Being a conservative in today’s culture is quite overwhelming. In a world dominated by the party of “tolerance”, it becomes very apparent that this tolerance is only applicable if you change your views to fit theirs. No longer is it enough to simply disagree with someone, there always must be an ulterior motive. Now it’s about hate.

Today’s media has placed much racial stigma on conservatives and the Republican Party. Little do most people know, liberal Democrats started the Ku Klux Klan, and were slavery’s staunchest supporters while Republicans fought to end the despicable practice. MSNBC will say that the parties switched sides in the 1960s. Why in the world would the Democrats, who had hated Republicans for over 100 years, all of a sudden say “Hey let’s be Republicans now.?” Once cornered on this, the next cop out is that the Democrats who wanted slavery were conservatives. Democrats were conservative. That is correct, they wanted to conserve slavery. On the other hand, conservative Republicans have always worked to conserve the Constitution and our other founding documents. This is why they opposed slavery; you cannot take away someone’s life, liberty, or their pursuit of happiness. Conservative Republicans are still doing this. Democrats tell minorities they need the government to make something of themselves; this sustains them at the same economic level and keeps them as pacified voter stock with entitlements. Conservative Republicans tell them that yes, it will be hard, it will take work, but you can make something of yourself. You do not need the government, stop letting them patronize you and seize your future.

Economically, I am a firm believer in the free market, and the system of capitalism that has made our nation prosper. Free trade is what has made the United States the world’s preeminent world power. However, once corporate wealth becomes more important than the employment of Americans, there is a problem. I agree with the Democrats in creating new jobs, that is an excellent way to stimulate the economy. However, the jobs that Democrats have created so far are part time low wage jobs. If the Obama Administration has really created the eight million jobs he claimed in the State of Union, why are unemployment benefits and food stamps at their highest? If we really want to create more jobs, stop the outsourcing to China. That brings the income and back to us, not to foreign countries. Let America utilize its own oil resources, and stop buying it from countries who hate us. Pass the Keystone XL, and create thousands of jobs for Americans here at home and watch prices at the pump plummet. The more people who have full time jobs, the more money is put into the economy. Capitalism in its purest form is what allows economies to thrive. Walter E. Williams says it best, “Prior to capitalism, the way people amassed great wealth was by looting, plundering and enslaving their fellow man. Capitalism made it possible to become wealthy by serving your fellow man.” The key to this economy is not unregulation, it is deregulation. Let businesses thrive, yet ensure that they are not engaged in illegal transactions or insider trading.

On minimum wage, I am against raising it. Minimum wage jobs are not meant to support families. They are for those trying to make money until they can find their career. Prior to the destruction of the nuclear family, jobs that paid the minimum wage were not thought of as careers. Family is the key to getting generations back on track and instilling in them the drive to set goals and conquer them. Raising the minimum wage will also cause the prices of goods to go up. Employers, having to pay their employees more, will raise the price of goods to compensate for the loss in profit. Inflation then sets in, and the dollar is worth even less then than it was before. The left says the wage will be flexible and relative to inflation; however they do not consider the increased price of products and services, which negates any boost in the minimum wage. Simply put, increasing the minimum wage only decreases the value of the dollar.
I believe that marriage is between one man and one woman. As an Evangelical Christian, I follow God’s greatest tenant, love. I love all people. We are all human beings, created by God. However, that does not mean that I condone or agree with their lifestyle. My parents speak of a time where what you did in your bedroom and who you did it with, stayed behind those doors. The left says that conservatives need to stay out of your bedroom, we don’t want to be in there; we just don’t want your bedroom to be a public stage. Personally I believe the government needs to get out of marriage. If they don’t, it will result in the forcing of churches to marry those who they cannot in clean conscious unite, in direct violation of their First Amendment rights. Ironically enough, you won’t see the Obama Administration out trying to force Mosques to marry gay couples, that treatment is reserved only for Christians, who coincidentally made it to the top of the Department of Defense’s threats against the homeland list, beating out both al Qaeda and Hamas.

