The Tea Party: What We Believe

Here's a great series of videos by Bill Whittle on the basics of what the Tea Party Movement and conservatives in general actually believe in and is pursuing as a political movement.

Part One: Free Enterprise



Here's Party Two:  Eliteism




Part Three:  Wealth Creation





Party Four: Natural Law





Party Five: Gun Rights





Part Six: Immigration




Party Six:  American Exceptionalism

Conservatism, What We Believe

I received a very interesting email that includes in parable form, the simplest description of what conservatism is at root.

A young woman was about to finish her first year of college. Like so many others her age, she considered herself to be very liberal, and among other liberal ideals, was very much in favor of higher taxes to support more government programs, in other words redistribution of wealth.
She was deeply ashamed that her father was a rather staunch conservative, a feeling she openly expressed. Based on the lectures that she had participated in, and the occasional chat with a professor, she felt that her father had for years harbored an evil, selfish desire to keep what he thought should be his.

One day she was challenging her father on his opposition to higher taxes on the rich and the need for more government programs.
The self-professed objectivity proclaimed by her professors had to be the truth and she indicated so to her father. He responded by asking how she was doing in school.

Taken aback, she answered rather haughtily that she had a 4.0 GPA, and let him know that it was tough to maintain, insisting that she was taking a very difficult course load and was constantly studying, which left her no time to go out and party like other people she knew. She didn't even have time for a boyfriend, and didn't really have many college friends because she spent all her time studying.

Her father listened and then asked, "How is your friend Audrey doing?"
She replied, "Audrey is barely getting by. All she takes are easy classes, she never studies and she barely has a 2.0 GPA. She is so popular on campus; college for her is a blast. She's always invited to all the parties and lots of times she doesn't even show up for classes because she's too hung over."
Her wise father asked his daughter, "Why don't you go to the Dean's office and ask him to deduct 1.0 off your GPA and give it to your friend who only has a 2.0. That way you will both have a 3.0 GPA and certainly that would be a fair and equal distribution of GPA."
The daughter, visibly shocked by her father's suggestion, angrily fired back, "That's a crazy idea, how would that be fair! I've worked really hard for my grades! I've invested a lot of time, and a lot of hard work! Audrey has done next to nothing toward her degree. She played while I worked my tail off!"

The father slowly smiled, winked and said gently, "Welcome to the conservative side of the fence."

If anyone who reads this has a better explanation of the very basic differences between conservatism and liberalism or progressive or neocon pray tell in the comments.
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If you ever wondered what side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test!

If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
A liberal wonders who is going to take care of him.

If a conservative doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.
Liberals demand that those they don't like be shut down.
If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.
A liberal non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced. (Unless it's a foreign religion, of course!)

If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
A liberal demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a conservative reads this, he'll forward it.
A liberal will delete it because he's "offended."

What We Believe, Part 7: American Exceptionalism

Here's the next installment of Bill Whittle's What We believe.

Conservatism, What We Believe

Here are all six parts of the of the excellent series by Bill Whittle, What We Believe:

Part 1



Part 2



Part 3



Part 4



Part 5



Part 6



This are some of the fundamental ideas that conservatives believe in.  You'll notice there's not a bible any where in sight.  Most conservatives aren't religious, or at least aren't bible thumpers at all. Many of us are actually moderate on many social issues.  Be that as it may, there is far more to being conservative than many on the left understand.  The left has to grasp any sort of extreme example so as to label the entire movement as extreme.

