Posted by
bdog on Thursday, July 30, 2009 10:39:01 AM
We are being manipulated! There is no question about it. Both parties are driving the middle to the extremes. We have been buying into false narratives of left and right to the benefit of a small few who benefit regardless of who is in power. There is no question that this process of false pendulum swings is hurting our country and hurting us as a free people. It is time to take our country back. We simply need to discover the best way to do it as our current methods tend to be ineffective at best. They may in fact be counter productive.
Consider the position of the loyal opposition. We must be loyal to the underlying framework of government. We must respect the democratic process. Elections have consequences, and we must win elections through the quality of our ideas and our ability to persuade people to our point of view. We must be very careful as to the material we consider to be fact as false steps undermine our cause.
Our opposition is expressed through facts, evidence, and rational thought. There is no reason to suggest our opposition is intellectually or morally inferior to us. There is no reason to suggest they love our country less than we do. We are opposed to ideas that we believe will hurt our country because we have historical evidence that this is the case. We believe that the opposition is not evil, even though we believe them to be wrong.
Ronald Reagan understood the power of the loyal opposition. He was able to smile and deliver his opposing ideas better than they could deliver theirs. He questioned ideas while not questioning patriotism. He challenged one's interpretation of facts without challenging their intellect.
I am an independent. I would call myself a conservative but I no longer understand what that means. Conservatives are not Republicans and have not been for a very long time. I understand that the government has an interest in creating moral citizens with character. That hardly means that anyone who disagrees with us lacks morals or character. There is also a legitimate discussion that needs to be had about how we spend our blood and treasure. The government has a legitimate role to play in society and we have the right and responsibility to ensure that it is filling that role effectively. We all want a government that functions well. Some of us believe the government only functions well when it is small.
"Conservatives" have confused small wins on small arguments as of late with big changes on big issues. There is no effective challenge to Obama. As he looses popularity, Republicans are loosing power much more quickly. This is a tragic development as a government without a challenger is not a good thing. I will make no apologies for my position that I like Obama a whole lot better than you do. I think he is doing a much better job than Bush did, or McCain would have done. That being said, a worthy opponent would only make him better. He is plagued far more by his left than he is his right. A worthy loyal opposition would pull him back to the center where he seems to want to be.