Understanding the political spectrum
By Jack Montague
For all practical purposes, we have to first
establish what we mean by conservative vs. liberalism.
In the true sense, conservatism means sticking to the roots
of our Constitution while liberalism means getting away from it and
turning our power, security and economy over to the government.
On a second thought, things have gone so far awry
from the concepts envisioned by our founding fathers that one could
be considered a liberal by wanting change and going back to the
Constitution. Weird, as
it may seem, I have met many, many people who were at heart, very
conservative who thought they were liberals because they wanted
change.
To put it this way, in that sense, we as a
group could be marching north.
The conservatives would want keep marching north while
liberals could want to go east, west, or even south.
So, for this explanation of the political
spectrum, we will concede that conservatism means sticking to our
founding fathers love for Freedom, Liberty and Justice.
Let’s start with a large portion of the
American public who considers themselves “Middle of the Road”.
To be sure, there are so many different categories.
Anyone one who votes for a candidate on one particular
subject and not on what is best for the country as a whole, has
several screws loose, as it will come back and bite them in the
butt.
That said, let’s start at the middle of the road and move to the left:
First, we come to the Democratic Party.
For the most part, this is comprised of people from the
middle of the road or perhaps from quite right wing people whose
parents were Democrats before the party became too liberal to hard
core communists.
Democrats for the most part believe that
government is the answer to their problems and that the government
needs to control people other than themselves.
Moving farther to the left comes liberalism:
This is a mindset which feels that little that happens to
people is their own fault, but rather, the fault of people other
than the liberals. They
believe that rights are freedoms which are on loan to them by the
government.
Next on our movement to the left comes
socialism. At this
point, government controls business, economy, food and such.
You are still pretty much free to start or run a business,
but only with the permission and under the thumb of government.
If you are successful, you will realize little
from your own labors.
You will be taxed to the extent of your profits
and have a little left over.
However, your basic needs will be taken care of: food,
housing, day care, medical care, but it’s the government’s decision
as to when, where and how much of these you can have.
You will have lots of vacation, but no money to
go anywhere.
If we move further to the left, the next step
is communism. Now we’ve
arrived at the one party state or system.
As in the former
The government at this point decides who may be
in business what they will make, how much of it, when, where, how.
Fascism is next; it differs from communism in
that the ruler is all powerful.
This is NOT right wing; it is a farther left than socialism
and communism. In
communism, the politburo is more powerful than the head of
government. In fascism,
the national leader has to power to ax anyone.
So, as you see, on the far left you have
tyranny, with one leader with the power of life and death over
anyone.
As your progress to the left, it becomes more
and more difficult to reverse progress for it’s a downstream
movement.
To the Right:
As we move right from the double line of the
highway we first come to the Republican Party.
At this point we encounter a group of people who
traditionally wanted a little more freedom of people in business
than the Democratic Party and with the governing powers closer to
the voters.
As in the tenth amendment to the Constitution:
All powers not specifically granted to the Federal Government
were retained by the states.
That’s the right wing stance and increased Federal Government
and diminished self government the left wing agenda.
However, in the past few generations, the
Republican Party has become what the Democratic Party was and the
Democratic Party has moved down river to embrace socialism.
Farther to the right we come to Conservatism.
This is the party or philosophy of embracing the Constitution
pretty much as it was written.
Conservatism, sticking to the roots of the Constitution, is
the basis of the Conservative Party.
With the Conservative way of thinking, our
rights are to do pretty much as we please until our actions infringe
upon the rights of others.
Conservatism, if you will is putting the right
to local government back into the hands of local people.
In other words, not having the populace from
Pretty much Conservatism is allowing you to do
whatever you want, as long as you are not interfering with the
rights of others.
Libertarians go a bit farther to the right.
There are far fewer laws and even more individual freedoms.
The Libertarian party today has really strayed from this
concept however, with some members thinking that it should allow
people to do what they want regardless of the rights and well being
of others.
Going into practical explanation here, let’s
look at a good example such as tobaccoj. Liberalism would allow the
government to ban tobacco possession, sale, etc completely.
The Democratic approach would allow smoking only in the
person’s home. A
Republican approach would allow smoking in designated places.
A conservative approach would allow smoking when the smoke
was not bothering other people and a Libertarian approach would
allow smoking anywhere, so what about the other person’s rights or
comfort.
If we take it all of the way to the right, we have the total
breakdown of law and order, or in the extreme, the absence of law.
Okay, there we have it. All of the way to the left
we have a supreme tyrant or dictator with the power of life and
death at his whim or fancy with power to back him.
At the far right, we have the absence of law with the
individual having the right to defend himself and his family.
