Aaron Poeze

These mistakes are related to current practices and are not about idealism or the systemic nature of conservatism.  These issues can be turned around, and in relatively short order.

1) The American Dream

One of the biggest issues that’s killing capitalistic, constitutional conservatism cold is the fading of the American Dream.

The American Dream isn’t very complicated. You work hard, take opportunities and work your self up to prosperity by investment, better positions, your own business or what have you.  This can include prosperity beyond financial measures.

It’s fading. Fading so much many think it’s a myth. No, the American Dream was never easy, there’s always stupidity, opposition and bad luck to get in the way. But that didn’t stop the millions of Americans before, no they took the reigns and did well for themselves, and in so doing well for others and America itself.

People are still making it happen. But it’s too few, the very lucky, the exceptionally smart and well connected. It’s too few to encourage people to believe it’s possible. Instead of millions we have a trickle. Now if someone wants to make it they often won’t. Why? That’s the question.

One answer sadly seems to be the wealthy who have made it are doing their level best to kill off opportunities for these people. Oh they resent their taxes. Spreading the wealth as money is socialist and is indeed a flawed idea. But the true wealth does need to be spread around, and this is opportunity. Conservative refusal to spread this around is killing the very capitalistic ideals they worship. It’s fermenting victimhood, frustration and anger at the rich.

Wealthy conservatives often don’t even practice much charity. Conservative generosity is frequently an illusion hiding selfish people underneath. The charity of Palin and McCain (and Obama for that matter) was tiny and worse ramped up for the election!

Now if you can’t get help anywhere where else is there to go but government or rebellion?  I think they are going for both.

2) Systemic Corruption and Complacency

This isn’t very complicated either so I’ll be brief. Most of us are aware the more power and the more time we give a political entity the more hopeless and corrupt they become.

Conservatives have had that cornucopia of power over quite some time and it did it’s work as it always does. It’s a major factor in this economic downturn.

A saving grace for the conservatives is the burden of this is now on the Liberals.

3) Are Republicans Conservative or Liberal?

There’s so much wrong with the actual practice of Republicans compared to their conservative rhetoric, one wonders. They have presided massive foreign debts, massive growth in government, implementation of freedom restrictions in things like the patriot act, and socialist policy such as the bailout and extensive farming regulation and subsidies.

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American Dream, conservatives, conserving conservatism, politcs

These mistakes are mirrored by the Liberals and are a result of more extreme idealistic thinking clashing with practical reality. This is something both conservatives and Liberals do.

1) Putting Words in Other People’s Mouths

Oh this trick is positively ancient. Instead of letting the opponent state their actual position, or make their own gaffes conservatives are very fond of stuffing words, actions and positions into their opponents. These are invariably designed to make the opponent seem everything your side doesn’t like. Often a more extreme more sinister version of the truth.

And therein lies the problem. Conservatives tend to believe these puffs of smoke and mirrors because other conservatives who they trust more than the opponent assert their reality. Hence conservatives make huge mistakes and often drive moderates away.

Conservatives badly need to see their real opponent and make smart moves to counter them rather than countering fictitious bogeymen.

2) Preaching to the Choir

This one the conservatives fell heavily for in the last election. A great deal of policy and rhetoric was focused on the already converted and simply drove them into higher levels of support. Instead of winning centrists and marginal states they were shoring up high support in thoroughly red states. You can see it in the high delegate win of Obama yet not so great a popular vote.

Winning elections is about swaying people to vote for you who aren’t already going to.

3) Seeing only the Extremes in the Other Side

Moonbats is the term often used by conservatives to describe the some of the worst extremes Liberals have to offer. Protesting, disjointed, people well out of phase with reality and fairness. Oh the swearwords could flow in description I’m sure.

And they are that bad. But conservatives focus on them, indeed moonbats all but scream for attention. But it’s not wise. Conservatives start thinking all Liberals are the same but actually moonbats are not very representative.

