They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. — Ronald Reagan
I’m going to do a multi-part blog in that the answer for each part may be too long to be resolved in one setting. I like to keep the blogs to 1,500 words or less but this topic I am broaching will exceed that length, of that I am sure.
This is part one and it shall attempt, and I trust succeed in answering the following question:
What is conservatism and why should you care?
It’s a valid question and one that should be answered. So where does one start? Perhaps the best place to begin the answer is with the concept of perception.
Perception
Many people believe conservatism is loud, blusterous, unyielding, and they use Rush Limbaugh as an example. Yet conservatism is nothing of the sort. I like Rush and listen to him constantly, at least when I can but I am not like him, but then again I am exactly like him. Rush is a performer, an artist, an actor who uses the power of words mixed with the power of voice, emotion, and humor to get his message across. So while I am not an actor or entertainer I am a conservative and believe with all my heart in conservative values. Which is a 180 degrees from the way I use to believe. Yes at one point in my life I was a flaming liberal and proud of it.
So what changed? The simple answer is my perception. At some point in my life I learned that life, real life is not anywhere close to being a movie. Allow me to elaborate:
Like the movies people believe the actors who portray the heroic guy or girl live their life in the manner illustrated on the big screen. Thus the public is shocked when they discover what the actor really believes and lives. Charlie Sheen is a great example, good actor, not so great in the human being department. Another actor who portrays really great characters is George Clooney. He delivers his lines with perfection but take away the camera and his real personality shows through, and sometimes the fans are dismayed at what they see. This is not criticism just fact. Hollywood is comprised of liberals and liberal thinking, but they don’t make movies that way. Why is that do you suppose?
Most, and I do use the term most deliberately, most people confuse the actor and the entertainment with reality. When people confuse the entertainer with the message they miss the message and concentrate completely on the personality, and quite often that perception is wrong.
So are the people at fault? Yes they are. People today cannot, or they refuse to, separate reality from entertainment. When the entertainer becomes louder than the message, the message gets lost. To make matters worse those individuals who do understand the message, especially the message of conservatism, muddy the waters with distortions and lies to distract the people from the truth. So the lie becomes the truth and the truth becomes the lie. (There are reasons for this which I want to discuss in another post but for now I want to continue to focus on the perception issue.)
Because the entertainment industry is based, literally founded on perception, it becomes very easy to paint conservatism as an evil entity which does not care about people. So any conservative, by extension, becomes the willing collaborator of this evil entity.
I write screenplays as a hobby and when I was learning how to structure and write a screenplay one thing, the primary objective, was pounded into my mind: Movies are visual, books are mental.
A movie is projected on the screen and the actors portray the character as written by the writer. Hence the writer must always visualize how the actor will bring the character to life for the viewing audience. Anti-conservative perception follows the same logic. The difference is the writers of this perception have an agenda, a point of view, and a burning desire to paint conservatism as evil and misguided. Reality is not considered nor contemplated, only the conclusion that conservatives are the scum of the earth and must be destroyed by any means possible.
These are draconian words you must be thinking and maybe they are, but nevertheless they are true and new examples of this reality are submitted each and every day to the public at large.
The assessment that conservatives are the evil of the world began to really take hold in the nineties, during the Clinton administration. While conservatives have always been considered evil they were contained by a Democrat congress, and the Republican politicians were happy to comply with the Democrat demands. But in the mid-nineties the Republicans took control of congress and the attitude from Democrats, Hollywood, late night comedians, and the main stream media changed as well. Conservative issues could not be allowed to flourish, Reagan taught them that lesson.
The perception about conservative issues had to be changed and manipulated into something evil and sinister. But… something, rather someone put a crimp in their plans, a man named Rush Limbaugh. His way of delivering the conservative message took root with the public and the powers that be could not allow this to happen. As a result the perception of loud and blusterous was born and embraced by the main stream media, politicians, and the entertainment world. Yet no matter how hard the forces against conservatism tried they could not destroy this unique force, this one man, this concrete pillar of conservatism. To this day this tower of power, this one individual, this David, has taken on the Goliath’s and quite often wins each of the battles he engages in. And there is a specific reason for this as well but now is not the time to divulge such a reason.
The world at large has embraced perception as reality and the forces which detest the conservative movement have learned to manipulate this concept exceedingly well meaning they can control and manipulate most individuals to a specific way of thinking. So the question must be asked who are these people who manipulates this world-wide perception and why do they want to? The why is simple to answer: Power! But who controls this power and what is their ultimate goal for the country, for the world? That is a question that has never truly been answered.
Conservatism: A Dangerous Concept
It’s not a new concept, in fact it has been around since the birth of the nation. However there has been a change in terminology, a very important change.
When the country was beginning the people of the old world were mostly considered conservative in their thinking. Change was not something that was widely accepted as the natural order of things. In fact conservatism gained the reputation of being rigid, unchanging, and stubborn. The definition of the way most people consider a conservative to be is amply illustrated by Roosevelt’s’ quote below:
A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
Almost every quote you come across reflects conservative values to be rigid and non-conforming. Another quote illustrates this point:
Although it is not true that all conservatives are stupid people, it is true that most stupid people are conservative. — John Stuart Mill
Still another quote:
A conservative is a man who just sits and thinks, mostly sits. — Woodrow Wilson
This concept that a conservative is an individual who won’t move is justly earned as it came from the old world where the conservative mindset refused to see the possibilities of what the new world could and would offer.
Hence the people of the new world were considered, and rightly so, liberal in their mindset. The people of the new world wanted change, a better living environment than what the old world could offer. This offended the old world and the stubborn and conservative views of those in power at the time. The new world had become a liberal world and the old conservative world hated it. It would take a revolution and death to free the new world from the old conservative way of thinking.
So it was a new nation was born with a new way of thinking. A liberal way of thinking. A forward way of thinking. A progressive way of thinking. Liberalism became the new norm and to be a conservative in those days was not very wise, if one wanted to progress in this new experiment called America.
Fast forward two hundred years later and a new concept of conservatism emerges, a Republican concept. Somewhere along the way the Republican brand became synonymous with conservatism. This was not very flattering for the conservatives of the day as the Republicans of the early 20th century became the defacto party of the rich. I’m sure it was an honor well deserved as history tells us how the Republicans of the day protected and coddled the rich all for the promise of a vote.
The Democrat politicians of the day seized this opportunity and with the aid of a willing and eager press painted their Republican counterparts as the party and protectors of the rich, an honor which is alive and well today, at this very moment. But more than an honor it is a tradition of politicians to ensure Republicans never live down, and will always be known as the “party of the rich.”
So while the press eagerly and with anticipation await the destruction of the Republican party, the party itself participates in their self-destruction by turning their back on the values of conservatism because the party leaders really believe that conservatism is the root cause of all their problems.
How wrong they are.
To be continued…
G.
