Saturday, September 29, 2012
Conservative Credo IV
May 20, 2009 (Rev: 093012)
Let us reaffirm our beliefs
We Conservatives must look into ourselves to reaffirm our beliefs and our programs for the future. Realistic self-examination is never a pleasant act, but it is absolutely necessary to be able to proceed with the faith and confidence in our cause from here on out.
So what are our beliefs? Within Conservatism there are six main orders: spiritual, social, economic, political, military and cultural. A complete conservative blends each of these orders into his belief system. I will give my relatively short version here of these beliefs, which will need further clarification and amplification to bring out each of these orders and credos more fully. Within each order we must apply the following credos to the appropriate degree: realism; skepticism; federalism; evolutionism; and capitalism. Here is my listing:
Spiritual
We believe in God and have faith in the essence of His word in the Bible as interpreted by Biblical scholars and men of the cloth. We follow its logical and moral precepts as best we can, especially the Golden Rule. We know that man is fallible. He is capable of great good, but he is also capable of great evil. This fact has not changed significantly in thousands of years. We believe in the infinite value of life from inception onwards, and in its protection from murderers. We also believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage. We further believe that the movement to greater secularism in the nation is wrong, and it must be defeated. We believe in the Protestant work ethic and in pride in our workmanship.
We believe in the natural order of things as incorporated in Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Natural Duties, the majority of which have been included in our Constitution. This translates into the freedoms of speech, religion, movement, enterprise and assembly that we enjoy now, and in the duties of citizenship that we embrace.
We also believe that men of good character and moral strength, although not believers in God, can be rightly included in the fold of Conservatism, if they strongly support the main tenets below.
Social
We believe in self-reliance and individual responsibility and do not believe in government handouts at every hint of a “need” or entitlement. Government must not be the provider that everyone looks to in all cases. There must also be charity, by that name and not by the euphemism of welfare, to care for those who cannot care for themselves. We believe that it is the duty of all citizens to support charitable efforts throughout the nation, and to avoid the imposition of ever more government-sponsored welfare.
Our freedoms and liberties depend upon protection of our rights to private property by all levels of the government --whether material or intellectual.
We believe that our children must have a full and complete American education, devoid of flagrant bias and cant, and that well-formed curricula must be presented to them in the depth and breadth that they deserve. Further, this direction must be carried forward through higher education as well. We abhor the idea of our children and young adults being brainwashed by teachers and professors that are force-feeding our children a liberal or collective ideology.
Political
We believe in the precepts of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and believe in original interpretation of the intent of their words as best they can be determined. We believe the words can be improved to reflect the original intent more accurately, especially in the 1st, 2nd, and 16th Amendments. We also believe in the intent of the Constitution, as clarified by the 10th Amendment to limit the federal government strictly to those functions called out in the Constitution, and that the States have jurisdiction over the other functions, or else the people themselves. We do not believe in an all-powerful state that is not responsible to the people.
We believe that whoever rules least, rules best. Small but effective governance over the essentials for our security is the right way. The 1,177 existing government boards, committees, agencies, foundations, and commissions must be significantly reduced, along with a simplification and synthesis of rules and regulations that have proliferated to a ridiculous extent. We grant that many of these rules and regulations are actually necessary, but they should be drastically centralized, simplified and streamlined.
This tenet extends to the resurgence of states rights, as opposed to ever-increasing federal government dominance, as is called for in our Constitution. We believe in subsidiarity: that is, placing decisions at the lowest level of governance possible. It is also apparent that federal government may be forced to grow to some extent in some areas because of the growth of our population, but it should be held to a workable percentage of the population.
We believe that the principal duty of government is to provide the security and defense of our nation against all forms of aggression coming from either within or without our sovereign borders. To preserve and protect and to uphold the law is the motto. This includes the security of our borders from illegal entry, and the deportation of illegal entrants once found. A law that is on the books should either be enforced or removed from the books: an unenforced law allows too much descretion to the enforcers and their mangers.
To this end, we must have a strong military and a strong internal police force that is given the mission to cover land, sea, air and space. We must also recognize the threats we face from fanatics of many types, whether in or out of the country, and be prepared to deal with them effectively wherever necessary, even if it means preemptive action on our part. We believe in the concept of just war.