I believe that abortion is wrong. God has created us all, and all life is sacred. When it is the option to kill a human, there is no such thing as choice. If you want to talk about choice, consider all the choices you can make not to get pregnant in the first place. Also, you do not have to keep the baby. There are thousands of couples who will gladly adopt whether because they cannot have their own, or they just feel a calling to adopt and love a child. The left says women have the right and liberty to have an abortion. That would be correct if that liberty did not take away from someone else’s right to life. This is known as the balance of freedom. You have your rights, as long as they do not come at the forced expense of others. I would like to quote the Fourteenth Amendment, Section 1 to show my point: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.” Life is a right mentioned before liberty. This is because in order to enjoy liberty, you must first be allowed your right to life.

I am pro Second Amendment. Any law abiding citizen of the United States has the right to bear arms. As the amendment states, it is to prevent tyranny on the part of the government. Another reason, a nation of armed civilians presents a much less likely target for foreign aggression. However, I must agree in wanting to prevent those with mental conditions, and other instabilities from obtaining fire arms. If gun legislation is going to be passed, it cannot come from the left. They want to take away all guns, and history shows how “effective” that is. Practical gun legislation must come from the right, the ones who respect the Second Amendment

The more the federal government stays out of people’s lives, the better. The federal government should not be involved in each step of our lives. An example is healthcare. The federal government cannot make health insurance affordable for everyone. Anything it gives to one person, it takes from another. This of course, is the middle class, of whom I am a member, paying more for lesser healthcare, to give even less quality care to those that do not work. I have heard Obamacare described best by this unnamed author, “to insure the uninsured, first making the insured uninsured. Then making the formerly insured pay more to become re-insured to insure the uninsured for free.” As Thomas Sowell said, “No society ever thrived because it had a large and growing class of parasites living off those who produce.” Let the free markets and competition determine pricing and coverage by allowing them to operate across state lines. Governmental run healthcare is just another way people become more reliant on the government. Just like how many have found it is easier to just live off welfare, than to actually get a job. President Reagan once said, “The best social program is a job.” This is absolutely correct. Those with steady full time jobs, help the economy. Those who live off tax payers, do not. We do have an obligation to help those who cannot work, but that must be verified. Welfare was not created to permanently sustain those on it; it was to be a temporary boost, to help someone to get back on their feet. A large part of our national deficit can be traced directly to those who do not produce, yet happily take in tax dollars to not work. It was quite laughable when on January 7 of this year, President Obama remarked on extending unemployment insurance, because it, “actually helps the economy, actually helps create jobs.” How may I ask, does increasing the payments one receives for not working, help create jobs?

In education, I agree with the Democrats in the sense that our nation’s system is falling behind, and opportunities must be expanded. The way you improve our nation’s economy and work force, is through education. However, I am opposed to the adoption of Common Core curriculum across the states. Many conservative groups across the nation are opposed to Common Core, simply because states that adopt its curriculum receive millions of dollars from the Obama Administration in grants. Therefore, there is no possible way to ascertain that the current administration is not dictating what is being taught. Common Core is designed to teach students that there is no absolute truth, and that everything is relative.

Income inequality has been a hot topic in the news lately. President Obama seems to have made it a personal project to defeat, what he perceives as the “defining challenge of our time.” When you have a group of people, who want to succeed, who want to make something of themselves, whether that means taking up a blue collar trade, or a white collar suit and tie, and then you have a growing group of people who do not care and would rather live off the government, then of course income inequality is going to occur. America is the land of equal opportunity. Not the land of equal results. What you choose to do with the immense freedom you have here is entirely up to you. How you end up, is entirely up to you. It is interesting to note, that in his 2014 State of the Union Address, President Obama said, “If you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead.” This is from the president, under whom welfare spending increased 32% up to $746 billion, in 2011, according to the Congressional Research Committee and the Senate Budget Committee.

Now, although there is much more I could cover, I would like to close with some points, which I believe explain true conservatism. One is from the news article “Income inequality: inevitable, or ‘defining challenge of our time’?” by Doug McKelway. “The academic literature is very solid on what it takes to stay out of poverty. Number one, graduate from school. Number two if you’re not married, don’t have a baby. Number three, get a job, and stick with it.” Lastly, , I would like to wrap up with five statements that any rational person cannot disagree with. 1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. 2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. 3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from someone else. 4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. And finally number 5, when half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them; and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end for any nation.