Today’s conservatives are not conservative, but liberal. This is due primarily to their abandonment of proper ethical standards. In exchanging sound ethics, they have prostituted themselves to some permutation of political correctness, which unlike true ethics is variant, novel, and evil. Unfortunately, Christian conservatives have also committed this sin, and together with their pagan counterparts will even brand the real conservatives as extremists, racists, or some other faddish and vacuous term. Let us now examine why conservatives are liberals.
The Relativity of Conservatism
Conservative is a relative term denoting a contingent point on a given ethical spectrum. The location on this spectrum where conservatism rests will be dependent on the location of the liberal point, thus making the term’s definition variant if not elusive. Moreover—and more important—the terms “conservative” and “liberal” carry an additional vagueness given their semantic subordination to the standard of ethics symbolized by the spectrum on which they lie. Of the two, conservative is that which tries to be strict to the standard, thus traditional and not open to divergence; liberal, in relation, is loose, progressive, open to shift.
Because of this two-fold relativity of the term “conservatism” we can account for the oddity that the Republican Party, for example, is both conservative and liberal. They are to the right of the Democratic Party on a spectrum measured by modern political values; yet they are radically leftist if measured by biblical law. But we do not need to abandon the term “conservative” because of this ambiguity; we need only define our standards with as much precision as possible.
Standards
For the Christian, then, two standards are appropriate for evaluating political candidates: God’s word and the Constitution. The former is justified because it is the ultimate standard of ethics; the latter is justified for it is the document the official swears (upon the authority of the former) to uphold. On the basis of the ethics of Scripture, a candidate is properly called liberal if he is pro-abortion. But even a pro-life candidate is rightly dubbed a liberal if he votes for the creation of unconstitutional programs or departments. A truly conservative politician, therefore, is one who crosses as close to center of this legitimate dual-axis of ethics. The available diagram should be helpful (click it to enlarge). A conservative will be a line that looks as close to a dot as possible; the liberal, a long line farther from the center. It matters not whether the person is in quadrant I or III (II and IV are no used in a two party diagram), as both a Democrat and Republican can equally rebel against the center of true conservatism.
Returning to the Republican Party, let us consider the weight of the thesis of this post. Republicans are considered the conservatives, Democrats the liberals. Christians may feel happy when they see Hannity sitting across the desk of Combs: “At least we have a conservative up there.” We hear on the AM dial personalities like Limbaugh, Coulter, Savage, Beck, and O’Riley, referring to this as “conservative talk radio.” But are mainline conservatives really conservative? They are not, for they are Republicans, a party that has never have never been truly conservative. Let’s consider but one crucial policiy of these conservatives, and then one popular candidate.
A Case Study
Neo-cons today (the Republican Party) are rarely opposed to wars of expansion and invasion when no real or imagined threat on our borders is material. According to a Christian theory of just war these wars are unlawful, and gauged by our primary axis, liberal. And given that most neo-conservatives have no problem disobeying the Constitution’s delineation that Congress must declare war, on the secondary axis too they are liberal.
Exploring this issue of unjust war further, let us look at a current neo-conservative candidate and see why pro-life does not always mean pro-life. The difference between just and unjust war is the difference between murder, and lawful killing. Yet, how often to our spines tingle when we hear of a Republican candidate who bravely announces his/her pro-life platform? Sarah Palin is fiercely pro-life on abortion, but rabidly against pro-life on foreign policy. Though there may be an antithesis between her views and those of an average Democrat, this does not justify the label of conservative.
On our diagram we see that on the single issue of the sanctity of life in war, she is far from center on both poles, thus a liberal by both standards. Approving of the current unjust wars is an abandonment God’s word regarding murder, and discards the Constitution regarding the necessity of Congress declaring war. As Christians, we should despise this ethic. Couple these atrocities with her ostensible approval of the recent war legislation that has crushed the Bill of Rights, and we see that her line is longer and farther away from the center. Mix in her explicitly unbiblical usurpation of men’s prerogatives both as a career mom and a female magistrate and Sarah Palin is perhaps more liberal than Bill Clinton.
