The Misunderstood Conservative: Liberal Misconceptions about Conservatives PART 1 - POVERTY

            Over and over again in conversations with liberals, reading liberal blogs, listening to liberal talk radio, or watching liberals on television, I continue to see conservatives misrepresented at the most basic levels. I have also noticed that as conservatives we seem to do a very poor job in rebutting these misrepresentations in a clear concise manner. These two factors working in conjunction paint a very inaccurate picture of conservatives in the eyes of the public, and make conservative figures easy targets for demagoguery. 

            To help clear up some of these misconceptions I will be writing a series of articles to address specific issues and misconceptions. While I doubt many liberals will read this I hope the conservatives who do will be a little better prepared to combat misstatements when they are witness to them.

Poverty

            Understanding and ending poverty has long been held by liberals as their arena. They have positioned themselves as the segment of the population that cares about the poor while painting conservatives as uncaring wealthy individualists. This could not be further from the truth. Conservatives care deeply about ending poverty, as do liberals; the difference however lies in the approach we each prefer to use in tackling the problem.

            Liberals take the stance that we should all help those in poverty, viewing them as “less fortunate,” with no attention given to why the poor are poor. In most liberal minds poverty is something that happens to you. To ask the question: “Why are you poor?” is off limits to liberals because to them this is judgmental and really irrelevant. All that matters is some are poor and some are not, and because of this social inequity action must be taken to ease the burden of the poor. The liberal course of action is a strong dose of government with assistance from private charities.

It is one of the core conservative beliefs that government is never the answer that allows liberals to view us as uncaring. On closer examination we will find that the conservative response to poverty is well thought out and vastly more effective than the simple answer offered by liberals.

As conservatives we do ask the question “Why are you poor?” because we believe the answer will lead us to the best solution. We also believe that poverty is in large part not something that happens by chance but as a result of decisions and choices made. While liberals are too scared place responsibility and want to remain as far as possible from personal accountability, conservatives know this is at the very heart of the solution. We do not wish to pass judgment on anyone, but again, understanding how someone came to be poor will help us better tailor an individual solution to pull that person out of poverty. For example – the path out of poverty for someone who was born into poverty and knows no other way of life is very different than the path out of poverty for someone who was born into wealth and is now poor due to foolish decision making.

In any case the conservative approach requires the person in poverty to take responsibility for their situation. We want each person we help to understand the factors and circumstances that lead to poverty and how develop habits and practices that lead away from poverty and to financial success.

Helping in this way allows those who were once poor to gain self-confidence and self-reliance; contrast this to the liberal approach which breeds only government dependency.  This approach is much more personal that the liberal method; so much so that it could never be administered effectively by the government. The conservative approach, our approach, can only be successful on a local and individual basis by private charity groups and community organizations.  Any federal effort would be too cookie cutter to truly help.

So I ask you this: which approach to ending poverty is more caring? Which approach truly helps and which simply finds the easiest way out? As I am sure we will find out in the articles to follow many of our conservative beliefs are far deeper than liberals will want to give us credit. Let us no longer stand for the mindless ramblings being spewed forth by liberals and set the record straight.

The Dying Ember of Freedom: A Most Disturbing Trend

Freedom in the United States has always been a light that burned so bright it could be seen from even the farthest reaches of the Earth. Our citizens had always been active participants in expanding and preserving freedom. We abolished slavery, fought for women’s suffrage, and stood side by side during the civil right movement. Yes, at one time it seemed we knew what freedom was and embraced it with our very beings. But times have changed and now that once raging inferno is now no more than a small dying ember with barely a glow left. During this election season it seems that Americans are going to flock in record numbers vote against freedom.

            Perhaps though it isn’t freedom we now shun but the responsibility that walks hand in hand with freedom. In a free society each and every one of us is responsible for the freedom we have. We are free to succeed and we are free to fail. One of the harsh truths of freedom is that we are responsible for our station in life based on how we have chosen to govern our freedoms. Yes, there are things that happen beyond our control, but we still have the freedom to choose how we will react, and we have the freedom to prepare or not to prepare for such events.

Handing this responsibility of freedom over to the government is at the very heart of Barack Obama’s campaign. Tens of thousands turn out to hear Obama speak his platform and they cheer when he speaks of taxes, health care, and education. I listen to the same words, but I do not cheer. I wonder why we are so eager to hand our responsibilities over to the government. I wonder if we cherish freedom as we did just a few years ago. I wonder if we even still understand what true freedom is or the magnitude of responsibility that exists in a free society.

I hear people almost in tears of joy speak about how Barack Obama is going to educate their children. They talk about his policy of starting more early education programs and his talk of a college education being a right. Do these same people realize that as a parent early childhood education is their responsibility? Do they know it is their responsibility to save for a college education or to seek out scholarships or loans? We seem to have forgotten that “Mom” and “Dad” are more than just titles, they are full time jobs, and that our children need us, not the government, to teach and provide for them.

I hear Barack Obama supporters cheer when he talks about taxes. I hear them almost giddy over comments like “spreading the wealth”. We as Americans like to think we are hard workers and we have the right to keep our earnings. But Obama and his supporters don’t seem to have a problem reaching into the pocket of others to take what they have earned. When did this become acceptable? Some with call this “leveling the playing field” or “helping working families”, but is this anything other than the redistribution of wealth? Have we forgotten that each of us is responsible for our own standard of living? If we want more out of life we have the freedom to obtain what we want on our own. It may take some time and effort, but at least we will have earned it.

These are just a two of the numerous policy stands of Barack Obama that work to shed the American citizenry of responsibility and in the process shed us of our freedoms. The answer to success in a free society isn’t a secret. If each of us accepts the responsibility of freedom and uses that freedom wisely we will find ourselves in a much better place than government control. It isn’t too late to rekindle the fires of freedom and though the road to success through freedom may be longer and take more effort it will be that much sweeter in the end because we will still be free.