Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Thoughts from this conservative

With the way things are heating up in the political world (something about an election next November?), I thought I'd chime in with some of my conservative/libertarian points of view. These thoughts are in response to things I've seen coming from liberals as well as conservatives. These run counter to many who claim conservatism, and I suspect I am more libertarian than anything else...

1. If I tell you that you can't do X, then that opens the door for you to tell me I can't do Y. Therefore, I won't tell you not to do X, and you don't tell me not to do Y, and we'll get along just fine. The only exception to this rule is if X or Y cause harm to another person or person's property.

2. Believing that a Creator kicked off this whole existence thing does not make me an idiot. Nor does it mean that I don't believe the world continues to evolve and change. It does mean that I don't think we are here by mere coincidence. Some creationists think that evolution explains a great deal of how the Creator make this world, and some creationists think dinosaur fossils were planted by Satan to confuse the faithful. Before you start calling someone names, you might want to find out where on the creationist scale the person lies.

3. Not all conservatives worship President Bush. That is a ridiculous assumption.

4. Not all conservatives who question affirmative action are raging racists. Some of us are asking one huge question: Where have we failed to provide equal opportunity that affirmative action would be needed in the first place?

5. Not all conservatives think that a woman belongs barefoot and pregnant in the home. Some of us have actually read the description of the ideal wife as it is found in the last chapter Proverbs. She didn't exactly stay home and hover over her children 24/7.

I have more, but I'm really supposed to be working right now.

M.W.

Updated to add: I did not intend my number 5 to be a slam against at home mothers, and I realized it could be read that way. I just don't think it's healthy (or what God intended) for a woman to make her children her sole identity.

Also updated: Amen TJ on the fathers. My husband does not babysit his own children. He parents them!!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

my takes from a liberal/libertarian point-of-view ...

1. word! you hit the nail right on the head on that one. i couldn't agree more!

2. and likewise for those of us that are evolutionists. i firmly believe in evolution, but how the hell did the planets and the universe get here in the first place? there are varying degrees of evolution too.

3. not all liberals worship hillary clinton either. i mean, she's a strong woman with a strong personality, but she's too controversial and there's just something untrustworthy about her.

4. true dat. the government can (and probably should) regulate it's own hiring practices (just like any business should). but they have no right regulating who gets hired in a private business.

5. on the same note, fathers should work equally hard for the family he helped create. i HATE when i've got the kids for the day and somebody says "oh, dad's babysitting!" no, they're my kids ... that's not babysitting, that's being "dad"!

Tree said...

I have moved from being considered a conservative (economically) to being considered a liberal (socially) because of the widespread stereotyping. Everything you and TJ have stated are spot-on.

Gretchen said...

Very good read. Even for a 'liberal.'

Unknown said...

ditto Gretchen. I enjoyed reading that, even as a fairly hardcore liberal.

I especially enjoyed the section and creationism. I have often wondered why we couldn't just leave the beginning of the world alone and people who believe in Creationism agree that God created such wonderful beings that they are able to make themselves better and evolve. :)

Anyway, good post!

Anonymous said...

My political belief can be described as "Conservatives, by definition, ought to make mistakes slower than liberals. But they don't." Perhaps this is related to #3.