A 'True Conservative'

Wow! A one-two punch – first Massachusetts and yesterday the Supreme Court. What does it mean – to me, to other individual Americans, to our ideals and to our society as a whole?

My initial reaction, as a true conservative, is that something important has been lost and we are set back as individuals and as a society. First, let me explain by what I mean by a ‘true conservative.’

To me, a true conservative is both an idealist and a realist and does not favor one over the other. For example, realizing we live in a society, allegedly ‘the greatest in the world,’ with 42 million people unable to get health care, and realizing the humanitarian and moral tragedy this represents for such a ‘great’ nation, and realizing the effect this lack of care and the upward spiraling health costs have on our ability to compete and be prosperous, a ‘true conservative’ would to me, be a realist and try to find a way to deal with this situation, not sit on the sidelines, criticize, obstruct, and hold to doctrinaire ideals – which are really a cover for win/lose party politics.

A ‘true conservative,’ a ‘compassionate conservative’ would be a realist and put herself in the shoes of those people unable to get care and not cling to so-called ‘ideals’ of Conservatism, letting all these years go by and allowing all the pain and suffering they have contained. A ‘true conservative’ like me, would be less interested in winning and proving himself right than doing something to address the pain, suffering and erosion of our competitiveness.

Doctrinaire, extreme radical positions support only the status quo. It hasn’t worked so far, it definitely didn’t work when the so-called Conservatives controlled all three branches of government, why do people think it will work now? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, is one of the definitions of insanity. It’s broken and has to be fixed.