An Open Letter: I’m a Conservative

Recently there's been an article floating about the interwebz titled, "An Open Letter: I’m a Liberal." People are cutting and pasting it, and it's become a bit of a liberal manifesto.  It appears to be generally attributed to a woman named Lori Gallagher Witt, although I have been unable to find the original source.  You can find this all around the net, the sources I drew from are here and here.

Liberals proclaim it to be brilliance. I aim to put an end to that nonsense, and explain to Ms. Witt and those who quote her, why I am a conservative. Feel free to quote me here, as others have quoted her.

1. I believe a country should take care of its weakest members. A country cannot call itself civilized when its children, disabled, sick, and elderly are neglected. Period.

No one disagrees with you.  What we disagree on is who is responsible.  If you give government that responsibility, it infringes on the rights of everyone to ensure the welfare of a few.  The government is not capable of keeping people from being neglected. As Bill Whittle observed, there's a word for people who are kept safe, fed, clothed, housed and sustained fully by others; and that word is "slaves."

2. I believe healthcare is a right, not a privilege. Somehow that's interpreted as "I believe Obamacare is the end-all, be-all." This is not the case. I'm fully aware that the ACA has problems, that a national healthcare system would require everyone to chip in, and that it's impossible to create one that is devoid of flaws, but I have yet to hear an argument against it that makes "let people die because they can't afford healthcare" a better alternative. I believe healthcare should be far cheaper than it is, and that everyone should have access to it. And no, I'm not opposed to paying higher taxes in the name of making that happen.

Then you are pro-slavery.  Healthcare is a service provided by a limited number of highly trained professionals.  When you make this a “right,” then you give me the ability to demand service from these people whether they want to provide it or not.  When there are more people demanding access to this “right” than there is capacity to provide it, and if the providers violate your “right” if they choose not to, then you are making the withholding of services a punishable crime.  This exacerbates the very problem you are trying to solve, because no one in their right mind will willingly enter a field in which their services can be commandeered by the government (read: the people) at a whim, and where your services are subject to be provided on demand, regardless of the compensation.

3. I believe education should be affordable and accessible to everyone. It doesn't necessarily have to be free (though it works in other countries so I'm mystified as to why it can't work in the US), but at the end of the day, there is no excuse for students graduating college saddled with five- or six-figure debt.

No one disagrees with you that education is too expensive.  But you don’t understand the concept of supply and demand economics.  In your well-intentioned attempt to make education affordable, you have allocated government funds to help people pursue education.  This has increased the demand for education, supposedly making it more affordable, but it didn’t increase the supply of education, which more or less remained static.  More money chasing a fixed asset results in higher prices.  As usual, your liberal attempt to fix a problem has made the problem worse.

4. I don't believe your money should be taken from you and given to people who don't want to work. I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this. Ever. I just have a massive moral problem with a society where a handful of people can possess the majority of the wealth while there are people literally starving to death, freezing to death, or dying because they can't afford to go to the doctor. Fair wages, lower housing costs, universal healthcare, affordable education, and the wealthy actually paying their share would go a long way toward alleviating this. Somehow believing that makes me a communist.

"I have literally never encountered anyone who believes this.” May I introduce you to Senator Charles Schumer, Senator Maria Cantwell, Senator Patty Murray, Representative Diane Feinstein, Representative Nancy Pelosi, and a whole host of other liberal politicians who curry votes by pandering to low-income voters by promising them largesse from the public treasury in exchange for their voter loyalty?  

The wealthy already pay far more than their “fair share”, but it never seems to be enough.  How about you quit punishing the wealthy for being wealthy, and allow them to grow their businesses, which will provide jobs and opportunity which will narrow the cracks for the disadvantaged to fall through, and provide more disposable income to the individual who can distribute to their philanthropic activity of choice?

5. I don't throw around "I'm willing to pay higher taxes" lightly. If I'm suggesting something that involves paying more, well, it's because I'm fine with paying my share as long as it's actually going to something besides lining corporate pockets or bombing other countries while Americans die without healthcare.

If you want to pay higher taxes, no one is stopping you. The IRS will be happy to accept your voluntary contribution.  What gives YOU the right to demand I pay more, though? The “Lining Corporate pockets” trope is BS – it doesn’t happen normally, and when it does, it’s called corruption, and seems to be more prevalent among the very liberal politicians you support, than the freedom loving, small government conservatives you despise.  Big government means more opportunity for corruption.  If you want less corruption, then remove government’s access to the opportunity.  