The Pseudo-Axis and Political Correctness
The problem with most Christian conservatives is that they believe in a make-believe axis: the modern political axis, call it the Party Axis. The precise standards of the axis are irrelevant, though the limits are always set within the framework of whatever is politically correct. What matters is that there is the illusion of both a liberal and a conservative axis, and on each, liberal and conservative points. If I’m a Republican, whatever my party says and does is more or less conservative, whether it is non-interventionism or globalism; the other party is liberal, again more or less. Placed on her party’s axes, Palin looks good for two reasons: 1) she is on the more conservative of the two axes; 2) she is right of the current Republican President! The error here is also twofold: that measurements are seen relative to 1) other candidates in one’s party, and, 2) relative to the (seemingly) more left party . She is not, however, measured relative to our proper standards. It is because of this misleading axis that “conservatives” will delplore both real conservatives (either in ignorance or arrogance), and genuine liberals (in happy, coincidental, inconsistency). We just wish they would drop borrowing a label that does not belong to them, and join ranks with their “Democrat” cousins.
Applications
A true conservative honors the truth wherever it is found. He searches the scriptures and constitution with precision. He challenges the notions of political-correctness, preferring truth over acceptability. It takes bravery, and perhaps even rejection. But in stubbornly sticking to our properly authoritative documents, we are carrying on the true conservative tradition. As you consider the examples of forsaken conservatism in this chart, my inention is that you be compelled to dig and to think, not to give you a provocative jolt.
| Conservatives Say: | Real Conservatives Say: | P C Retort |
| Palin is a strong, brave Christian woman and leader. | Female magistrates are a sign of judgment (Isa. 3). Females are functionally subordinate to men because of design (1 Cor 11:8) and verdict (1 Tim 2:13). An enthusastic vote for her is a cheer for defeat. | You are a sexist, patriarch. |
|
Palin is a strong conservative, pro-life candidate. |
Palin is neither conservative nor pro-life, but rather a liberal Republican. Though she may never vote for abortion legislation, she is on board with the mass murder of Arabs in unjust wars. |
You are un-American. True patriots support their country in war. |
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Obama is a radical liberal who is pro-choice, and, thus, pro-murder. Therefore, he is not qualified to run for President. |
Obama is a negro, and is unqualified to be a citizen. The Fourteenth Amendment was passed by fraud. See above regarding who else is radical and pro-death. |
Racist. Bigot. Hater! |
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We believe in the equality of all, and find reprehensible those who discriminate on the basis of race, religion, and gender. |
Our forefathers were white nationals, and passed legislation (Naturalization Act of 1790) to only include immigrants who were white men of good character. Egalitarianism is anti-Christ doctrine that re-arranges the distinctions and hierarchies set up by God. |
Our founders were unenlightened and oppressive slave owners. Do you actually support slavery? |
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Drugs and welfare are the problem with crime-infected urban areas. |
Non-whites are the problem with crime-infected urban areas. Race is the leading indicator of crime and violence, not poverty, or other abstractions. The white exceptions prove the rule, due to the proportional imbalance in relevant statistics. |
Non-whites have not had the opportunities to rise above the poverty that brings them to crime. |
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The Republican Party is the party of freedom, the Deomcratic Party the party of socialism and communism. |
Actually, the only notable Republican I’m aware of as pro-freedom is Ron Paul, and he is dismissed by his Republican peers. On the contrary, the Republican party stands for the erosion of freedom. |
You and Ron Paul are fringe radicals. And I even think Ron Paul might be a racist and homophobe. |
Conclusion
Yes, most politicians are liberals, but there are few exceptions. I leave it to the reader to research perhaps some Constitutionalists and Libertarians to discover the many ways that nearly all our leaders mutilate the constitution. Most are of the aware of the ways they mutilate the Bible. And neither party has cared to end the mutilation of abortion when they have had the power to do so. When you witness popular political debate, be it Hannity & Combs, or McCain and Obama you are observing two liberals. The real conservatives are never represented. They are shunned by nearly all men and institutions, and especially by defeated Christian conservatives.
But you must dare to be one of the faithful.
“As a 20-year veteran of the Delaware State Police force, I resent the fact that he’s even a cop.”
Lee in the Mountains 