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In Reply to: me too posted by Acheick on July 14, 2005 at 18:55:49:
It is obvious that you are a Republican, but I am not convinced that you are a conservative. Social and political positions like “conservative” and “liberal” are not synonymous with party loyalties like “Republican” and “Democrat”. As far as I can tell, you are a liberal who decided to change your party loyalty.
If “political conservative” means limiting the size of federal government and reducing the number federal regulations that govern the lives of citizens, then the current administration is extremely liberal, because we have the largest federal government in our history and Congress has appropriated more regulatory power than we’ve seen in 30 years.
If “social conservative” means creating federal policies and laws that promote and regulate traditional social mores and family values, then most “social conservatives” are political liberals who favor increased government involvement in citizens’ personal affairs.
From a Muslim perspective, there isn’t much difference between Catholic and Protestant Christians. From an Independent voter’s perspective, there isn’t much difference between Republicans and Democrats. Candidates from each party may be liberal or conservative on any given issue. For example, running up the federal deficit through a borrow-and-spend policy is NOT a conservative policy, because it is no different than running up deficits through a policy of tax-and-spend. Asking Congress to get involved in state governance in the Terri Schiavo case was the act of a liberal Republican president. Conservatives claim the right of states and local governance over federal intrusion into the private affairs of citizens.
Finally, building a strong military for self-defense purposes (such as homeland security) is a conservative position, but military deployment for police operations and nation-building is a liberal interventionist position. Many traditional conservatives in the U.S. are isolationists who do not support nation building on the back of the military. We can argue until the cows come home about whether the decision to invade Iraq was justifiable self-defense, but there is little question at this point in the game that our military is in the business of democratic nation building, which is a liberal interventionist policy.