The problem with your argument is that EVERY death can ultimately be attributed to a lack of healthcare. Here’s a shocking fact for you:  EVERYBODY dies. No matter how much healthcare you provide, the ratio of death per unit of population remains at 1.  No matter how much healthcare you provide, the result is inevitably the same.  We’ve already discussed how your efforts do nothing but decrease the supply of healthcare, putting it farther out of reach of the average person, but you suffer from a fallacy that, when boundary checked, will result in bankrupting the country for a goal that can never be reached.  

6. I believe companies should be required to pay their employees a decent, livable wage. Somehow this is always interpreted as me wanting burger flippers to be able to afford a penthouse apartment and a Mercedes. What it actually means is that no one should have to work three full-time jobs just to keep their head above water. Restaurant servers should not have to rely on tips, multibillion dollar companies should not have employees on food stamps, workers shouldn't have to work themselves into the ground just to barely make ends meet, and minimum wage should be enough for someone to work 40 hours and live.

You have obviously never had to make payroll or run a company. Employees must create more value than they are being paid, or there is no incentive for companies to have them employed.  If your worker does not provide you with enough value to pay him a decent, livable wage, yet you are forced to pay him that anyway, why would the company hire him in the first place?  Newsflash: companies are not in the business of losing money.  Your efforts do not help the class you’re trying to help, they are making employment less attainable, while at the same time making the consumer goods and services they provide more scarce and more expensive, which again hurts the very class you’re trying to help.  If you want people to get a decent, livable wage, then work towards increasing employment opportunities, and increasing the ability of the individual to compete in the labor market.

7. I am not anti-Christian, I simply believe in separation of State and Church. I have no desire to stop Christians from being Christians, to close churches, to ban the Bible, to forbid prayer in school, etc. (BTW, prayer in school is NOT illegal; *compulsory* prayer in school is - and should be - illegal). All I ask is that Christians recognize *my* right to live according to *my* beliefs. When I get pissed off that a politician is trying to legislate Scripture into law, I'm not "offended by Christianity" -- I'm offended that you're trying to force me to live by your religion's rules. You know how you get really upset at the thought of Muslims imposing Sharia law on you? That's how I feel about Christians trying to impose biblical law on me. Be a Christian. Do your thing. Just don't force it on me or mine.

Good for you.  Too bad your fellow anti-Christian liberals don’t share your sentiments and make the public practice of Christianity an act of civil discord, subject to innumerable lawsuits and attacks on freedom.

8. I don't believe LGBT people should have more rights than you. I just believe they should have the *same* rights as you.

Does that include the right of free association?  If I don’t want openly LGBTQP++ people working for me because they promote a culture I vehemently disagree with, is that not my right? The average conservative doesn’t care what you do with your genitals, or who you do it with.  They just want you to keep it to yourself, because it’s in bad taste to parade your personal fetishes in public. Does this mean that you have the right to force a private vendor to provide a service that they don't wish to provide you?  If you do force a vendor to provide a service against their will, who accepts the liability if the quality of that service is less than perfect, and by what measure do you evaluate that quality?  Have you even thought through the natural consequences of your forcing me to accept and cater to a lifestyle I reject and find abhorrent?

9. I don't believe illegal immigrants should come to America and have the world at their feet, especially since THIS ISN'T WHAT THEY DO (spoiler: undocumented immigrants are ineligible for all those programs they're supposed to be abusing, and if they're "stealing" your job it's because your employer is hiring illegally). I'm not opposed to deporting people who are here illegally, but I believe there are far more humane ways to handle undocumented immigration than our current practices (i.e., detaining children, splitting up families, ending DACA, etc).

Is it your contention, then, that illegal immigrants do not overload the emergency services at hospitals, which cannot refuse them treatment by law?  That they do not overload our school system, which cannot refuse public education and are not allowed to ask immigration status by law?  That they do not commit a disproportionate number of crimes because they have to live in the shadows and have no respect for the laws of the country to start with?  Do not certain states offer illegal aliens college tuition rates as residents, making it more expensive for an American citizen from another state to attend than it is for someone who's not even supposed to be in the country?

