our values
Apr. 30th, 2008 11:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sergebroomA few days ago, I saw a TV ad for a man who's running for the Senate. I can't remember if it was for the state's Senate, or for Congress, but it's no big surprise that I didn't bother using more of my brain cells to record that. Hell will freeze over before I vote for someone whose ad frequently emphasized that he is a Conservative, one who believes in Our Values.
What those values are, he doesn't tell us. They probably don't include the separation of Church and State, or the right to one's own religion, or one's right to no religion. They probably don't include the possibility for all of us to marry those they love.
As for what being a conservative means, I don't expect that his definition is the same as Pecunium's a couple of years ago wrote about liberalism and conservatism. Here is an excerpt:
What those values are, he doesn't tell us. They probably don't include the separation of Church and State, or the right to one's own religion, or one's right to no religion. They probably don't include the possibility for all of us to marry those they love.
As for what being a conservative means, I don't expect that his definition is the same as Pecunium's a couple of years ago wrote about liberalism and conservatism. Here is an excerpt:
I have both conservative traits, and liberal ones. I joined the Army, in the guise of the National Guard, because there was something I wanted to conserve. I believe in the ideas of the Declaration of Independence, and of the Constitution, enough that I was willing to risk, as the first of these said, "My life, my fortune, and my Sacred Honor," to defend them. Being in the Guard that fortune part is more true than not as well. Guys who have businesses often lose them (or see them founder for years) if they get deployed. The Active Component often pisses me off when they say, "they knew what they were signing up for," because it's not true. World War 3 is what they signed up for, in that context, and that hasn't happened, again I'm digressing.
So what do I want to conserve? A nation of laws, and a people who are equal under them. The right to be left alone (The Ninth amendment is probably the most significant one in the lot, fond as I am of the First, the Second, the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Tenth. The Third isn't really relevant, at the moment, and the Seventh has been; for good reason, put aside; sort of).
I believe no man is above the laws. We don't have kings, or emperors, nor yet do we establish Tyrants to rule us in time of war. We elect a President, and a set of Counsels to him (in the Form of the Senate and the House) who are to advise him, and keep him to the better track. They approve his appointments, and ratify his budgets. They make the laws, which he is both limited by; and enjoined to enforce.
