By Harry Felker
Conservatism, what is it really?
Conservative is a liquid word, it spans time only by its own malleability, what is traditional in 1776 is not so today, and as such this needs to be addressed and stricken from political position. Politicians who use the word to describe themselves or opponents are akin to those who use "ducktalk" in Orwell's 1984, it means praise to an ally and condemnation to an opponent, the meaning is ambivalent at best, the usage is all that is important. The best current example is when people use this word in regard to charity, the liberal notion of giving voluntarily to charity is considered by right wing politicians as conservative, and it is praise, but to the left wing it is condemnation to prefer voluntary charity over state mandated welfare, which they also call conservative. The point of all of this is really to confuse the people into not thinking at all, and using words based on intent over meaning, basically stripping education down to indoctrination.
What I postulated in my earlier article, as Conservatism, is actually Statism, as defined in Merriam-Webster (1): concentration of economic controls and planning in the hands of a highly centralized government often extending to government ownership of industry. Variations on this theme are what left and right political stances are all about, both have the feature of highly centralized government, the left would have government dictate industry, the right would have the opposite, industry dictating government. I must apologize for this correction, my initial work was in haste, the basic premise still stands, but now the terminology must be made to correctly represent the truths, or I would be nothing more than the equal to the language revisionists.
The looming hand of Statism
Now with a clear idea of what Liberalism and Statism are, let us review how the political climate can come into view with a diagram; imagine if you will an equilateral triangle:
Now, the "y" axis represents Liberalism vs. Statism, and the "x" axis represents right wing and left wing politics, as we can see, the more Liberal you get the less influence the right and left have on your government. As you approach the apex of this triangle, there is less government involvement, at said apex is a concept known as anarchism, and I know, you are all thinking of kids with safety pins, but the reality is, the objective definition of anarchism is defined in Merriam-Webster (2);
1 : a political theory holding all forms of governmental authority to be unnecessary and undesirable and advocating a society based on voluntary cooperation and free association of individuals and groups
2 : the advocacy or practice of anarchistic principles
So at the peak you are left with a society without a government, all based on voluntary involvement, and as you scroll down into the triangle, you lose Liberalism to Statism, the founders did not disagree with some government, just as little as possible to remain a nation free from other nation's rule and simultaneously a people free from its nation's rule.
The problem with the left and right influences on the society is that they themselves want more influence, they want more power, and in a liberal government, there is a maximum amount of influence they can have. The remedy to this end is to build arguments with each other that will increase Statism to solve the contention without compromising their own current level of influence. These arguments are long in list and meaningless to individual freedom, save for the fact that they all look to distract you from the loss of liberty, spending money is a perfect example, both left and right wish to spend your money in different sinkholes, neither really discusses you keeping your wealth. So out of self interest the left and right will quibble with each other in order to derive an emotional response from the people, this emotional state is the goal, because emotional people are irrational and will graciously hand over liberty in order to have their way temporarily, and cannot be convinced that a loss of liberty in their personal interest will someday return on them as the whim of society changes.
Where are all the Liberals?
As I previously explained, Liberalism (first part) is not currently existent in major partisan politics, so with that said where are all the people represented by views that match liberalism, do they have a party, or are they deceived into thinking that major partisan politics cover the ideals defining Liberalism? I think these questions are best answered in viewing third parties and those that choose the lesser of two evils; these people are disenfranchised by partisan left and right issues and are trying to halt or reverse the Statism occurring due to these issues.
Third parties, not all but a few, are centered around constitutional government, the idea that government is best which governs least, as stated by Thomas Paine, in the premier of these third parties are the Constitutionalist and Libertarians. Constitutionalists are, as far as I can tell the religious wing of the Liberal movement (3), while the Libertarians are more concerned with secular liberty, leaving religion as a private issue (4). Good comes from both these groups as they are dedicated to the Constitution, and a Liberal (small) government, based on the principles of the republic, the only real definitive issue is the secular issue. The Constitution Party's platform page alienates many of it's would be supporters as it states; "The Constitution Party gratefully acknowledges the blessing of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as Creator, Preserver and Ruler of the Universe and of these United States. We hereby appeal to Him for mercy, aid, comfort, guidance and the protection of His Providence as we work to restore and preserve these United States." I firmly believe it does not take a brain surgeon to understand how one can feel alienated, as I support Constitutional Principles, but am not a Christian, nor do I "acknowledge Jesus as Creator". I feel that the Constitution party may have the interests of the constitution in mind, but to attach their dogma to their politics is a mistake the founders themselves warned against. Libertarians, on the other hand are more open, leaving religion out of the equation of their politics, as their principles state, "We hold that all individuals have the right to exercise sole dominion over their own lives, and have the right to live in whatever manner they choose, so long as they do not forcibly interfere with the equal right of others to live in whatever manner they choose." Now yes the Constitution Party states that it is ok to not worship Christ, but it leaves the thought in my mind, and probably anyone that is not a Christian, that ascension is capped for any of us based on religious persuasion. This leads me to the conclusion that the Constitution Party, though their hearts are in good intent, cling avidly to the left right issue of religion, which dooms it, once in power, to generate Statism. This would leave the Libertarian Party as the truly Liberal party, looking for the least intrusion into the people's lives, with no left right issue to fuel any Statism what so ever.
The lesser of two evils voters I believe are more interested in halting the growth of government in a way that is not aligned with their personal left right issue, unfortunately, they are so polarized between differing ideologies as to which Statism is better, they forget that Statism is not the Constitutional way. By selfish interest that will not unite at limiting the government, as they do not mind if it grows their way, becoming emotional about what government should govern over, and as postulated before doom themselves when the social pendulum swings out of their favor. The other people in this group are the ones that finally understand that partisan politics is an issue, though I will not go out on a limb and claim they understand true Liberalism yet, they are at least showing signs that growth is still possible, and liberty is never out of reach, the outrage has to just reach a breaking point for each individual. These republicans and democrats that have walked freely away from their party, in realization that they are not represented, need to find out why, classify the issues, and come to the attention that it is a left and right issue meant to increase the power of the federal government, they must decide is it better to be free, or run the hazard of the opposing wing of politics to have the power they grant to their wing.
1 "Statism." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009.
Merriam-Webster Online. 15 March 2009
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/statism
2 "anarchism." Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2009.
Merriam-Webster Online. 15 March 2009
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anarchism
3 Constitution Party Homepage
http://www.constitutionparty.com/
4 Libertarian Party Homepage
http://www.lp.org/
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