My Advice to the Conservatives

I wonder how many folk really know where they stand politically? The terms liberal and conservative are tossed about rather freely; but not necessarily with a good understanding of what those terms really mean. Goggle political spectrum quiz for find sites. I used a GoToQuiz, which is okay but not great. Below is my result on one of their tests

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 I also tested slightly above the horizontal line once. All and all it means I am a left social moderate.

I remember taking a similar but more accurate test while in seminary to see where I stood theologically. My friends all thought I was a liberal, I said I was neo-orthodox. After the test I was exactly what I said I was and most of them were far more liberal when they thought they were conservative. My point is folk often don’t really know where they fall on these spectrums and they should.

It is my belief that as a country we have made a rather extreme move towards the right mainly due to the efforts of the extreme religious right, radical right political groups such as the Tea Party and an overall lack of understanding of economics and politics in society and in particular a strong control exerted by the ultra rich and large corporate interests. This includes both parties. In particular, the Republican party is not representative of its constituents which are less radical than their leaders.

Here are some recommendations of conservatives. Give up on this protecting the tax advantages of millionaires, billionaires and zillionaires; it’s is ridiculous and has lowered the income levels of most Americans significantly and radically redistributed the economic growth of our country to a tiny minority.

Next, quit the rhetoric that you want less government. Under the Republican influence of the last 35 years there and more increasing government control and an effort to legislate morality, while deregulating necessary corporate controls. We need a government capable, of improving the infrastructure to keep us international competitive and for our own economic growth. We have increased gimmick taxes such as those dealing with gambling, excise taxes. What we have is the middle class and poor folk paying for government. Also, especially on the state and local levels we need to get rid of incentive taxes that benefit the high rollers versus small business. Wal-Marts’, Cabelas’ and the lot should not be given tax breaks over local small businesses. This has always been a danger for capitalism as seen since Adam Smith. [Side note; if you don’t know who Adam Smith is or John Maynard Keynes or Kenneth Galbraith are; you need to study elementary economics.] We should not have businesses that are too big to fail and ruin the economy, as we have recently experienced.

Also, property taxes should increase. I recall a lady’s weeping about a proposed increase in property taxes that they just couldn’t afford. They couldn’t afford it because they had bought beyond their economics means so they could indulge in outdoor activities. The Republicans, despite their verbiage, are by a large responsible for our huge debt; just examine the Reagan and G.W. Bush years. Particularly huge expenditures on wars, that were not funded by sacrificing Americans but by overseas loans. If the same amount of money had been spent on green technology, we would be employing many more people.

Finally, everyone has to get serious about health care reform. This is the single biggest economic wrecking ball in our society. It puts far too much pressure on small business. It is the poorest and the most expensive of all systems among developed countries. It needs to be fixed. The small moves of the Obama administration fall far too short of what is needed. Conservatives should be able to see that and see how it hurts our country on all economic levels.

I want to see the Republicans put forth the best candidate they have forward as that person could end up leading the country, even if I don’t want them too. Get rid of the whackos which are most the candidates which you examine the records. Gingrich is very articulate and has some good ideas but he is a man with a long history as a loose cannon capable to ruining the country. I wish Romney would not flat out lie, but he’s likely the best you have. Obama may prefer running against Gingrich but Romney is the better candidate. As for the rest of them they are just plain too extreme and nonsensical. There were others but they no longer seem in contention.

Conservatives probably could give two hoots for my opinions but I wanted to share them none the less. The country is in trouble and we need to help work towards its repair. We need more moderates in both parties so that they can lead government reform and move us away from gridlock and entrenched ideological inflexibility.