We believe that experimentation with new government structures, institutions, and customs must be severely constrained, since such experimentation with what has been successful and traditional for over 230 years may ultimately redound to our detriment due to unforeseen negative consequences for our freedoms. There is a well-proven path for changes to our Constitution; any other path must be stopped---in particular, legislation from the bench, proliferation of executive orders, and deliberate refusal to enforce laws for political reasons.
To this end, we believe that the federal government should have no fiscal, management, insurance or directive role in the provision of health care beyond Medicare and Medicaid, but it may have a regulatory role to ensure uniform quality of care. We also believe that the federal government should have no fiscal, management, or directive role in education, that being the role of States. However, the federal government, through the Congress, may give no-strings-attached grants to States for the purpose of improving state education, preferably using an automatic formula for distribution to avoid any federal influence on the States.
This tenet extends to the arena of international government, where we must not allow our sovereignty to be compromised by the UN or any other organization. Too many of the nations of the world are today far too hostile, and amoral or immoral to permit real democratic worldwide governance for the foreseeable future. However, it is apparent that we must assume a positive, proactive role in foreign relations in concert with other truly democratic nations that also follow precepts similar to ours. No UN law should be recognized in the US without full debate and passage by the Congress, and signed by the President. UN Laws that violate the Constitution, however, must not be recognized, ever. We must never relinquish our form of government or our laws to a foreign or UN-type organization and its ideas of governance, nor should we ever agree to a UN directed military force.
We believe that any person or group, any religion, or even nation that vows to overthrow our government or to harm our people has cast themselves out from our civil society and the protection of its laws, as well as out of the protection of accepted international treaties. We must therefore do what is necessary against these enemies of the state to ensure our nation from harm. America comes first. There can be peace through strength, but we must maintain and exercise that strength for valid and useful purposes.
We need to elect representatives that will further these objectives, and to reject representatives that fail to further them at the first opportunity.
Economic
We believe in tempering our mixed economy with greater freedoms as we go forward, since the operation of a free market is proven best for our economy. It is necessary, however, to have some accurately formulated regulations and inspections to thwart the ever-present human vices of greed and avarice that are well-known to exist, and that show increased sophistication over time. We must maintain a level playing field for the economic progress of all citizens.
We believe in caring for our environment in a responsible and economic manner, but not in rushing to erect some fantastic approach to mitigate what has been termed Global Warming or Climate Change. We believe that proper scientific investigations must be completed in a timely manner by objective American scientists, and properly peer reviewed, before spending billions of our taxpayer dollars for a chimera. That the current fantasy approach is not accepted science has been demonstrated by over 30,000 scientists, doctors and competent academics around the world signing up for dissent.
We believe in judicious exploitation of our natural resources, expecially oil, natural gas, coal, and the more recent solar and wind systems for generation of electrical power. We also believe in the modern employment of nuclear power generators to reenforce our energy rsources. The necessary means of transmission of resources and power must be supported nationwide. We believe that the government has a role in seeding new technologies and bringing them to fruition, but not in the government participating in commercialization or management of energy production. This holds for government intrusion into the commercial arena in general, such as their unprecedated illegal takeover of GM and Chrysler and their firing of a private sector CEO. These acts must be reversed.
We believe in fair and moderate taxation that every citizen must participate in as a percentage of their purchases or consumption, not income. The Fair Tax is the right approach. The idea of progressive taxation and releasing a majority of citizens from their tax obligations, largely to redistribute wealth, is both undemocratic and ultimately toxic to our economy. We believe that personal wealth is a positive good and it must not be sacrificed to the envy of the poor. We also believe that it is the duty of the better off to give substantive aid and instruction to the less fortunate to help them raise themselves economically. If one has wealth, one must use it effectively for the common good.
We believe in fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets, which is not easily initiated now, but we must begin to regain control of our financial house immediately. We must disabuse Congress and the President of the notion that money collected from the taxpayer is their money to spend as they see fit, such as in pork, earmarks, special entitlements, or "stimulus" that are in reality disguised favorite programs, and are clearly contrary to the will of the people.
In line with our emphasis on charity, we believe in helping less fortunate nations to succeed, provided that they remain friendly to us. We see no point in propping up hostile and failed states with our assets; but, still, humanitarian assistance is the right thing to do, if it can be efficiently and economically distributed to the needy without corruption.
