What if America was a Conservative Nation?

Perusing the Liberal Left blogs and miscellaneous political forums one notices a striking inability of many on the left to understand that the US (like the rest of the West) is socialist at its core. Yet, recently I read a post where a Leftist was attempting to convince the rest of the readership that "US politics are just shades of right wing conservatism". This, of course, is an absurd assertion on it's face. The U.S. is demonstrably a moderate socialist state.

True, it is more conservative than the rest of the Western nations of the world but being on the right side of the left side of center is still LEFT. Like the frog put in a pot of cold water while the heat is turned up until the frog boils to death, most people have just gotten used to our liberal politics to the point that moderate politics appear right-wing.

If US politics were just shades of right wing conservatism here is what I think we might look like:

1. Law abiding citizens would be free to defend themselves with a gun without restriction.
2. Children would be free to be born without risk of being murdered.
3. There would be no income or property tax.
4. People would be free to send their child to a school of their choice (on their own dime of course but they wouldn't be paying property taxes so they could afford paying their own way).
5. Universities would hire conservative professors.
6. CBS, ABC, the NYT, NBC, and CNN would be to the right of Fox News and would have huge audiences as a result.
7. The U.S. would be ardently pro-Israel with no pretense about "roadmaps" or negotiating with the PLO.
8. We would have nailed UBL during the 90s rather than passing on nabbing him 13 different times.
9. Schools would teach Design Science side-by-side with other theories on origins.
10. Children would be free to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in public.
11. The rule of law would trump personal judicial philosophies.
12. Ex-California governor, Gray Davis would be in jail for massive corruption (of course, in a conservative America he would never have been elected in the first place).
13. Clinton would have not only been impeached but removed from office, tried as a rapist, and, if convicted, sent to jail (of course, in a conservative America he would never have been elected in the first place).
14. You could say "Merry Christmas" in any venue you wanted to without being censured.
15. A Republican president would not be pushing a liberal agenda (like increasing federal education budgets, prescription drug benefits, lax immigration policy, etc).
16. There would be no such thing as welfare (for individuals or corporations).
17. Individuals would gladly rise to the challenge of meeting the needs of the poor through private charitable giving.
18. Religious symbols (of every religion) would be allowed on state property.
19. Judges would take a strict constructionist view of the Constitution.
20. No one would pay attention to Janeane Garofalo, Susan Sarandon, George Clooney, Michael Moore, Martin Sheen, Danny Glover, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, Tim Robbins, Julia Roberts, Mike Farrell, Jennifer Aniston, Ed Harris, Richard Gere, Woody Harrelson, Ed Norton, David Clennon, Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jessica Lange, Woody Allen, Johnny Depp, Kate Hudson, Harrison Ford, Dixie Chicks, Barbra Streisand, Eddie Vedder, Madonna Ciccone, Bruce Springsteen, Michael Stipe, Chris Martin, Chrissy Hynde, Sheryl Crow, Dave Matthews, Neil Young, Bono, Tom Daschle, Nancy Pelosi, Patty Murray, Howard Dean, Paul Begala, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Robert Byrd, Ken Livingstone, Henry Waxman, Bob Graham, Janet Reno, Patrick Kennedy, Charlie Rangel, Sheila Jackson Lee, Fritz Hollings, Al Gore, Al Sharpton, Gray Davis, Hans Blix, Ashleigh Banfield, Norman Mailer, Mike Tyson, Bill Moyers, Ted Turner, Martha Stewart, or Jesse Jackson (but they would still be free to be idiots).

If these 20 points were true about America then I would agree that American politics were conservative. This is not to say that the populace is not conservative for a look at the county by county Presidential election map supports that. But inacted policy is a different thing altogether and, in my mind, that is what counts.

Ultimate iPod Vehicle Install

There are a lot of cars and trucks on the road with iPods in the glove box and you may be one of them. But unless you have a Beemer or the new Saab , you probably fight with control of the device. Worse yet, transmitting via an FM transmitter probably wears on your ears as the static and interference ruins the listening experience.

This is my personal solution to the problem.

Democrats imploding not good for Conservatives

I plan to write more on this topic in the coming weeks but here is just an initial thought. There are two types of approaches to politics: partisanship and ideology. I am in the latter camp and so the crackup of the Democrats is not a good omen for me as a conservative. If you are a partisan, the self-destruction of the opposing party is a Good Thing. It strengthens one's own party as the more sane in the opposition abandon the doomed party and switch to yours. In our current situation, the Dems are moving ever more left, which everyone knows is a path to destruction for them. But they just can't seem to help themselves. As they slowly slip into the quicksand of their own making, Conservatives should not celebrate.

Zell may be the most high profile to do so but there are other prominent Dems who are becoming more openly critical of their own party. Furthermore, many longtime Democrat voters chose Bush this last time around and one has to wonder how far behind it can be before they simply make the move and join the Grand Old Party. Already registered independents outnumber registered Democrats. So this is a good thing for Republican partisans.

But here's the rub for Conservatives. As more and more "moderate" Democrats abandon their party, the GOP leadership feels it must accommodate them to help them make the leap. The Karl Roves of the world, for all their political genius, are not interested in the Conservative ideology but in enlarging the GOP base. This is not a totally Bad Thing except that it is unprincipled (okay, so it is a Bad Thing -ed.). This explains, in part, the leftward migration of the GOP.

