I struggle with this liberal and conservative stuff today. It is to the point that I don’t know what a liberal or a conservative is anymore. Is hate speech conservative speech? It wasn’t when I was growing up. I have watched the conservative movement evolve from Barry Goldwater to what we have today. I am convinced that the conservative that he was in the 60s is equal to the liberals that we have 60 years later. Everything evolves and so has the conservative movement to the point that it is no longer recognizable today. What has changed the conservative movement? In my opinion it is religion and hate.

There are things about the conservative movement that always attracted me. Smaller government was one. Did the Conservative movement ever reach the goal of smaller government or was it just talk?  I think it was mostly talk. One of the reasons why is that the Conservatives from the very beginning were also about a strong Military. The Military is run by the government. You grow the Military, you grow the government. They have also been big on National Security. That also leads to more government. What the Conservative movement was big on was doing away with the social programs that helps the bottom half of our population. Welfare, Social Security, Medicare and Education, programs that actually help people have always been what the Conservative wish to cut first. One thing the Goldwater was not interested in was the Government sticking it nose in people’s lives. He was once asked about abortion and his comment was that it was none of the government’s business. Today, it is a complete 180 from what the Father of the Conservative Movement would have wanted. Today there are people that call themselves conservatives who want to control a woman’s body and that folks is not small Government. In Florida, Conservatives see Critical Race Theory everywhere. They are banning books from school libraries. They are banning math books that they claim are teaching Critical Race Theory. Yes, math books. This is not smaller Government. This is big Government as big as anything in our history.

What changed the Conservative Movement? One of the very things that Barry Goldwater warned about, the religious right in our politics. Believe it or not I am a big believer in religious freedom.  All religions have to be free from government interference. Per our Constitution we have no state religion to speech of. The separation of Church and State has been very important to the development of our democracy. A good functioning government is one that can sit down and solve problems through compromise. A policy of give and take that moves the country forward. Religions must be free on government intrusion because it is important to all religions that they are free to grow and that includes the people that believe in no religion. The problem with religion in politics is it is absolute and non compromising and it really doesn’t matter what religion be it Christianity or Muslim. There is no room for compromise in very many religions and that is why the Separation of Church and State is so important. Compromise is very important for a good functioning government. We have no compromise right now in government and look at all the problems.

I always read that the Democrats do not want to work with the Republicans and I think that is a lie. The Biden Administration reached out a lot to the Republicans only to hit a brick wall. He has gotten a few things passed without any Republican help like his Infrastructure plan. What do some Republicans do? They take credit for all the good that plan will do for their State, a plan that they voted against. Yes, Biden has reached out and has had his hand slapped. I do not know what a conservative wants anymore because all they do is try to disrupt everything that the Democrats and the Biden Administration wants to do. I have not seen a single suggestion from them about the inflation which is a worldwide problem or the price of gas. They vote against everything that the Democrats propose but do not come up with a plan themselves. All they want to do is blame the Democrats and Biden. How can you vote for someone that really doesn’t have a plan. The only plan that I have seen is they want to give tax cuts to the rich, tax the middle class and do away with Social Security and Medicare. The Republicans could write a book on how not to solve problems. That is not how our Democracy was set and if it keeps on going it will be the end of our Democracy.

I really think that the conservative movement is dead. It has been replaced by something that more resembles a party that wants absolute authority and folks that is scary. There have been parties like that throughout history and they did not turn out well for the country nor did the people that lived in them. The conservatives of the 60s and 70s are now today’s liberals. Goldwater would be a liberal today. The world has gone more right whether you want to admit it or not.

 

 

Liar! Liar!: Church and State, Barry Goldwater (panderingpoliticians.com)

Barry Goldwater’s War Against The Religious Right | TheCarolinaCowboy (wordpress.com)