Comparatively, a good way to explain this is to
look at China, North Korea, Saddam’s Iraq and Iran in contrast to
America’s old west in the days of the first settlers.
(In regulation, oppression, government, etc. Not in the
aspect of housing, appliances and such).
Me? I’ll go by
the Jefferson and Franklin thoughts of; they who would opt for
security at the expense of freedom deserve neither.
In the long run, humanity and liberty are doomed
at the left. However, at the far right, the individuals have the
right and ability to form a government of, for and by the people.
The choice is yours.
Stand up for the constitution or move to the dictator of your
choice.
QUOTES FROM THE RIGHT
Edmund Burke:
All it takes for
evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.
It is a general
popular error to assume the loudest complainers for the public are
the most anxious for its’ welfare.
The individual
is foolish, the multitude for the moment is foolish, when they act
without deliberation but the species is wise and when time is given
to it, as a species it always acts right (ouch, think about how they
DEMAND passage of bills without reading them!)
Frugality is
founded on the principle that all riches have limits.
WINSTON
CHURHILL;
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping that it will eat him last.
NEVER GIVE UP!
A love of tradition has never weakened a nation indeed it has strengthened nations in their hour of peril.
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
It has often been said that democracy is the worst type of government except for all of the others that have been tried.
One ought never to turn ones’ back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half.
When I am abroad, I make it a rule never to criticize the government of my own country, I make up for it when I come home.
RONALD REAGAN:
Freedom is a fragile thing and never more than one generation from extinction.
One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism has been by the way of medicine. It’s very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project.
Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal. It was Mussolini’s success in Italy with his government directed economy, that led the New Dealers to say “But Mussolini keeps the trains running on time.”
THOMAS
JEFFERSON QUOTES
“Don’t bite at the bait of pleasure until you are sure there is no hook beneath it.”
“I believe that banking facilities are more dangerous to out liberties than standing armies.”
“Never spend your money before you have it”
“I have the consolation of having added nothing to my private fortune during my public service and retiring with my hands clean as they are empty.”
BEN FRANKLIN:
“A countryman between two lawyers is like a fish between two cats.”
“He who is of the opinion that money will do everything may well be suspected of doing everything for money”
“He who would sacrifice liberty for security, deserves neither liberty nor security.”
“If you know how to spend less than you get, you have the philosopher’s stone.”
JOHN PAUL JONES
“I have not yet begun to fight.”
NATHAN HALE:
“I have one regret, that I have but one life to give for my country.”
DWIGHT
EISENHOWER:
“An intellectual is a man who takes more words than necessary to tell more than he knows.”
“Before all else, we seek, upon a common labor as a nation, the blessings of the Almighty God.”
THEODORE
ROOSEVELT:
“Patriotism means to stand by the country it does not mean to stand by the President.”
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but morally treasonable to the American Public.”
“A vote is like a rifle, its’ usefulness depends upon the character of the user.”
QUOTES FROM THE LEFT:
NORMAN THOMAS
in 1927, candidate for the socialist party
The American people will never vote for socialism, but under the name of liberalism they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program.
HILLARY
CLINTON; When questioned about why so many business’ fail.
“That just shows you that we need more controls on who is allowed to go into business for themselves.”
“We’re going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.”
“I certainly think the free market has failed.”
Vladimir Lenin:
“Corrupt the young, get them away from religion. Get them interested in sex. Make them superficial and destroy their ruggedness. Get their minds off government by focusing on athletics, sexy books, plays and other trivialities. Divide the people into hostile groups by harping on controversial matters of no importance.”
“Encourage government extravagance, destroy it’s credit, produce fear and rising prices, inflation and general discontent.”
“Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext so as to leave them defenseless. “
“Foster unnecessary strikes in vital industries, encourage civil disorders and foster a soft and lenient attitude on the part of government toward disorders.”
John Davis:
Editor of Earth First Journal
REVEREND
JERIMIAH WRIGHT:
“God Damn
KARL MARX:
“The theory of communism may be summed up in one sentence. Abolish all private property.”
“Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people.”
“The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism.”
ADOLPH HITLER:
“The party should not
be a constable of public opinion, but must dominate it.
It must not be the servant of the masses, but it’s master!”
“Words build bridges into unexplored regions.”
“Our strategy is to destroy the enemy from within, to conquer
him through himself.”
“There should be no issue between the church and the state. The church has nothing to do with political affairs.”
“The leader of genius must have the ability to make different opponents appear as if they belonged to one category.”
Okay that said,
where do you stand?
I’ll take my
stand with the founders of our great country and be proud to say,
“In God we trust!”
Jack Montague