The Ugly Conservative

Hate filled, prejudiced, chauvinist, diversity hating, uncaring, homophobic, bible thumping, war mongering, greedy, capitalistic pig; all describe The Ugly Conservative. I really do not think of myself as those, although you might. I must confess: I am a conservative thinker and I am none of the above, except maybe ugly; that is in the eye of the beholder, and may be true, depending on your individual perspective.
I take particular offense to accusations of hate and prejudice. It matters not to me what skin color you have, your sex, ethnicity, or background. Show me who you are and what you are capable of. Bring me ideas, thoughts, beliefs; shaped by your different experience and openly share them. As I will with you. Our diversity, blended, will benefit us only when openly shared and understood by both. Do not saddle me with the sins of my forefathers any more than I would dare saddle you with their beliefs!
Caring is so often tied to entitlements. I see entitlements as slavery. Contemporary ‘entitlement’ programs equate to this: “I will give you this; in return, I expect fidelity.” My perspective is, “If you need water, I will bring you water, but while I’m bringing it, we will dig you a new well." Caring provides hope, entitlement creates hopelessness. We, you and I working together, can solve any problem; those answering a need without a solution, solve nothing, but gain indebtedness.
Homophobic Bible thumper, that’s a title to love. I could care less what you do privately. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, I do not care! When it is paraded on the street, I will take issue. I don’t parade my private matters in the face of your children nor should I be ask to accept yours be paraded in front of mine. Get a room! I make decisions based on what is right for me and I will not impose them on you, it is a matter of respect for others that you do likewise. If rights are desired, make the case with dignity, not on the street like an animal. My belief in God is mine. Your belief is yours. I will not impose mine on you, nor tolerate the imposition of yours on me. I will defend mine, or yours, to the death. This is primarily why this country came into existence.
I will freely lay down my life, for my God, my Country and my Family; in exchange for living here in the greatest of Republics. I will do the same for you. I willingly bequeath this obligation to myself, my family, and to you, my fellow citizen. I will be a warmonger against any tyrant, internal or external, that will force the sacrifice any Constitutional freedom to any patriot. Freedom is not free, and requires the due diligence of those that would enjoy it.
“When money ceases to become the means by which men deal with one another, then men become the tools of other men.” (Ayn Rand, 1957). I choose to deal with others as a fair and equitable trade. I bring something to you and you see some value in what I offer. I apply my talent, work ethic and sacrifice my time in this world, to provide you something of value, which is unavailable to you otherwise. In exchange, I receive something of value. The equality of the exchange can only be fair; otherwise, those involved would not make the exchange. A great example of this is building materials after a hurricane. Say for example, I sell lumber in Ohio and I have plywood at $10.00 a sheet. Hurricane KatAndrew blows in and Orleanested is devastated. My plywood can be sold there for $20.00 a sheet. As a business owner, no matter how much I may or may not feel for those suffering, I have a choice to make. Market demand drives my costs up from the supplier and to continue to make a living, I must raise my price to $15.00. Is this gouging? No, my customer ‘A’ bears this cost and continues to buy, customer ‘B’ decides the cost is too high at $15.00 and decides to not start any new builds. The sheets he would have bought are now available to the ‘hurricane’ market and help to stabilize the market there. Soon, everybody’s plywood is $10.00 again and the hurricane damage is fixed. Capitalism at work is not a bad thing; it makes commodities available when needed.
Stereotypes are sometimes a very bad banner to follow. Conservatives believe in the individual. We do not ask our God, our Country, our Family, for what we need. We ask our God for strength and guidance for our Country and Family; our Country for protection of our God and Family, our Family for the support of our God and Country; and ourselves, the support of each other. Freedom can only be granted by the individual.


References
Rand, A. (1957) . Atlas Shrugged. New York, NY: New American Library