Saving the Conservatives

Conservative principles begin with "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." I can agree with that idea. I think there's a good argument to be made for a healthy degree of skepticism towards change - ideas that are genuinely good will survive the skepticism, and come out stronger, as even the best idea will have problematic features in the first draft, such as excessive idealism, unintended consequences, or other problems. A healthy degree of skepticism and healthy debate will result in improvements to the basically good ideas, while weeding out the mistaken ones.

Unfortunately, there are some who overemphasize the status quo, and see any change to it as bad, and even worse, those who believe that a certain point in the past (which is often largely mythological rather than factual) was better than the present, and thus, that change should be made in the direction of restoring that imagined past.

In many ways, the liberals in this country are more faithful to traditional ideals of our country, such as fairness, co-operation, responsibility, and so forth, than the "conservatives".

I must kindly take issue with the notion that fairness, co-operation and responsibility are liberal values. It was, after all, radical Republicans who opposed slavery.

Yes, and the Republicans were liberals at the time, in the most literal sense of the term! Liber = free.

Let's just say change isn't always fair, nor is discarding old things that work responsible. And most of the liberals I've run into have been the ones unwilling to work with me, not the other way around.

ysabetwordsmith being an exception I personally know. *bows to hostess*

I didn't say that change is always good. And I find conservatives, overall (with individual exceptions, of course), just as unwilling to work with liberals as liberals are to work with conservatives. It's unfortunate, and I think that society overall would be much better off if liberals and conservatives were more willing to work together, and to give serious consideration to their opponents' positions. Overall, though, I think that liberal positions are generally more fair than conservatives, and more responsible. I believe that expecting companies to follow certain standards of pollution, labor relations, etc., is more responsible than laissez-faire economics. I believe that extending civil rights to minorities is more fair than, for example, denying certain groups of people the right to marry. I agree that conservative, in and of itself, is not a bad thing, nor is liberalism always a good thing.

It didn't startle me. Probably because I learned about the Civil War and slavery and all long before I was old enough to care about politics. :-) I was probably more surprised to find out what the parties' relative positions were now when I started to pay attention to politics. :)

I like that phrasing. Mind if I steal it? :-) It rather describes how I feel as well.

I think that we essentially agree about these things. Here what my comment is... since the 1980s we have been convinced that somehow "government" is our enemy. This is not true. The government is US. We are the ones who hire representatives who are supposed to act in our best interest. I think people have completely lost sight of that. The end result is just exactly as that article points out. Things like Katina happen. No one keeps an adequate eye on the economy to prevent things like the current mortgage disaster... and on and on.

If I call any big corporation, I get some sort of service. There are people there to help me. Why? Because I am a potential customer. When was the last time you tried calling any government agency? Long waits, or, short office hours. Basically, there is not even enough money to run basic functions. Who does that serve? Does that serve us? I don't think so.

Exactly. Acting in a moral fashion IS good business. Humans developed morality as a survival tool. Besides being immoral and bad business, what is going on is just plain short-sighted and self-destructive.

That was why the 7 Deadly Sins were called Deadly. They are excesses that can kill.

Blessed Be/Amem.

You took the words write out of my mouth.