Conservatives are also blind to their own extremists. The Neo-nazis, Jew-hating born again Christians and others that their own side has to offer. The ones Liberals like to think of as representative of all Conservatives. Also incorrect.

When conservatives start to bash Liberals as these moonbats it only encourages Liberals to think of them as stupid and cling ever more to their ideals. It also drives moderates away who feel like they are being bashed too.

Intelligent people might look at the clowns, but they don’t think it’s the whole circus.

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conservatives, conserving conservatism, idealism, politcs

Now we discuss the deep rooted conservative mistakes that helped lead to the election result we all know about.  I am not claiming these mistakes are the whole story of the election result because there are many factors not least being the economic downturn, but are rather that which is directly related to conservatives.  In this first section I illustrate 3 major points which are systemic to Conservatives.  This means they stem from the way conservatism works.

1) That pillar of Conservative values, that rock to weather the storms of the Liberals, is immutable unchangeable like a rock.

Conservative values change, are ever changing. That perceived as being worth keeping by an individual might never change but conservatism is bigger than an individual. It changes as people themselves change.

The best most direct way to point this out is the Independence of the USA. Back then you see the Tories were the conservatives battling the Rebels against the King. You see. The original liberals have become the conservatives now and with it the values of these conservatives changed. From hating the Declaration of Independence to thoroughly supporting it. But it’s not just then that it changed. It’s happening all the time. Slaves were freed. Conservatives now support that. Blacks and women can vote. Most conservatives now support that. Blacks and women running for office. Gays can actually walk down the street.

Change. It happens no matter if you like it or not and conservatives do, in fact, change with it.

2) Conservatism is uniform

Actually it isn’t. The most obvious way to see this and open you eyes is looking at conservatives from other nations. Russia is essentially conservatively run, Japan too for that matter. Are they the same as American conservatives? In some ways yes but generally no, not that much.

And the differences exist in America as well. We have broad groups of overlapping, sometimes conflicting conservative idealism. There are military, Christian, capitalistic and constitutional conservatives, for example.

If you look a little harder you’ll see the deeper truth. Conservative ideals for you aren’t ideals for all other conservatives.

3) Conserving yourself at the expense of others.

This is a killer problem in conservative thinking. It all stems from the ‘us and them’ survival mode built into us humans where we protect our self, our own, our town or our country and sacrifice others if necessary in the hard reality of desperate situations. But we sometimes take it beyond survival into everyday life because we can perceive anything as survival, such as in that overused phrase; “I’ll die if…”

Slavery is a fantastic example of this problem thinking. Once upon a time slavery was conservative and indeed it maintained a way of life that the people of the day believed was right and proper. It was protected and thought worth keeping.

But it wasn’t now was it? It was vile actually. Deep down it had the seed of racism and perhaps something more… Discrimination. The idea that some people were more worthy than others.

And discrimination has the basis of ‘us and them’ thinking. It’s why it’s so terribly common. Conservatives have struggled mightily with discrimination always trying to support it but fighting a rearguard action. The cruelty and selfishness towards blacks, women, gays, the disabled and even the poor are just some obvious examples. It still exists but has weakened considerably.

Thinking you’re better than other people is a fantastic way to become unpopular.

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conservatives, conserving conservatism, politcs

For the most part the conservative and Liberal stances are as can be expected. Attitudes to guns, the military, sex, law etc. are all rather easy to understand from the basis of rebellion or retention. But it’s not all straightforward, here’s some areas conservatives and liberals seem mixed up in.

Economics

In some places socialism is conservative but the US is in a different spot there. It embraced what was once a liberal idea of capitalism. Many Liberals are anti-capitalist or anti-globalist but many pro-capitalists exist in here as well.

