What I Believe (part I)

I've been giving a lot of thought to what exactly makes me a "conservative" or more accurately a Constitutionalist. Over the next several posts I'll be explaining where I stand on various issues and I hope that might aid in making clear where I'm coming from.

Some folks will say that labels are meaningless, or that by claiming a single position that might offend someone else by making that person seem "wrong." Well, some folks ARE wrong. Two plus two is indeed four, and similarly, some political and social positions are equally wrong. Now if you don't like being wrong, that's not my fault, nor is it my problem.

I don't happen to believe that the war against Islam is a left-right issue, but there are people who are making it such. This is wrong. The Muslims would kill atheist socialists as quickly as they would free market Christians or Jews. This is an issue of right against wrong as opposed to right against left. A fight for survival, which is what this battle is, shouldn't be politicized, but those on the left in this country (as well as opportunistic nominal rightists) have done so. This is just plain wrong. Differing on how to fight the war, or how to NOT have the intelligence failures that became apparent after OIF began are legitimate areas of discussion. One could even ask how do we withdraw if the Maliki government fails to adequately fight the Islamists that are killing Iraqi civilians. What's wrong and should be condemned is some of the treason being spewed by those on the left. If one cannot show some loyalty to one's own country, then leave. It's not hard to do, and people have left for political reasons in the past. My suspicion is that the people spewing treason here (Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Jesse Jackson, Madea Benjamin and the rest) won't leave because they know that in most countries treason is still prosecuted and punished...so they're not just seditious, they're also gutless.

I don't believe, however, that support for the War is a defining character of being a Constitutionalist. Adherance to principals of limited government and personal liberty are characters of that, however.

Our constitution was written to provide for maximum liberty with minimum interference by government. The size of the country, as well as it's heterogeneity, was recognized by granting specific powers to the states and local governments, and not vesting all power in the federal government. Those powers have been usurped by Washington over the past 70 and more years, and in my opinion, it is time for the American people to take that power back from DC!

My next rant will be about gun control. In my opinion, gun control is hitting your target....