I agree with you that the enforcement as it’s done today is stupid, a waste of resources and violates the human dignity of the immigrant.  I believe that if you want to enforce immigration law, you punish the enablers that allow the law to be flaunted:  No more health care for illegals on demand.  You get your health care, but you also get deported.  No more public education for illegals – it’s not violating their rights to ask if they are here legally.  Severe penalties for those who employ illegals.  Remove the support structure, and they will self-deport.  And eliminate the idea that being born on American soil automatically gives you citizenship.  This idea is the result of a flawed interpretation of the 14^th amendment, which ignores the phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof”. Children born to illegal aliens are subject to the jurisdiction of their country of origin, and are citizens of that country, not the United States.

10. I don't believe the government should regulate everything, but since greed is such a driving force in our country, we NEED regulations to prevent cut corners, environmental destruction, tainted food/water, unsafe materials in consumable goods or medical equipment, etc. It's not that I want the government's hands in everything -- I just don't trust people trying to make money to ensure that their products/practices/etc. are actually SAFE. Is the government devoid of shadiness? Of course not. But with those regulations in place, consumers have recourse if they're harmed and companies are liable for medical bills, environmental cleanup, etc. Just kind of seems like common sense when the alternative to government regulation is letting companies bring their bottom line into the equation.

No rational person wants to eliminate government regulations, for all the reasons you cite.  The problem is that our regulatory agencies operate outside the umbrella of the Constitution, and pass regulations which have the force of law without ever having to undergo a legislative review required by the Constitution.  We would be much better off overhauling our regulatory structure to more resemble that of the EEC, where regulatory committees draft regulations which are then presented to the legislatures for ratification.

11. I believe our current administration is fascist. Not because I dislike them or because I can’t get over an election, but because I've spent too many years reading and learning about the Third Reich to miss the similarities. Not because any administration I dislike must be Nazis, but because things are actually mirroring authoritarian and fascist regimes of the past.

You do not understand what Fascism is, or how it came about.  I really wish you Trump haters would learn the definition of Fascism before you go throwing it around like you do. Fascists were collectivists, against individual freedoms, and believed that the citizen should be subordinate to the state. They did not accept the free market economy, but believed that businesses should operate as directed by the state. They promoted minimum wage laws, government restrictions on profit-taking, progressive taxation of capital, rigidly secular schools. They consolidated power through bullying, strikes, silencing of dissent in any way possible, and as they gained more power they used physical violence and laws to imprison critics.

The behavior of the fascists is most represented by today's liberals. One of the keystones of fascist propaganda was to accuse the opposition of that which the fascists are most guilty.

Trump might be a lot of things but one thing he definitely is NOT is a fascist. Please stop using this to describe him, because you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.

I'm not a Trump supporter and never have been, but henceforth I am announcing a corollary to Godwin's Law. If you call Trump or any other conservative a fascist, you lose the argument, right then and there.

12. I believe the systemic racism and misogyny in our society is much worse than many people think, and desperately needs to be addressed. Which means those with privilege -- white, straight, male, economic, etc. -- need to start listening, even if you don't like what you're hearing, so we can start dismantling everything that's causing people to be marginalized.

Raaaacism!  The most racist people of our society are those who use race as a means of dividing people, giving preferences to one “race,” to ensuring that quotas are met, etc.  You want to put an end to racism?  THEN SHUT DOWN ALL THE GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS THAT SUPPORT IT! You’re not helping the very class you’re trying to help, you’re only promoting the idea that they need help.  Uphold the dignity of the individual, quit asking him his skin color on every single government form and reportable piece of paper. Doesn’t it bother you that they don’t ask your race when you file your taxes?  They don’t care what color you are when they’re taking money from you.

If you think being a conservative equates with racism, if you think that being a member of the Republican party means you're an angry white guy who wants to keep minorities down, then you've been listening to too much liberal propaganda and haven't been paying attention to the obvious evidence right in front of your eyes.

13. I am not interested in coming after your blessed guns, nor is anyone serving in government. What I am interested in is sensible policies, including background checks, that just MIGHT save one person’s, perhaps a toddler’s, life by the hand of someone who should not have a gun. (Got another opinion? Put it on your page, not mine).

Your well-intentioned efforts have the same fallacy that you apply to health care.  How much gun control is enough?  If this law will save one more life, isn’t it worth it?  Every law you apply will save one more life.  Yet, in your blind allegiance to dogma, you neglect the fact that most of the problems you’re trying to solve are because someone broke a law that’s already on the books.  How will more laws change that?  Have you ignored the huge number of unreported crimes that never happen because an honest citizen like me brandished a gun and made the criminal think again?  Has it not escaped you that violent crime rose sharply in the UK after they eliminated gun ownership?  Have you not missed the fact that the majority of gun violence in America occurs in urban areas with the strictest gun control laws in the nation?  What is wrong with your analytical skills?

