Posted on 11/08/2007 8:36:15 PM PST by backtothestreets
A Conservative Dilemma
I’m looking for answers!
I had an interesting discussion with a middle-aged woman today. She had immigrated to the USA a couple decades back, is now a US citizen, and thinks herself a conservative. She wants to restore the USA to what it was a couple decades ago. I’ve got my agenda aimed at a much earlier era. The discussion led me to make a presumption. That presumption is that there are generational conservatives, and they are not so much looking to conserve, but to restore a past way of life.
I’m wondering if anyone else sees part of conservatism this way. It might be that such people, including myself, might be better described as restorationists than conservatives. I’ll cite my own life experience for comparison. I know there is a television commentator that often uses the term traditionalists, and that is likely looking to restore also, but could be less, and just looking to retain present traditions.
I was born in 1949, and raised in a small town. I enjoyed an early youth in the United States marked by domestic tranquility. I know such tranquility was not realized by all in parts of the USA that were segregated, but such tranquility did exist in the township I lived in, and was socially, ethnically, culturally, and religiously diverse.
When I speak of conservative goals, I am often referring to restoring our nation to a time when local communities were often shaped by people of like values setting common standards. People that did not share the values of a community did not seek to move into those communities. They sought instead a community where their values were shared. This brought great domestic tranquility.
Some such communities still exist in the USA today, with the Amish communities and Indian Reservation coming to mind.
It is just my opinion, but in addressing the segregation, it seems the federal government threw out the baby with the bath water. The federal government forced all communities to abandon the shared value concept, and accept that one person had a right to move into a community they did not share values with, and turn that community on its collective ear.
I know from discussions with my elders, that their conservationism is anchored in a time before I was born. People younger than myself are often referring to a time when they were young, but had never enjoyed what their elders lived.
How much does the era a person was born into come into is a consideration for conservatives?
I was born in downstate Illinois in 1946. My parents were
raised on farms during the depression. My uncles served in WWII. That generation is leaving us.
I think that generation wanted their kids to have a better life and not be burdened by the same issues but they overcompensated with the result that their kids became the young adults of the 60’s, my/your generation.
Luckily, I volunteered for the Navy and got my head straightened out but most of our generation never have gotten their heads out of their posteriors. Now, we have another one up for election as the first female President of the US.
Allot. However, any American who calls himself a conservative, should share certain beliefs that are expressed in the writings of the Founding Fathers. Such things as individual liberty and personal responsibility.
Uh....Indian Reservations do NOT make me think of the values I want to return to.......alcohol, divorce, government funding....no sirreeee.....The Amish follow religious tenets.....the Indians...well...I’m not sure what they follow except the money they get handed for free.
An interesting concept, “restorationists,” but the target has to be what works (or worked), what is (or was) successful, and what is (or was) grounded in reality.
By and large, those values . . . or at least, the ways we try to approarch those values . . . are immune from generational recreation. They're not deconstructed and then reconstructed every thirty years or so.
We’re about the same age and I think that during our generation most immigrants assimilated to our country and language just fine.
But these are different times and way to PC..The RATS seem to think that we, America, have to cowtow to the illegals and other immigrants that don’t care to assimilate to our way and culture..too much spanish and other non-english languages spoken on our streets.
It will take a revolution, literally, to get America back on the right course, and I’m not too optimistic it will happen any time soon..one can only hope!!
The social history of the US post WWII is not primarily about interlopers disturbing settled communities, it’s about massive in-migration from rural areas to the cities and suburbs, coupled with and very high subsequent levels of geographic mobility for the people who made the transition. If you could somehow entirely subtracted out the “racial” issues, small-town America would still have experienced enormous social dislocations and frictons from such causes.
Ping to your post. Good post. I agree.
Then there were the damned cowardly hippies...
What is the alternative my FRiend?
Exactly..excellent post!!
There's two sure fire words in FR to get people spitting venom: Mormon and Indian
The Cherokee have a great prayer: "Oh Great Spirit, grant that I may never find fault with my neighbor until I have walked the trail of life in his moccasins."
Maybe I'm presuming?
Maybe you are Indian?
Maybe you have lived the life of an Indian on a reservation - as an Indian - for many moons?
If not, take a chill pill
Too much, unfortunately. That is one of the things Rush has commented on. People's view of history starts from when they were born. We all think that the time of our youth was better than it is today.
Case in point, the other day I was talking with a couple of men in their sixties. I'm 42. We were complaining about how kids are raised today with a lack of respect for parents, elders, and authority. "Back when I was a kid, that stuff was not tolerated. Out to the woodshed we went", said one of the men. The other then said, "Yeah, if only we could go back to that time. Everything was so much better."
After a few more minutes of listening to them talk about their "perfect" era, I finally asked this question, "If everything was so good back then, and all of your parents had everything down right, then why did they raise a bunch of children that were whiny, selfish brats?"
With a stunned look on his face, one of them answered, "Our folks came out of the depression, and one of the things that resulted from that was the insistence that their kids "would have it better" than they did."
We tend to not think that the problems we have today were a result from some bad decisions made by what we presume were some of the greatest people. That is the problem with going back to a period of time to establish what a model society should look like.
Instead we should be looking to go back to a set of ideals. My conservatism is not Reagan's, Goldwater's, or Rush's. My conservatism is Biblical Conservatism. The Bible says, "A man doesn't work, therefore a man shouldn't eat." The Bible says, "An honest days wages for an honest days work." The Bible promotes Capitalism. Never Socialism, which gives man and government the glory for good works instead of God. The Bible promotes self-responsibility, protecting ones family even unto death, heterosexuality, marriage between one man and one woman, and being self controlled.
I don't believe in these Conservative ideals because 25 years ago Reagan did. Or 45 years ago because Goldwater did. I believe these ideals because they come from God Himself. The All Mighty. And I would much rather have them rooted in an Eternal God than a period of time in a fallen world.
I take it you didn't have to 'assimilate' as a newly arrived Jew or Irishman/woman
Illegal aliens: Self-sufficient, hard-working, entrepreneurial.
Nativists: Lazy, spending hours whining about others taking their socialist benefits away from them.
Shows how much I know.
I thought there was only one: "Wal-mart."
I can’t tell from your cat smile if it’s sarcasm or not, but then again I’m a newbie..:)
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