I'm Conservative... About Ya Motha

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It's rare to see the Doctor making house calls (unless it's to slay bitches or something cool like that), but it might be even more rare to see him break into the realm of politics. So consider yourselves damned lucky. I stumbled across (or upon if you're cool in that way) an article on www.cnn.com written by someone whom I thought I hated. He's got a baby face, sounds like a gay? Yeah, you know who I'm talking about. Anyway, he wrote a pretty great article on conservative politics today, and I thought I'd give a reflection on it. And a colonic. Find out what a colonic is (and where to sign up to receive one) after the jump. A colonic is a 45 minute enema. Yes, that long. Yes, a hose in your butt. Having doubt? Steven Jackson got one (no joke, look it up on Yahoo! Sports). Back to YA BOY Glenn Beck on CNN. A link to the article is here. Anyway, let me tell you about my political ideology before I begin. I am a pretty devout Catholic and identify as a Republican for that reason. I vote on lines of respecting human life, respecting religious practice of all kind, and rejecting anything totally contrary to my beliefs. Sure I have other ideas and issues I take a stance on, but the ones I care most strongly about are religiously affiliated and that sort of thing. So yeah, I'm a Republican. Or so I thought. See, despite having my strong Catholic views which steer me to the Republican party, there are a number of things I dislike. The opposition to gun control laws. Some of our foreign policy stances. Tax cuts (or loopholes) for the ridiculously wealthy. Oil lobbyists. Big business influencing Washington. Things like that. Now some of those things aren't solely done by Republicans, but people definitely associate those things with them. For that reason, for this "lesser of two evils" quality of our two-party system, I've always wondered if I'd prefer a different form of political organization in America. Maybe a parliamentary system or something like that. I don't really know. But I did realize, at some point, that my heart did not wholly belong to the Republican party. I was something else. I was, and am, a conservative. And I discovered that when I read the article that Glenn Beck wrote. I always thought I was a conservative because I knew I was definitely not a liberal, but I admit to not knowing much about conservative ideology outside of two things: they opposed liberals and conserve means "don't change." But Glenn Beck's attempt to define conservative beliefs, to lay out most if not all the points of contention that conservatives agree upon, really showed me what the ideological camp that I had ascribed myself to was. I could not help but nod my head with everything Glenn Beck wrote in his article, all of which he wrote in a careful, deliberate, and honest manner. Two of the points he made really grabbed my attention: The right to fail. I've been thinking those things for so long, but no politician could ever say it at the risk of losing votes. Yes, yes and yes! The only society that can offer the chance to succeed fairly and without bias is one that must also allow you to fail. There's something that America requires, and it's drive and work ethic. The American Dream isn't given, it isn't handed over. It is earned and deserved. All the way back to our founding and up through the times of Horatio Alger's Ragged Dick (yes I just wanted to say Dick, you caught me) right up until today, America is a land where you earn what you keep, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Families. I think that really should be the core of everything in this country. The building block, if you will. It's what we were founded on, and it's not something that needs to be changed. This is a good example of something not exclusive to either party. Some people emphasize this point and it's not important to others. I was raised eating dinner at the table with my family every night, and it's something that simply cannot be replaced. This quote, attributed to a Hasidic Rabbi (if you know the author please let me know, I couldn't find it), says a lot about how I feel about the family. I heard it in 8th grade English class with Mrs. Black.

When I was young, I set out to change the world. When I grew a little older, I perceived that this was too ambitious so I set out to change my state. This, too, I realized as I grew older was too ambitious, so I set out to change my town. When I realized I could not even do this, I tried to change my family. Now as an old man, I know that I should have started by changing myself. If I had started with myself, maybe then I would have succeeded in changing my family, the town, or even the state— and who knows, maybe even the world.

 

The rest of what Mr. Beck writes is well said, of course, but those two really got to me. The respect for life and others, the small government, the power of the private and financially independent individual, they all seem to resonate within me, as well. Glenn Beck seems to have struck a chord with his article, at least for me and my political views. As such, I plan on repaying him, in kind, with a handj. The Doctor