Economic Liberalism is part of US conservatism

Environment

Normally environmental conservation would be a solid part of conservatism. To protect the providence of health and experience to children. But it isn’t in the US. Quite the opposite. It stems from capitalism. Many companies are very dismissive of the environment and that’s been hammered down the line with the more industrial ones feeling restricted in their operations because of protests and laws about pollution. It’s made even more stark because US Liberals have taken environmentalism on board as their issue as a fighting the establishment cause. In many ways this has derailed practical environmental considerations giving way to speculations. However I think conservatives will eventually pick this issue up. For example, they already appear to be doing so on the obvious practical issue of petrol, looking for more fuel efficient cars instead of the petrol guzzling ego trucks they were once so fond of.

Environmental Conservatism is part of US Liberalism.

Freedom

This is the area US Conservatives and Liberals seem most aligned and at odds. On the one hand both seem to value their freedom at many levels but on the other both are fond of trying to restrict the freedoms of their opponents.

I see that as selfishness. I also think Freedom should be a core value for all; Conservative or Liberal.

Mistakes of the Liberals

In the next few posts I will be bluntly pointing out Conservative Mistakes. However in the pondering I unearthed a few of the Liberal ones. Also some conservative mistakes are common to Liberals and will be discussed in those later posts. Here’s a summary of some Liberal mistakes;

1) All change is good change
No, in fact the opposite is more often true.

2) Hope is enough
Action is needed too.

3) Helping the disadvantaged requires you restrict the freedom of others
Stopping discrimination does not require rules that discriminate

4) What’s old is new again
and again and again, eg. bringing socialism back to the table as a ‘new’ idea which is instead a very very old one.

5) Because it feels good it is good
Not always.

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conservatives, conserving conservatism, liberals, Politics

I introduce a series here on Conserving Conservatism of about 9 posts where I will show problems which caused the recent election loss and forge a way forward for conservatives to consider.

In some ways I’m an insatiably curious man. Good? Bad? Who knows. I can merely say it’s good for me. After spending so much time dunked in the fetid pools of liberal and conservative thinking through my personal life and blogs and other places in cyberspace, I have a general pattern on how they work. Full of stereotypes, I’m sure.

The simplest way to put it is direct;

Conservatives conserve, they keep, protect and retain. How do you keep something? You serve it. Or more precisely preserve it. Serve it before yourself. That’s how the military works to keep America.

Liberals change things, tinker, alter and try to break established ideas. Sometimes they like to call it Progressive.

In the beginning of our opening awareness and involvement with society at large we tend to rebellion. Those teenage or sometimes later years are the right time for it to forge our place in the world it’s necessary to rock the boats. The establishment trying to keep things just the way they are have to be shoved aside to let teenagers the room to be whoever they come to be. Otherwise we get those sad situations where, for example, the virginal good boy is still home at 62 looking after mother dearest. Which happens, I know all too well. Rebellion seethes in their veins, most probably literally as hormones and anything traditional can become targeted.

So we have all sorts of amusing fashions, protests, arguments, ideas and so forth where these teens try to show how much they know (and don’t they know it all!?) and make things happen. Indeed change is an important part of life and there is no doubt teens are very much alive.

.. and then. They finish growing up.

Because pure rebellion doesn’t work. It’s just a burning, sinking, mutinous ship. For then you have the example of hippies still surrounded by mementos of their triumph days in the 60s while they live with their addictions, sometimes going out if their rheumy behaves for another protest du Jour. Perhaps about pollution, in a van puffing a smokestacks worth of poisons out the exhaust.

In fact growing up includes a deep seated review of childhood. Most teenagers end this cycle with what is more or less a review. We do what is core to both liberals and conservatives. We change what we didn’t like about our childhood and keep what we did. Those earlier years were all about experiencing things so we can make these decisions more clearly.

Wouldn’t teenagers just love to know they ARE the machine.

So then we look to what works and has been worthwhile in our experience and that forms the bedrock of conservative ideals. And those ideals and the benefits they deliver serve us well over years sometimes centuries until we discover they don’t.

Because every so often among the hundreds of flawed Liberal ideas comes an idea that works, and works better than the established ideals.

