How can this be when my own parents collectively earn no more than $30,000 a year; they earn only that and they have four children to raise; they earn only that but also live in California where the costs of living are some of the highest in the country; they earn only that and yet we are still conservative. I am not bitter about my situation, however, because the economic viewpoint of conservatives, according to my fellow journalists, is that of capitalism. A quick economics lesson will tell any reader that capitalism promotes personal advancement. I take pride in the fact that the beliefs which I follow may someday lead to me being more successful than my parents. It is the ability of the American worker to move up in status and class that is the American dream, and it is my dream as well. If my fellow writers disagree with or dislike my statement, maybe their parents should quit their jobs, pull their children out of institutions of higher learning (which facilitate moving ahead in life) and share rice with other people for the rest of their lives.

Sadly, more of the other staff members’ generalizations about conservatives crash hopelessly into the obstacle of evidence. To categorically say that conservatives vote republican and support ‘W’ just because they are conservative is nonsense. I myself have written several articles and displayed numerous cartoons in this fine publication that state otherwise. (Perhaps it would be an interesting history lesson to learn that Ronald Reagan, that most wonderful of conservative and laissez-faire leaders, was a New Deal democrat.) Maybe it should have dawned on others that conservatives are also intellectuals who support champions of the conservative cause, just as liberals tend to band together behind liberal leaders. If that situation leads to polarization between republican and democrat, then so be it.

For anyone to report that conservatives are mindless servants to certain ideologies because that is how they were trained in youth is unjustified. To claim that conservatives are simply stubborn reactionaries is a confused statement made by a mainstream surfer who himself has been brainwashed into a mindless state, bending to the common and everyday whim of liberal forces.

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