A Liberal Conservative

Conservatism has lost her way, is adrift, has found no authentic home. The need for conservatism is real. People are stressed. Why is the government everywhere? People correctly perceive that their lifestyle is in danger, that they individually have too little power to sustain it. People are whelmed: Too much data. Can't we just slow down for a minute? Homer assures me the Gods may have a sympathetic heart, a sense of humor and divine rage. For which shall I pray?

Nostalgia. Preservation. Culture. Community. Privacy. Freedom. Self interest. These are acceptable ideas. But Conservatism hasn't been well represented at the lectern or at the pulpit. For the past forty years, her supposed servants have fought to politicize conservatism in one failed attempt after another, and each follows the prior, like so much dishwater, down the drain. The promulgation of windmills like death tax - a rendition that helps no one. Most recently holding the country and economy hostage on the debt ceiling. Politicians , of all classes of people, telling others they love their country more. It is perfectly lousy as representation goes. It is self interest expressed at a level not frequently long tolerated, even in highly tolerant societies.. Those who claim to represent conservatism are more opportunistic than altruistic and more ideological than theoretical. They do not practice a recognizable variant. And, they are a lie. She, the truth.

Liberalism is just as lost. The band of individuals faced down by giants, only in union can they prevail. The face of the giant changes. The need for cooperation is immutable. Great foils are a fixture of history. Individuals organize and governments grow exponentially in response. We don't trust any other institution to protect us more than the government. That may not always be what we tell polling firms, but all other evidence confirms it.

Who would besmirch his reputation to claim this design? Could you even count the number of government programs? Enough with the government programs already. How is that model different from a peasant asking an advance wage from the lord? How is that better? More predictable? Thank a Prussian. Bureaucracy as the chief instrument of social welfare? Is that really how liberalism advances its agenda in the twenty-first century? This is not liberalism.

If I could get a conservative liberal, I think I'd have exactly what I want.