14. I believe in so-called political correctness. I prefer to think it’s social politeness. If I call you Chuck and you say you prefer to be called Charles I’ll call you Charles. It’s the polite thing to do. Not because everyone is a delicate snowflake, but because as Maya Angelou put it, when we know better, we do better. When someone tells you that a term or phrase is more accurate/less hurtful than the one you're using, you now know better. So why not do better? How does it hurt you to NOT hurt another person?

Political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners.  Quit condemning me when I call out something I find publicly unacceptable.  You do not have a right to be unoffended, and I do have a right to speak up when I find someone’s deviancy abhorrent.  You do not get to dictate to me what I am supposed to find “normal.”  Telling me that you’re offended by my opinions and cannot accept that I disagree with you  just tells me that you’re unable to control your emotions, so I’m supposed to alter my behavior to keep from causing you offense. Grow up.

15. I believe in funding sustainable energy, including offering education to people currently working in coal or oil so they can change jobs. There are too many sustainable options available for us to continue with coal and oil. Sorry, billionaires. Maybe try investing in something else.

Sorry, but your use of “sustainable’ energy flies in the face of basic physics and economics.  We NEED energy.  It’s the life blood of an industrialized society. There is simply no other currently used energy technology that provides as much energy for as low a cost as fossil fuels.  So far, there is no technology that allows us to store energy in as dense a form (joules per cubic centimeter) that’s as easy to extract than gasoline. That’s the facts.  All of your renewable energy boondoggles have fallen flat on their face.  Wind power is unreliable, and the cost of refurbishing a wind turbine after the blades wear out is more than the cost of a new turbine – and yet you dare to lecture me on sustainability.  If you were a real proponent of sustainable energy, then you would educate yourself on the subject and be pushing your political leaders to endorse and sponsor thorium reactors, which are safe, cheap, clean and green.  The technology exists, but the political power is controlled by big oil and an atomic energy lobby which makes billions off of providing and disposing of dangerous and expensive uranium fuel.

16. I believe that women should not be treated as a separate class of human. We should be paid the same as men who do the same work, should have the same rights as men and should be free from abuse. Why on earth shouldn’t we be?

If you are an employer, you have to face the biological fact that women are not as reliable as men in the workplace. When you hire a young woman, you are accepting that at some point, she’s going to either leave your company either temporarily or permanently, not because she’s not loyal, but because she wants to raise a family. This is a fact, sorry, and no matter how much you legislate it away, it’s something that as a businessman, an employer is going to be considering. If you are an exceptional employee, the employer will work harder to try to keep you in spite of the family thing.  But hiring a woman inherently has more risk associated with it from an employer’s standpoint than hiring an equally qualified man. That risk is real, and must be quantified from a business standpoint, and will be considered by employers no matter what you want. If you pass equal wage laws, you’re making it less likely that a woman will be hired, because an employer may choose to limit his risk exposure.  In blue collar or physical labor, you have to come to grips with the basic fact that the average woman is not going to be able to lift as much, carry as much, or perform on the same physical level as the average man.  Yes, there are exceptions, but I’m speaking on average.  No matter how much you want to wish them away, this is reality, and a company that doesn’t recognize reality doesn’t survive.  No, this reality is not homogenous – the risk exposure of hiring women is not equal across the work force. Some employers are structured in such a way so that their risk is mitigated.  Some aren’t, for reasons that have nothing to do with gender preference.  YOU tell ME: why have so few women sought to train themselves in marketable STEM fields?

I think that about covers it. Bottom line is that I'm a liberal because I think we should take care of each other. That doesn't mean you should work 80 hours a week so your lazy neighbor can get all your money. It just means I don't believe there is any scenario in which preventable suffering is an acceptable outcome as long as money is saved.

So, I'm a liberal.

That about does it.  As a conservative, I think we should take care of each other, but, as a conservative, I recognize that I have neither the right or the responsibility to force anyone else to take care of me or their fellow members of society.  My only role is to encourage them to do so, and try to establish an environment where they do so out of their own free will.

So, I'm a conservative.