Military
We must create and maintain an armed force second to none to ensure that we remain a free and democratic republic. It has been proven that an all volunteer military serves us best, and that only in dire emergencies should we institute a draft, such as required by a world war. We must pursue new developments and deployments for all aspects of a modern military force, including all manner of weapons, tanks, vehicles, aircraft, helicopters, ships, communications, command and control, intelligence, and logistics. We must train our troops thoroughly in all phases of warfare, and equip them with the best weaponry available. We must be able to fight in climates and terrains around the world, on and under the oceans, and in space to defend our way of life against all manner of threats. This is the price of maintaining our freedoms.
There should be few or no compromises to this doctrine of strong military capability in order to intimidate hostile nations from attempting any aggression, or to defeat them if they try. It is clear that there are hostile nations and groups of nations that could in the future pose a threat to our nation, the leading ones being China, Russia, and the group of 57 Islamic nations that practice an inherent, extremely serious, religiously-based threat to Christian nations. We have in place a series of mutual defense treaties around the world that must be honored, as they represent a solumn commitment of the nation to come to the defense of smaller nations under attack.
Cultural
We believe that government must be color, race, sex and origin blind, and must ensure equal opportunity for all, while definitively rejecting the concept of equal outcomes for all as being an anathema to our democracy. This extends to equality of treatment of all citizens and not to special treatment of some minorities. We believe in assimilation of legal immigrants, for example, and we believe that English must be the official language of the nation. We also believe that our multicultural society must be urged in the natural direction of a composite American Culture with clear and understood values over time, and that protected public cultural diversity for its own sake is divisive and dangerous. We do support endeavors to maintain a private cultural heredity. We do not believe in dual citizenship.
The many small and large customs and traditions that make up our local and national worldview must be preserved, since they represent the institutional memory of many cultural decisions made by our ancestors. The Christian viewpoint and symbolisms of our nation must be preserved against the predations of atheism and the ACLU.
It is often difficult to trace the origins of a custom or a tradition and to understand the reasoning behind it. Thus, until such background is understood, and the impact of any changes are also understood, we believe that our customs and traditions must be preserved intact, and not be altered or dropped without our full understanding and agreement to the consequences.
We note with sadness that judicious exceptions and adaptations must be made to these ideal tenets of conservatism in the interests of humanity and fairness to disadvantaged or fully-biased and intransigent peoples, but we must still consider the tenets as long-range goals for all.
Let us reaffirm our beliefs
We Conservatives must look into ourselves to reaffirm our beliefs and our programs for the future. Realistic self-examination is never a pleasant act, but it is absolutely necessary to be able to proceed with the faith and confidence in our cause from here on out.
So what are our beliefs? Within Conservatism there are six main orders: spiritual, social, economic, political, military and cultural. A complete conservative blends each of these orders into his belief system. I will give my relatively short version here of these beliefs, which will need further clarification and amplification to bring out each of these orders and credos more fully. Within each order we must apply the following credos to the appropriate degree: realism; skepticism; federalism; evolutionism; and capitalism. Here is my listing:
Spiritual
We believe in God and have faith in the essence of His word in the Bible as interpreted by Biblical scholars and men of the cloth. We follow its logical and moral precepts as best we can, especially the Golden Rule. We know that man is fallible. He is capable of great good, but he is also capable of great evil. This fact has not changed significantly in thousands of years. We believe in the infinite value of life from inception onwards, and in its protection from murderers. We also believe in the sanctity of traditional marriage. We further believe that the movement to greater secularism in the nation is wrong, and it must be defeated. We believe in the Protestant work ethic and in pride in our workmanship.
We believe in the natural order of things as incorporated in Natural Law, Natural Rights, and Natural Duties, the majority of which have been included in our Constitution. This translates into the freedoms of speech, religion, movement, enterprise and assembly that we enjoy now, and in the duties of citizenship that we embrace.
We also believe that men of good character and moral strength, although not believers in God, can be rightly included in the fold of Conservatism, if they strongly support the main tenets below.
Social
We believe in self-reliance and individual responsibility and do not believe in government handouts at every hint of a “need” or entitlement. Government must not be the provider that everyone looks to in all cases. There must also be charity, by that name and not by the euphemism of welfare, to care for those who cannot care for themselves. We believe that it is the duty of all citizens to support charitable efforts throughout the nation, and to avoid the imposition of ever more government-sponsored welfare.
Our freedoms and liberties depend upon protection of our rights to private property by all levels of the government --whether material or intellectual.