The Argument For Fiscal Conservatism: Made Simple

Wisdom from the mouths of babes...here's some stellar ideas on how to frame fiscally conservative arguments from Cynthia Yockey:

• Wealth is created when human ambition is harnessed by a system that gives it liberty and the right to keep a majority of the wealth it has created.  instead of arguing that wealth must be redistributed.
• An economic system that empowers people to create wealth doesn’t have to pay as much in welfare.   If you're making money...you don't need the government dole...or at the least, not nearly as many WILL NEED IT.
• We can provide opportunities for all, but nothing should guarantee an outcome.  Nor should government guarantee anything but a safe place in which to pursue "Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness."
• Keeping taxes and regulations to a minimum unleashes wealth-creating power. Taking from those who make money and giving to those who WON'T isn't a solution.  However, by keeping taxes down, government encourages those with an entrepenurial spirit to just as hard as they can to make mounds of money.  To quote the founder of the Democratic Party,  “A wise and frugal government, which shall restrain men from injuring one another, which shall leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned. This is the sum of good government.”  Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugural Address, 4 March 1801.  
• People should be treated as individuals, not members of identity groups. Indeed, affirmative action has done nothing but ruin our education system by literally dumbing down the entire system to satisfy the false desires of "underprivledge masses."  This is the road we've been on for the past 50 years.  It's the road to illiteracy and an undereducated ignorant populace.  Political Correctness is the other false road.  By trying to make EVERY child special, to make them all feel "good" about themselves...we've created an entire generation of adults who have never lost at anything and who are unprepared to face life in  the "real world," where there are infact losers...

Bill Whittle: What We Believe Pt 3, Wealth Creation

Here's the 3rd in Bill Whittle's series of what conservatives believe.

Bill Whittle: What We Believe, Part 2

Here's the 2nd in a series of videos by Bill Whittle explaining what conservatives actually believe.  This doesn't cover any religious bent, this is a series of genuine conservatism, not bible thumping.

Bill Whittle, Conservatism: What We Believe, Part 1

Here's a great video that begins to explain just what real conservatives actually believe in...not those that lead our party in Washington, D.C. (are you listening Mr. Boehner?  Mr. McConnel?)



If you can afford to do so, I strongly urge you to join and support his new website:  Declaration Entertainment.  It's dedicated to winning the "culture war" that the left has been waging against America since the 1950's...and most effectively since the 1970's.

America Is A Conservative Country

American is a largely conservative electorate/country.  Most people here want a government that doesn't overly interefere with the way they live their lives.  Nor, as a rule, do Americans want to pay much in the way of taxes...and that's a large part of why the Democratic Party, and Barack Obama, Nance Pelosi and Harry Reid, et al, have become so unpopular.  Victor Davis Hansen hits it squarely with this bit in his National Review column, 

The common denominator here is that a largely conservative electorate has always wanted lower taxes, smaller but more competent government, fewer overseas commitments, honest government, and officials who live like the public they represent — and it can’t seem to find that package in any party or candidate being presented to it. Indeed, the Obama medicine is now seen as worse than the Bush disease, in that he less competently oversaw the war in Afghanistan, blew apart the budget, and lives more royally than any Republican.


The obsequious media have been left scrambling to explain this new Orwellian barn wall: Bush’s aristocratic golf is now Obama’s needed relaxation; Bush’s bumbling press conferences might explain why Obama wisely doesn’t hold many at all; Republican congressional corruption simply led to a “They all do it, even Democrats” narrative; Bush’s failure to articulate how and why we would win in Iraq suddenly morphs into Afghanistan as a baffling experience that confuses all of us. Obviously, even the most adept public-relations-minded journalist could not pull all that off, and so we are left with media now as discredited as they are loathed.

Most of all, American don't like hypcrits...and the Democratic leadership is coming to be seen as just that.  They said a number things in their run up to gaining control of both Congress and the presidency, and have been revealed to have utterly lied.  They have instituted ruinous spending and have vastly expanded the role of government in our lives.  They have passed a series of bills that not only weren't read, the impact those laws would have upon the country hasn't been understood...but they have placed the government in control of our lives in ways that we as a nation have never before permitted.

The men who wrote the Constitution never intended for the government to have this much control.  They understood that doing so would be a violation of all that they believed in...come November, we have the opportunity begin undoing the mess that the Democratic Party (and the GOP to a lesser extent) have made of our country.