Vote Like a Conscious Conservative

The 2010 election is less than a month away.  This is the perfect time to exercise your Conscious Conservative brain power and vote for candidates that will promote true conservatism in public office.  Be careful, there are many Unconscious Conservatives out there.  They will try to fool you with labels like Republican, family values candidate, Tea Party, Patriot.  A label is not an ideology.  I propose that we vote for only Conscious Conservatives and offer this quick guide to help.

1.  A Conscious Conservative can be of any party.  Republicans want you to believe that they have a monopoly on conservatism.  Many Republican Party candidates are Unconscious Conservatives,or not conservative at all.  Often you will find the Conscious Conservative is running under the label of the Libertarian Party, the Conservative Party or the Constitution Party.  Sometimes even the Democratic Party candidate will be the Conscious Conservative of the bunch.

2.  Look at the candidate's stand on the issues.  If you cannot determine the candidate's opinions, they are not a Conscious Conservative.  Often however, they will try to deceive you with Unconscious Conservative issues.  

                     Unconscious Conservative-  There should be prayer in public school.
                     Conscious Conservative-     There should be private schools.

                     Unconscious Conservative-  There should be a flat tax or fair tax.
                     Conscious Conservative-      There should be no direct tax on people's labor.

3.  Look at what a candidate has actually done.  Too often, talk is cheap.

4.  Don't be afraid to write in a vote or not vote at all.  The politicians count on the fact that we want to do our part as good Americans and vote.  They have manipulated that desire by creating a system where we are offered substandard candidates and are encouraged to vote for them.  You don't have to, it's okay.

I hope that you will follow this guide and go to the polls this November with an eye towards only voting for Conscious Conservative candidates.

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Conscious Pledge to America

When I began to write this post, I originally planned to analyze the Republican Pledge to America to see how it compared to Conscious Conservative principles.  When I downloaded a copy of the Pledge, I was immediately struck by one realisation.  The Republicans are insane!  The Pledge is 21 pages long in its original format and written in governmental jargon and doublespeak.  This Pledge is a prime example of what is wrong with today's legislative process.  Instead of being to the point with easy to understand goals and principles, it is long and full of unclear passages and side agendas, much like the bills that come out of Congress.  Oh, and there are plenty of graphs and quotations that look swell.  How do you solemnly swear to uphold a graph?

Look at other pledges to compare.  Both the Pledge of Allegiance and the Hippocratic Oath are far shorter, but seem to get their point across.  The Declaration of Independence is much shorter also.  Although I didn't do an exact word count, it appears that the Magna Carta wasn't very ambitious at all when compared with the Republican Pledge to America.

The Conscious Conservative Pledge

I, as a Conscious Conservative, pledge to work to return to the fiscally sound US dollar, to balance the federal budget, to bring all United States troops home to protect the United States border, to abolish the income tax, to return all rights and responsibilities of child rearing to parents, and to leave all decisions on moral issues to individuals who are free to follow their own religious preference.   

That sure seems shorter, easier to understand and more effective.  I'm open to suggestions.  Feel free to add any in the comments below.  Just don't make any that are doublespeak, unclear or just plain insane.

The Unconscious Conservative

     Many years ago I was looking for a group of fellow conservatives so I could find fellowship and discuss ideas.  I came across a group of Republicans.  Having been told my entire life that the Republican Party was the Party for Conservatives,  I decided to talk to them.  I asked them if they were conservative and they replied that they were.  However, I'm a bit skeptical by nature so I decided to give them a test.  One of the items that had drawn me most to the conservative belief system was the stance against communisim and totalitarian regimes in general.  I had recently read "The Communist Manifesto" by Karl Marx so I quizzed the Republicans about their beliefs on the various tenets of communism.  To my surprise, they agreed with most of the communist doctrine.  I am sure that these people were honest and believed that they were conservative but I believe that they were actually Unconscious Conservatives.  Unconscious Conservatives are those people who sleepwalk blindly through political life, believing that what their favorite politician or radio host tells them is a conservative belief actually is a conservative belief.  I prefer to be a Conscious Conservative.  I analyze each position to determine if it truly matches conservative values.

To Illustrate this further,  let's contrast some views of Communists, Unconscious Conservatives and Conscious Conservatives.

Communist-  Abolish private property
Unconscious Conservative-  Regulate uses of private property and determine who can own what property
Conscious Conservative-  Allow complete ownership of private property with all rights and privileges

Communist-  Establish a Progressive Income Tax
Unconscious Conservative-  Establish a "Flat Tax" or "Fair Tax"
Conscious Conservative-  Any Tax on the fruit of a person's labor or intellect is theft and immoral

Communist-  Centralize credit in a National Bank
Unconscious Conservative-  Support a Federal Reserve system--Use public funds to help banks that are "too big to fail"
Conscious Conservative-  Abolish the Federal Reserve, return to a sound monetary system.

The list could go on, but the main point has been made.  The Unconscious Conservative agrees with the Communist but modifies the position slightly so that it isn't "too radical"  or makes "good common sense."  The Conscious Conservative considers each position in light of the principles of natural rights for all human beings, the ideas of the Founding Fathers of the United States of America and the concepts of liberty and equality under the law.