We believe that our children must have a full and complete American education, devoid of flagrant bias and cant, and that well-formed curricula must be presented to them in the depth and breadth that they deserve. Further, this direction must be carried forward through higher education as well. We abhor the idea of our children and young adults being brainwashed by teachers and professors that are force-feeding our children a liberal or collective ideology.
Political
We believe in the precepts of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, and believe in original interpretation of the intent of their words as best they can be determined. We believe the words can be improved to reflect the original intent more accurately, especially in the 1st, 2nd, and 16th Amendments. We also believe in the intent of the Constitution, as clarified by the 10th Amendment to limit the federal government strictly to those functions called out in the Constitution, and that the States have jurisdiction over the other functions, or else the people themselves. We do not believe in an all-powerful state that is not responsible to the people.
We believe that whoever rules least, rules best. Small but effective governance over the essentials for our security is the right way. The 1,177 existing government boards, committees, agencies, foundations, and commissions must be significantly reduced, along with a simplification and synthesis of rules and regulations that have proliferated to a ridiculous extent. We grant that many of these rules and regulations are actually necessary, but they should be drastically centralized, simplified and streamlined.
This tenet extends to the resurgence of states rights, as opposed to ever-increasing federal government dominance, as is called for in our Constitution. We believe in subsidiarity: that is, placing decisions at the lowest level of governance possible. It is also apparent that federal government may be forced to grow to some extent in some areas because of the growth of our population, but it should be held to a workable percentage of the population.
We believe that the principal duty of government is to provide the security and defense of our nation against all forms of aggression coming from either within or without our sovereign borders. To preserve and protect and to uphold the law is the motto. This includes the security of our borders from illegal entry, and the deportation of illegal entrants once found. A law that is on the books should either be enforced or removed from the books: an unenforced law allows too much descretion to the enforcers and their mangers.
To this end, we must have a strong military and a strong internal police force that is given the mission to cover land, sea, air and space. We must also recognize the threats we face from fanatics of many types, whether in or out of the country, and be prepared to deal with them effectively wherever necessary, even if it means preemptive action on our part. We believe in the concept of just war.
We believe that experimentation with new government structures, institutions, and customs must be severely constrained, since such experimentation with what has been successful and traditional for over 230 years may ultimately redound to our detriment due to unforeseen negative consequences for our freedoms. There is a well-proven path for changes to our Constitution; any other path must be stopped---in particular, legislation from the bench, proliferation of executive orders, and deliberate refusal to enforce laws for political reasons.
To this end, we believe that the federal government should have no fiscal, management, insurance or directive role in the provision of health care beyond Medicare and Medicaid, but it may have a regulatory role to ensure uniform quality of care. We also believe that the federal government should have no fiscal, management, or directive role in education, that being the role of States. However, the federal government, through the Congress, may give no-strings-attached grants to States for the purpose of improving state education, preferably using an automatic formula for distribution to avoid any federal influence on the States.
This tenet extends to the arena of international government, where we must not allow our sovereignty to be compromised by the UN or any other organization. Too many of the nations of the world are today far too hostile, and amoral or immoral to permit real democratic worldwide governance for the foreseeable future. However, it is apparent that we must assume a positive, proactive role in foreign relations in concert with other truly democratic nations that also follow precepts similar to ours. No UN law should be recognized in the US without full debate and passage by the Congress, and signed by the President. UN Laws that violate the Constitution, however, must not be recognized, ever. We must never relinquish our form of government or our laws to a foreign or UN-type organization and its ideas of governance, nor should we ever agree to a UN directed military force.
We believe that any person or group, any religion, or even nation that vows to overthrow our government or to harm our people has cast themselves out from our civil society and the protection of its laws, as well as out of the protection of accepted international treaties. We must therefore do what is necessary against these enemies of the state to ensure our nation from harm. America comes first. There can be peace through strength, but we must maintain and exercise that strength for valid and useful purposes.
We need to elect representatives that will further these objectives, and to reject representatives that fail to further them at the first opportunity.
Economic
We believe in tempering our mixed economy with greater freedoms as we go forward, since the operation of a free market is proven best for our economy. It is necessary, however, to have some accurately formulated regulations and inspections to thwart the ever-present human vices of greed and avarice that are well-known to exist, and that show increased sophistication over time. We must maintain a level playing field for the economic progress of all citizens.
