I used to abhor conservative politicians and their policies. I thought, ‘how could any reasonable person vote for these nut-jobs?’
But what are conservatives? Most of them are actual conservatives that are upset with a generally Liberal slant on western civilization and see this as the primary cause of the decline of western democracy and freedom. The conservative motivation is to steer society away from the anarchy and selfishness that naturally comes from a Liberal society and focus on uniting a people on principles, morals, and absolute values.
At the core of this is the liberal moral-relativism. Public morals in the Liberal world are in flux as society changes. For example, in the 1940’s – gay and lesbian lifestyles were not just immoral, but illegal. No politician went near the idea of equal rights for gays, lesbians and transgendered people. But in a morally-relative Liberal western world, it became socially acceptable to be gay or lesbian (etc), so the natural gravitation to extend anti-discrimination laws to alternative lifestyles was inevitable. This gradual but steady shift of morals can be traced everywhere. From our music and TV, to fashion, the drift from what was unacceptable only a generation to what’s acceptable now is textbook liberal moral-relativism.
Say what you will about conservatives, but they long for a return to a more traditional order of things. Social activists are flatly opposed to such an agenda, as its exactly what they had been advocating against for all these years. Gays and Lesbians are a massive sub-community that spends a lot of money and pays a lot of tax in their professional careers – to outlaw their existence and lifestyle could have an significant impact on the economy. What if it was legal to lower pay women less just because of their gender? That would have a sudden and dramatic effect the economy too.
I’m not advocating a return to 1950’s laws and morals, but the conservatives are on to something. What is wrong with motivating people on some core principles again? We’re a society that spends too much time in needless debate over trivial things when the major ones are pushed aside.
Our country is sinking further in debt and no one has a plan to stop the red ink, let alone pay off this massive debt. Canada owes over half a trillion dollars to banks (foreign, no less). Every dollar that we spend on this debt financing is a dollar not spent on healthcare and education.
We’re at the mercy of some very flawed thinking, and its time to correct not just the policy, but the general thinking that goes into it. For decades, we were of a delusional opinion that there is always more tomorrow – so its ok to borrow from tomorrow to pay for what we want today. Well, we’re at a place where the growth tomorrow isn’t keeping pace with the demand of today. If we keep this up, we’ll be looking at a national bankruptcy like Greece – or America.
Its time for difficult and necessary choices. Meaning, we’re going to have to let go of somethings to hold on to others. What we need is a fundamental discussion on the role and purpose of the state – Federal, Provincial, and Municipal. All taxpayer supported authorities need their roles re-defined and laws to force them to stay within the confines of that legislative framework. Maybe even a new constitution; but something to refocus our nation on the things we hold dear and let go of the things that are frivolous (and very expensive).
If we can agree that as a nation, we demand an adequate, single payer healthcare system that covers everyone, then lets do that. Certainly we can agree that our federal government protect us through the military and police, so thats a national priority…and the government rightly has an obligation to protect the environment, health and safety standards, transportation and international trade and communications and basic human rights. Pretty much everything else is fluff; and costly. The social spending that is acceptable is a national pension plan, unemployment benefits, and assisting the provinces with welfare and education funding as needed.
If we concentrate on what we need, eliminate what we don’t need, there will be plenty to go around. But breaking even isn’t what we need now – we need to get ahead and pay down this debt.
Significant re-aligning our spending priorities (cuts) and a hefty (but temporary) tax increase are the only way out of this way.
Its like taking on a second job to pay down your credit cards. Maybe you earn enough to pay the minimum payments, but that won’t pay them off…but the increase in income doesn’t mean anything if you increase your spending; you have to cut your own spending too – if that second job is to mean anything. Once you pay down (or pay off) that debt, then you can drop the extra job and stop burning out from the extra work; and the lower overall debt will be less of a draw on your expenses. The extra cash you’re no longer spending on debt payments can go to investing or whatever you see fit. Same idea in government.
If we increase taxes temporarily, cut spending on unnecessary programs, we can create massive surpluses we can use to lower the national debt scene by hundreds of billions. If we can pay off even $100 billion in overall debt, then we’re saving almost $500 million a month in interest fees (do the math, that’s $6 billion over a year). That’s free money – $6 billion saved that can be shoveled back into debt payments, build hospitals and schools, or freeways or airports. $6 billion, every year. This only works if government doesn’t go on a spending spree on the extra revenue they get from increasing taxes – that increase is temporary, and dedicated to one cause only.
What does this have to do with liberals or conservatives? Liberals have it in their DNA and their moral relativism that any extra revenue they get their hands on would end up financing a new program or policy that wasn’t acceptable only a few years back…the fiscal conservatives out there might have the toughness to make these choices.
I do not believe that conservatives are inherently corrupt (I don’t believe that of anyone actually). Corruption is a weakness of the soul that can affect anyone near authority and power…and money. Conservatives have no monopoly on corruption. I also don’t believe that the conservative is hellbent on military action and war; although war does tend to unify a nation on absolute values of freedom and democracy…but in the end, maybe war is what we need to remind ourselves what’s important.
