AA for Conservatives?

“Hi! My name is Billy Windsor and I am a conservative.” Let me say that again. “My name is Billy Windsor and I am a conservative.” One more time for emphasis……”My name is Billy Windsor and I am a conservative!” Ahhh…..you try it now. “My name is (insert name) and I am a conservative.”

Since the election of President Obama, all I have heard is how irrelevant conservatives are, that our ideas have been rebuked and thrown away by a majority of Americans. One writer on the Jackson Sun forums said that conservatives need their own version of AA (hence the opening) to face our demons and embrace the “real world”. But this thought begs the following questions:

1. Are we conservatives truly irrelevant?
2. Have our ideas been rebuked?
3. What “demons” do we need to rid ourselves of?
4. To use an Obama-ism, what change can WE believe in?

Answer #1 – Are we truly irrelevant? My simple reply is “No”, but let’s be a little more specific. No, we are not irrelevant. We (by that I mean conservatives) make up a sizable portion of the population. We are not a majority, but like liberals, have a loud voice that can be heard when used. We are all from different backgrounds: poor, rich, blue-collar, white-collar, white, black, Asian, Hispanic, so on and so forth. So, do you think we should be considered irrelevant?

Answer #2 – Have our ideas been rebuked? They may not have been rebuked, but they have definitely been pushed to the back of the line. Why is that? Unfortunately, it has to do with the fact that the Republican Party seemingly embraced the left’s way of thinking with spending. The party of limited government morphed into a bloated helium balloon, which was popped in 2006. Don’t get me wrong, we conservatives are as guilty as anyone else, mainly because we were not vocal about how the party changed. Now, we are maligned as “hypocrites” when we complain about the current level of spending vs. what President Bush spent. We may not have been rebuked, but our moral standing and ideas have taken a beating.

Answer #3 – The left would say that our demons are: old ideas, failed policies (i.e. tax cuts), and no compassion for the “less fortunate”. I would have to vastly disagree! I firmly believe that our “demons” that we need to destroy are: lack of communication, failure to be vocal, and not getting the younger generations on board with us.

We as conservatives are fighting an uphill battle in the war of communication. In the mainstream, our only true voice is talk radio, and even that is under attack. So, we need to broaden our way of communication to get our ideas and thoughts out there. As mentioned earlier, our failure to be vocal has allowed our ideas to be pushed aside and have us maligned as “hypocrites”. We need to stand up and say “This is what we think and how it should be”. And this starts with getting younger people involved. President Obama capitalized on this by involving the “Youtube” generation. Though we have a lot of young conservatives, we allowed the left to define us as old men and women with no understanding of how things work today. That has to change today!

Answer #4 – What change can we believe in? It is definitely not the change that is being preached by President Obama and those who support him. By definition, being conservative means we are not open to change, that we need to keep the “old ways”. However, being a conservative in the United States means that we need to support the true ideas we have stood for. That means a limited government and not a bloated, George Orwellian “1984” Big Brother. That means capitalism with supply and demand, not socialistic redistribution of wealth. That means promoting those who celebrate achievement and competition while demoting those who want “fairness” at the cost of punishing success. It means lower taxes for all (or my preferred way of the Fair Tax). What it means is that if we want change (to use the Obama-ism), then we have to make that change ourselves and not wait for someone else to do it.