We believe in caring for our environment in a responsible and economic manner, but not in rushing to erect some fantastic approach to mitigate what has been termed Global Warming or Climate Change. We believe that proper scientific investigations must be completed in a timely manner by objective American scientists, and properly peer reviewed, before spending billions of our taxpayer dollars for a chimera. That the current fantasy approach is not accepted science has been demonstrated by over 30,000 scientists, doctors and competent academics around the world signing up for dissent.
We believe in judicious exploitation of our natural resources, expecially oil, natural gas, coal, and the more recent solar and wind systems for generation of electrical power. We also believe in the modern employment of nuclear power generators to reenforce our energy rsources. The necessary means of transmission of resources and power must be supported nationwide. We believe that the government has a role in seeding new technologies and bringing them to fruition, but not in the government participating in commercialization or management of energy production. This holds for government intrusion into the commercial arena in general, such as their unprecedated illegal takeover of GM and Chrysler and their firing of a private sector CEO. These acts must be reversed.
We believe in fair and moderate taxation that every citizen must participate in as a percentage of their purchases or consumption, not income. The Fair Tax is the right approach. The idea of progressive taxation and releasing a majority of citizens from their tax obligations, largely to redistribute wealth, is both undemocratic and ultimately toxic to our economy. We believe that personal wealth is a positive good and it must not be sacrificed to the envy of the poor. We also believe that it is the duty of the better off to give substantive aid and instruction to the less fortunate to help them raise themselves economically. If one has wealth, one must use it effectively for the common good.
We believe in fiscal responsibility and balanced budgets, which is not easily initiated now, but we must begin to regain control of our financial house immediately. We must disabuse Congress and the President of the notion that money collected from the taxpayer is their money to spend as they see fit, such as in pork, earmarks, special entitlements, or "stimulus" that are in reality disguised favorite programs, and are clearly contrary to the will of the people.
In line with our emphasis on charity, we believe in helping less fortunate nations to succeed, provided that they remain friendly to us. We see no point in propping up hostile and failed states with our assets; but, still, humanitarian assistance is the right thing to do, if it can be efficiently and economically distributed to the needy without corruption.
Military
We must create and maintain an armed force second to none to ensure that we remain a free and democratic republic. It has been proven that an all volunteer military serves us best, and that only in dire emergencies should we institute a draft, such as required by a world war. We must pursue new developments and deployments for all aspects of a modern military force, including all manner of weapons, tanks, vehicles, aircraft, helicopters, ships, communications, command and control, intelligence, and logistics. We must train our troops thoroughly in all phases of warfare, and equip them with the best weaponry available. We must be able to fight in climates and terrains around the world, on and under the oceans, and in space to defend our way of life against all manner of threats. This is the price of maintaining our freedoms.
There should be few or no compromises to this doctrine of strong military capability in order to intimidate hostile nations from attempting any aggression, or to defeat them if they try. It is clear that there are hostile nations and groups of nations that could in the future pose a threat to our nation, the leading ones being China, Russia, and the group of 57 Islamic nations that practice an inherent, extremely serious, religiously-based threat to Christian nations. We have in place a series of mutual defense treaties around the world that must be honored, as they represent a solumn commitment of the nation to come to the defense of smaller nations under attack.
Cultural
We believe that government must be color, race, sex and origin blind, and must ensure equal opportunity for all, while definitively rejecting the concept of equal outcomes for all as being an anathema to our democracy. This extends to equality of treatment of all citizens and not to special treatment of some minorities. We believe in assimilation of legal immigrants, for example, and we believe that English must be the official language of the nation. We also believe that our multicultural society must be urged in the natural direction of a composite American Culture with clear and understood values over time, and that protected public cultural diversity for its own sake is divisive and dangerous. We do support endeavors to maintain a private cultural heredity. We do not believe in dual citizenship.
The many small and large customs and traditions that make up our local and national worldview must be preserved, since they represent the institutional memory of many cultural decisions made by our ancestors. The Christian viewpoint and symbolisms of our nation must be preserved against the predations of atheism and the ACLU.
It is often difficult to trace the origins of a custom or a tradition and to understand the reasoning behind it. Thus, until such background is understood, and the impact of any changes are also understood, we believe that our customs and traditions must be preserved intact, and not be altered or dropped without our full understanding and agreement to the consequences.
We note with sadness that judicious exceptions and adaptations must be made to these ideal tenets of conservatism in the interests of humanity and fairness to disadvantaged or fully-biased and intransigent peoples, but we must still consider the tenets as long-range goals for all.
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