The Conservative Debate

I’m sure you can imagine that as an outspoken Conservative Republican living in Massachusetts, I have to have a pretty thick skin. It never ceases to amaze me that total strangers will accost me in any and all locations, usually to debate the validity of the points expressed on my bumper stickers. Of course, my first thought is if I have chosen to put a sticker on my car and drive around town, then it is unlikely a grocery store parking lot debate is going to change my mind.

I usually fare pretty well during these brief discussions because I know the facts and can defend my positions. That is what strikes me the most. The left-winger liberals defend their positions with emotion and attack, not fact. Many of them, when queried, cannot even explain why it is they have taken the left side. They usually resort to the old and overused excuse of rich versus poor. Well, let me enlighten you. I am not rich. (In fact, since moving to Massachusetts, we have taken a financial hit.) So that argument has little effect on me. Then, the big business versus small business argument is used. Well, all small business owners I know are Conservatives- even in Massachusetts. In fact, many of them started as liberals and only converted after starting a business.

One benefit of moving to Massachusetts is that I have been forced to clearly define my political beliefs. I am more of a Conservative Republican in Massachusetts that I ever was in the mid-West. And that is not just by comparison. I see here every day what big government and an ignorant, dependent society can do to a democracy. But the division goes deeper than that. For me, it was clarified during college.

I am now, after years of therapy, willing to admit that during my college years I flirted with liberalism. (Yes, there was a really cute boy involved, whose name I can’t even remember.) As a political science major, I did a three-month internship with a very liberal, anti-nuclear organization. You would think that hanging out with all those patchouli wearing, granola crunching, Castro loving wannabe Communists would have been enough to convert a middle class preppie like myself. But no, it was not. It was a year later, when I represented my college at an inter-faith conference in Washington, DC that I saw the light. During a discussion on poverty and homelessness, I was challenged by the moderator to return home, sell my car and donate the proceeds to a shelter and then open my apartment up to the homeless. Needless to say, I was not inspired. In fact, I left the conference, returned home and begged my parents use their connections to get me a job with the Republicans. They were happy to be of help.

So what was it that motivated this instant conversion? I was working my tail off at school, as a waitress and at my parents small business to fund all this and there was no way I was giving any of it up to a bunch of slackers. Voila! A Conservative is born.

Of course, now I am older and wiser. And as I said, I have refined my position a bit. So, here it is – what I believe.

I believe in a small federal government, responsible for border defense and international relations.

I believe state and local governments should be responsible for local government, not cumbersome federal departments.

I believe state courts should determine local law, not a federal system, influenced by regional differences.

I believe the private sector is a better deliverer of social and charitable relief than the government.

I believe in competition – not a government that acts as referee and equalizer.

Now, I could go on, but you get the idea.

GOPMOM

http://www.gopmom.com