Why Conservatives Will Never Follow the “Good Advice”

Now that the election is well over and the shock has passed, I feel it’s time to address some of the articles I’ve read appearing to give us poor losers some well meaning advice. The authors may have thought they were being well intentioned, but their smarmy and arrogant “advice” was misplaced.

First, I wanted to address the notion that we conservatives are all under educated idiots. I’ve heard this on several occasions, but it never ceases to set my teeth to grinding. Recently it was in an article entitled “Letter to a future Republican strategist regarding white people” by Eric Arnold Garland. After he enumerated his reasoning for being a Democrat, he proceeded to put down all Republicans by stating that we were reading it and saying “that guy was never gonna be a republican anyhow, cuz he’s a librul who hates america and…” You know, we’re all just stupid hicks. Now pass me that beer so we can watch more NASCAR, will ya? Yee, frickin haw…

Let me address under education with my own family and community. In my immediate conservative family both my parents have advanced degrees; and my siblings and I have 21 years of post secondary education and 2 advanced degrees between the 4 of us.

My son is holding his own as a conservative college freshman on a not so conservative campus. He attended as an honor student, and my daughter attends, as an honor student, a high school in a conservative county. Their school has been on the US News and World Report’s list of the top 500 High Schools for the last 4 years. There are approximately 25,000 public high schools in the US. Their school also placed in the top 6% of academics in the nation 2011.

Looking at a map of “red” states or areas versus “blue” ones I find that blue areas tend to be in big cities, you know, the ones with failing school systems. Hmmm…. Oh, and my family is not an aberration in one small area. Most of my community is well educated and are doctors, business people, CEO’s, engineers, CPA’s, high ranking military … the list could go on.

Reading on, these “well meaning” authors call us “a**holes”, as Mr. Garland did, and tells us to abandon our Biblical principles. He arrogantly talks on a few points then tells us that we are “mean”.

Now that paragraph made me laugh. According to him, we are “really mean, mocking and demonizing everyone who does not follow you into the pits of hell.” So first, our political views and values are from the “pits of hell?” Wow, that’s not mean, demeaning or demonizing at all!

I can tell you that I saw more hate, filth and “meanness” from the left than I ever saw from the right – and that was on mainstream media. Constant death threats against those who vote against Obama on Twitter, threats to riot, calling conservative authors and candidates names in language that isn’t fit to print. Mr. Garland says we are constantly “being angry and defensive” and I guess he has a point. Who wouldn’t get angry about being called names and being demeaned at every turn?

He and others delight in telling us that if we weren’t bigoted, women hating troglodytes and listened to the “sane conservatives” like the “Log Cabin Republicans, the Megan McCains, the John Hunstmans, even the Chris Christies” as another Dem advised, and “approach political discourse like adults, not petulant children” to leave “religion and your Bible totally and completely out of it — as per your favorite document, the U.S. Constitution.”

Oh my, where do I start. Ok, let’s start with the fact that those people he listed aren’t conservatives by any definition. Then let’s go to what the First Amendment actually says. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” Establishment is defined by Merriam Webster as “the act of establishing, or to institute (as a law) permanently by enactment or agreement or to put into a favorable position”

So what the First Amendment says is that government cannot enact a religion or put one in a favorable position. It says nothing about it having to be walled completely out of the public square. Of course, his “petulant children” comment got a snort of derision. I’d say threatening violence against others for their political votes (as was found on the internet and in the City of Philadelphia on election day) constitutes acting like a petulant child. Holding fast to our values certainly doesn’t.

The next part of this particular Dem’s advice was interesting, and deserves some discussion. He was telling how our party needs to evolve into a new one: “That movement must embody fiscal — not social — conservatism, small egalitarian government, and responsible free markets.”

This is a good point. We do need to be more vigilant about being fiscally smart and work for smaller government. Let me rewrite it “That movement must embody fiscal conservatism, small government which values hard work instead of punishing it, and responsible free markets, all while holding fast to social conservatism that defines its values.”

As for the rest, I’m thinking that you can take your smarmy “we know better than you” attitudes and go away.