One can imagine a day when the Democrat party is entirely controlled by the MoveOn.org types. They already think they own the party and maybe they do. As a result, the rank and file Dems are further alienated from their party and Rove knows this. Rove's goal: bring them in for good by making the tent even bigger.

Any objective observer has to admit that today's Republican party is very close, ideologically, to JFK's Democrat party of 40 years ago. Certainly the GOP has abandoned classic Jeffersonian liberalism that modern Conservatives love so much. Where then, is the conservative party in America of tomorrow? What happens if Rudy or (God forbid) Ahnold is nominated for our party's candidate? My hope is that the GOP will hold to its principles as we need at least one major party in this country that does. However, as the Democrat party goes the way of the Whigs, one has to wonder if we now are seeing the beginning of the end of a conservative leaning GOP.

Dumbing Down Your Product

Although I have the previous generation of Apple Cinema Display (the 23" crystal acrylic) and so this is not an issue for me, Rush went on a rant today on his show about the new Apple Cinema's power button. Apple has indeed designed the monitor so that it can work with PCs and thus, the feature we Mac users have grown to accept as standard, that the monitor power button can also power up the computer, is now a thing of the past. The Apple ADC connector was brilliant (as most Apple innovations are) and although it did conform to a standard, the DVI connector found on newer PCs made it such that Windows users could not utilize Apple monitors with their machine. Apple is expanding its base by appealing to Windows folks and so they made the decision to abandon the very cool ADC connector (which allowed for all video, USB, and power to flow through a single cable) in favor of the dumber DVI standard.

The PC magazine, ZDNet raves about the monitor here but does note that it has one "con". That's right, the power button does not power up the computer.

Rush has put out an APB for a "hacker" to come up with a solution to getting the monitor to talk to the computer on power-up. I think the solution is probably something that Dr Bott sells but I have not had time to go through their product catalog yet, but they are industrious types over there so that seems like Rush's best bet.

An Ill Wind is Blowing (but this is not necessarily bad news).

Of late I have really begun to notice how the tide has turned against Christianity in the West. True, Europe has been post-Christian for a while but ever more frequently we are finding that God is being systematically banned from public discourse here in the United States as well. It is getting so bad that in some places Christmas itself is being shut out of the public square.

There is little need to enumerate the anti-Christian sentiments found in the MSM, Hollywood, or in Academia, as this is common knowledge. What is more fascinating to me is the willful ignorance of the modern anti-Christian bigot toward facts like the religious beliefs of the Founders, the role of Christians in the spread of justice and charity throughout the world, or even things as fundamental as what is evil and what is good.

The Bible clearly states that as we head toward the final prophetic moments of history, that unbelievers will think themselves wise but be, in actuality, quite foolish. They will say that what is evil is good, and what is good, evil. They will hate those who follow Christ, and they will imagine themselves to be gods in their own eyes.

In talking about good v. evil I am reminded that Liberals apparently have no problem endorsing the teaching of one of the most violent and oppressive religions conceived by the mind of man in our public schools yet ban anything remotely Christian (including the reading of the Declaration of Independence) from that same venue. I note that more and more, it is Christian teachings that are said to be the source of the worlds ills (as opposed to Islamic fundamentalists, Franco/German bribery schemes, Russian attempts to recreate the glories of the Soviet State, or the generally dark hearts of people the world over.)

No, apparently it is the simple teaching that Christ is the only path to heaven that MUST BE STOPPED!

The fact that the Left has no difficulty promoting the idea that Islam is a "religion of peace" (as opposed to "submission") while modern Christianity is racist and violent, is a testament to just how upside down the world has become.

Now, lest you think I am suggesting we should seek to alter this trend, let me disabuse you of the thought. This is an inexorable movement, like lava travelling down the flanks of Mauna Loa. Christians are hated, and not because we are not "open-minded" enough, or not environmentally friendly enough. No, it is because we believe that what the Bible says is [gasp!] true. This is intollerable to the modern Liberal mindset. In truth, the term "Left" is quickly becoming shorthand for describing "haters of Christ".

Jesus, Peter, Paul, and John all talked about how this would be the climate at the End Times. In my opinion, there is really nothing that can be done to stem this anti-Christian tide. When all is said and done, Christians, with all their generosity, righteousness, and desire to spread freedom throughout the world are, to the Left, a sworn enemy.

Ultimately the question we have to ask ourselves is, as Francis Schaeffer once posited, "How then shall we live?"

I suggest that, as believers, we can do two key things:

1. Do everything possible to maintain a society that allows for the message of Christ to be preached. Fighting against national ID cards or the New World Order, are pointless in my opinion, as they take our eyes off the more important issue of spreading the Gospel message. Which brings me to:

2. Spread the good news that Jesus Christ is alive and willing to accept all who choose to follow Him.

Of course, the Left does not want to hear this message nor does it wish to have Christians hanging around making it difficult for them to spread their latest brand of totalitarianism. They are interested in only a couple of things these days; a.) personal gratification and b.) silencing Christians.

We need to stay vigilant such that we are not silenced. In this respect, Christians need to be more involved in the public discourse than anyone. If we hang back we will lose the opportunity to speak the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. But don't fool yourselves, the tide will continue to turn against Christians and we need to be prepared for this reality. America is heading the direction of Europe and Canada: post-Christian.

In the time we have left, let's not be distracted by the little stuff. Jesus is coming soon, let's act like it.