Conservatism has lost its soul

There was a time when conservatism meant preserving what is best of the past and of tradition. Of particular concern was preserving virtue. How could anyone be against that?
    Where it started to go wrong was when it decided to preserve things that were not worth keeping, and going to any length to accomplish this. In other words, they threw virtue out the window. Not that they did not give it lip service, with reference to family values and patriotism. One need only look beneath the rhetoric to see what they were really supporting, but many never looked, and whenever things got difficult, conservatives merely shouted louder, sounded angrier, and insisted that their two dimensional arguments reflected something fundamental. Like racial prejudice. Like withholding equal rights toward women. Like handing control of our democracy to deceitful strategists and an oligarchy of corporate CEOs. And most recently, by sabotaging healthcare reform with false rumors and arranging shout matches at Town Hall meetings, and equating it with citizen concern.
    Let us consider what they are trying to preserve in their most recent actions?
    The health of American citizens, for whom this nation was built? More likely, insurance company profits. The question we need to ask is which of these causes stands for virtue?
    They said they were preserving marriage by denying equal rights for gay people, but never showed how marriage would be preserved by doing this. Can shamelessly playing to people’s prejudices be considered virtue?
    This nation has a strong tradition that focuses on education. Almost from the start we had colleges and universities, and a literacy level that Europe admired. Founding Father Thomas Jefferson started his own liberal university. Today, thanks to conservative propaganda, intelligence is equated with an elitism that should not be trusted. Many vocal conservative politicians represent prime examples of how seriously they take this. How does this represent virtue?
    The world admired the scientific discoveries of Benjamin Franklin, another Founding Father, without whom this nation may not have been born. Today, conservatives demean science as something dangerous. If they had their way, scientists would be locked up in a munitions complex, limited to researching weapons of mass destruction. Virtue?
    One of the means by which the United States became the first really successful republic was guaranteeing the separation of church and state, thereby avoiding the scourge of conflicts that Europe suffered from. Today’s conservative has made it clear that they would take this longstanding safeguard away from us. No respect for tradition here.
    Conservatism once stood for responsible economic spending. Thanks to Ronal Reagan’s tax cuts and deficit spending, what George H.W. Bush called Voodoo economics, our economy has been deluge by red ink ever since. Although liberals are usually blamed for this, mathematically-challenged conservatives were the cause.
    If conservatives had their way, there would be no Social Security, no Medicare, no Medicaid, and no assistance programs. Ronald Reagan himself cut Medicare and Unemployment benefits, thus throwing people in to the vicious jaws of consumerism. One need only look at the welfare of the people before these programs were started, when half the population never saw a doctor in their lives, and common illnesses left millions of people disabled and in poverty. Is that a tradition worth rescuing from the past? Or a virtue that overrides traditional values.
    The traditions that I wish conservatives represented are quite different. Honesty. Intellectual autonomy that reflects what freedom and individualism is all about. Compassion for our brothers and sisters throughout the country. Preserving the separation of church and state that made our nation unique and moral. Equal rights for everyone. A political system of true integrity. Less interference with other nations – something our founders were pretty adamant about. The kind of international independence that comes from a wealth of alternative energy. Patriotism that includes the well-being of the American people, not just the chosen few.
    To me, these traditions are what America is all about, not the conservative agenda of today’s Idols of the Marketplace, the degradation of virtues that earlier conservatives readily feared. They understood not only the trappings of communism, but capitalism as well, something that today’s conservatives have bought into without question.
    Conservatism has always been a reactive ideology, reactive to perceived cultural threats. Today, just about anything suggested by a liberal is perceived as a threat of existential extreme. This is just another way in which conservatives undercut their own credibility. While this may have worked for a while, the paranoia they generate is losing its appeal, exciting a shrinking circle of extremists. Sort of like Chicken Little warning that the sky is falling. Some will believe it. Most will not. This is leaving an indelible stain of distrust on conservatism.
    It looks like liberals will have to compensate. Those who fight for change must also be the preservers of what is best in our culture and traditions. When you think of it, that’s the way it should be. That would legitimatize liberals as worthy agents of change, just the kind of reformers we need. With no need for conservatives.
    Something to think about.

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