Suspended Conservativism

There is a Newsweek article that expresses exactly what I wanted to write in this blog. My first presidential election was in 1976 when I had to choose between Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter.  That was the last time it was really much of a contest.  Since then I have voted straight Republican.  Until now.  Barack Obama is the first Democrat that I actually wanted to win the election.  And of course I voted for him.  It’s not because I have suddenly become a liberal Democrat.  It’s because Republicans took conservatism in a very uncomfortable direction.  There are many things that make me uncomfortable about having Democrats in power. But the Republicans lost me with several key decisions that were made over the last eight years.

• Stem cells.  I still cannot fathom why it is preferable to destroy the thousands of unused embryos created by fertility clinics. They are unused because there are only so many that you can bring to full personhood. The clinics destroy the remaining ones. Why not get the benefit of studying those to help those who do and will live. That sounds pro-life to me.
• Terri Schiavo. This may very well have been the final straw for me. The party that is supposed to be the great defender of states’ rights went to great lengths to violate Florida’s state rights.  The federal government had no business intervening in that situation. Whether or not I agreed with the family’s decision, I was thoroughly disgusted at the intrusion of conservative politicians at the national level.
• Rule of law. The willingness of the Bush administration to ignore the law (FISA, torture) was a graphic demonstration of how far out of touch conservatives have become with the American people.  The motives may actually have been right, but the approach was dead wrong. (I do not favor, however, an endless stream of investigations and special prosecutors. I think the Bush administration did what it did to protect us. We fired those people and hired new ones. Move on.)
• Gays. The federal government’s interest in this issue is baffling. This is a personal issue and a matter of conscience. We do need to consider how to handle the logistics of any kind of civil union when it involves crossing state lines. But the template has already been created. The reality is that most corporations and insurance companies are well ahead of the federal government in that they already make accomodations for non-traditional relationships. Civil unions are a fact of life whether we call it marriage or not. Right-wing Republicans have used the bully pulpit to attempt to impose a strictly religious interpretation of marriage. But the government’s job is to represent all of its citizens, not to enforce a specific brand of Christianity on the American people. Banning gay marriage or passing legislation defining marriage according to a specific belief system serves no civil purpose. It does not protect anybody’s constitutional rights and does not protect or defend the nation from its enemies.
• Abortion. The unbending rhetoric about overturning Roe v Wade and attempts to ban all abortion for any reason is simply not a practical stance at the national level. There has to be a middle ground. I am not a fan of abortion. But I do think there are legitimate cases for it. Again, the government needs to view this as a secular issue. Though I do understand that those who truly believe that human life begins at conception believe that this is about protecting rights. 

On the other hand, the issuess of concern to me from the liberal side are:

• Unions.  Unions have done a lot of good over the last century. But they have also contributed directly to the dire straits of the US manufacturing sector. The push by unions to abolish the secret ballot is a blatant admission that harassment and intimidation are necessary for the unions to maintain their power.  I have witnessed the strong-armed tactics that unions used to force people to unionize when they don’t want to.  I strongly believe that workers should have the right to vote on unionization without subjecting themselves to violence, harassment, intimidation or invasions of privacy. 
   
• Spending.  When presented with an opportunity to create a stimulus package, Democrats came up with such wonderful ideas as spending $200 million on contraceptives, and several million dollars to replace the sod at the Washington Mall.  Neither of these makes any sense when identifying areas that can help the economy.  They are pork and/or transparent pandering to special interests.  And I am happy that there are still powerful conservatives that can point these things out even though they cannot directly stop the passage of such legislation.  At least they can shine a spotlight and shame the Democrats into trimming some of the more obvious pork out of their spending bills.

So my allegiance to the Democratic administration has a limited shelf life.  I have been very impressed with Barack Obama.  And I think he is the right man at the right time with the right leadership style.  But I am still at heart a moderate conservative.  But conservative in that government’s role should be limited, that in ordinary times fiscal conservatism makes sense.  However these are extraordinary times and the liberal touch at the moment is probably exactly what we need.