The Reason Why

Why do you believe what you believe? I’m not asking what you believe. We get asked that all the time, and often offer an opinion without being asked. No, today the question, like a little five year-old, is “Why?”

Everyone has in their mind what terms such as ‘liberal’, ‘conservative’, ‘Democrat’, and ‘Republican’ mean to them. Then there are thousands of variations and combinations of the theme. But whether you choose to label yourself or not, you have beliefs that would land you in one of those categories more than the other.

My personal beliefs tend to land me in the ‘conservative camp’. And today I want to tell you why. I am a conservative because conservatives are the “Yes” people.

“What?” you may say, very surprised, “How can you say they are the “Yes” people?”

A good question. I mean after all, was it not the conservatives who said “No” to Loretta Lynch? Was it not the conservatives who said “No” to universal health care? Was it not the conservatives who said “No” to so-called immigration reforms? And all that time, on the other side, there were the liberals with a resounding “Yes”.

The Constitution sets up the citizens as the ‘parent’ and the government as the ‘child’. We the People get to tell the government what to do, not the other way around (Read the Declaration and Constitution, it’s in there). In a sense the Declaration and the Constitution are documents of ‘No’, ‘Don’t touch that’, and ‘That is off limits’.

Conservatives are not the ‘no’ group, however. They are the freedom people, the ‘yes’ group. They say “No” to the government, ‘keep your mitts off our freedom’ and “Yes” to the people you CAN speak freely, you CAN start a business, you CAN worship freely, you CAN…..

The liberals/progressives would have you believe the opposite. But the truth is they are saying, ‘You can’t do this. Let the government do it so that you can HAVE ____(whatever it may be).

The Conservative model takes work, you have to take the initiative in order to have a higher paying job, in order to get your own house, your own health care, whatever it may be. The Liberal model doesn’t take work in order to get whatever ‘goodie’ the government is holding out (welfare, food stamps, citizenship, etc.). The government will give it to you, in exchange for just ‘little bit’ of your freedom.

Let’s take for example the very heated issue of health care. Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, was passed despite stringent opposition from a conservative minority. And since then, attempts to repeal it have failed. Isn’t this the conservatives saying “No” to universal, affordable health care?

Every time you say “No” to something, you are saying “Yes” to something else. If you offer me a double-bacon-cheeseburger and I refuse, I’m saying “No” to the burger and “Yes” to avoiding unhealthy food. Or, if I accept, I’m saying “Yes” to the burger and “No” to hunger.

So, by saying “No” to ‘universal, affordable health care’ what were the conservatives saying “Yes” to? I believe they were saying “Yes” to limited government within its proper, Constitutional role. They were saying “Yes” to freedom.

It’s not complicated. Read the Constitution, the Federalist Papers. Government has no role in health insurance. “The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the Federal Government, are few and defined.” Federalist 45, James Madison. It really is that simple. You see, conservatives hold the belief that in fact, government is not the solution, it is, more often than not, the problem.

Thomas Jefferson, in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1798, said: "...in questions of power then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the constitution..."

Abraham Lincoln believed that, “We the people are the rightful masters of both Congress and the courts, not to overthrow the Constitution but to overthrow the men who pervert the Constitution.”

That is why I believe what I believe. Being a conservative means that freedom is the end goal, and that’s a good thing. America has prospered so incredibly much, and part of the reason for that prosperity is the freedom that we take for granted every day. I don’t know about you, but I like that. I like saying “Yes”.

Why do you believe what you believe?

Jonathan Paine

painefultruth76.blogspot.com

@painefultruth76

painefultruth76@gmail.com