So to summarise. Conservatives keep that which is worthwhile and liberals bring about new improvement. They stem from our deep compulsions to tinker with, and thus change things and to keep things.

On the more doom and gloom side;

Conservatives are doomed to fighting an endless losing battle.

Liberals are doomed to usually being wrong. They are also doomed to becoming their enemy.

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conservatives, conserving conservatism, liberals, Politics

Valour IT is a charity that works. The money is used to directly help soldiers injured in their duties by providing them with voice activated laptops. This helps their recovery by enabling better communication with their family, friends and fellow soldiers.

This year they are also going for GPS and even the popular gaming console; Wii, which allows the soldiers better motivated physical therapy. The Wii is well known for being cleverly physically interactive.

I have also placed the box to donate through and check the progress of the donations to the right. I have donated although my means is not great and hope you will consider it yourself.

If the services besides the Army are preferred you can betray us all and donate here. It also lets you check on how these services are going.

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army, charity, military, soldier's angels, valour IT

11.00am has come and gone here.  It’s been 90 years since the end of WW1 and the guy at the left was the last surviving WW1 Veteran from Australia.

On this day, the 11th of November, Australians remember the sacrifice of those who died in war.

The WWI armistice signed 5am on this day in 1918 resulted in a cease fire coming into effect at 11am where the guns fell silent signifying the end of that war. At the suggestion of an Australian journalist and with a proclamation of the then king (George V), 2 minutes silence was first observed 11th Nov at 11am in 1919.

It came to be known as Armistice Day but with WWII it was changed to Remembrance Day and all those who sacrificed for war are remembered.  This includes the recently fallen of which we sadly have 5 soldiers who fell in Afghanistan.  David Pearce, Sergeant Matthew Locke, Lance Corporal Jason Marks, Private Luke Worsley and Signaller Sean McCarthy.  We also lost a soldier to illness from a little known conflict in Indonesia in 1965.  Dennis Millane.  I have blogged on some of these individuals when the news came.

These days one minute silence is the norm observed. The day is not actually a holiday so this really is a minute at work or home for most Australians.  Apart from the minute silence there’s also ceremonies at various war memorials. Of particular note remembering the Unknown Soldier for those many (estimated 35% for WW1) who died but had no known grave through the chaos of war. A fairly moving quote here;

“As Australia’s Unknown Soldier was laid to rest in the Hall of Memory, World War I veteran Robert Comb, who had served in battles on the Western Front, sprinkled soil from Pozieres, France, over the coffin and said, “Now you’re home, mate”.”

But Remembrance Day’s one minute silence is the simple observance for all Australians and is wider than a few ceremonies. Today I was at home to observe the minute.

The Happy dude at the top is John (”Jack”) Ross, the WW1 veteran that had survived all his brothers-at-arms. This last surviving WW1 veteran died at the ripe old age of 106 three years ago.

In the News:

news.com.au

abc.net.au

Rest in Peace, we will remember you all.

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military, remembrance day, unknown soldier, war, WW1, WW2

Eye kneed a knew spellchequer.

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English, funny, Humour, language, spellcheck

Barack Obama

So the American people have spoken. Obama won the election becoming the first Black President of the United States of America. It’s an interesting outcome which shows just how much racism against Blacks in the US has weakened.

Obama won by a landslide. Electorally he nabbed some 349 votes to 163 for McCain. Several GOP states converted to him as well. The popular vote was not a landslide 53% to 46%. Still a clear win but no landslide there. That suggests a stronger polarisation to one party or the other to me, especially of GOP states becoming more strongly GOP. A lot of talk of women, Blacks, Hispanics, young people and new voters favouring Obama more which makes sense.

I wish him well in the years ahead and hope he can actually pull off some of the happy clappy stuff he’s been going on about. It’s not like he won’t have anything to do now is it?

McCain conceded gracefully not that many conservatives were with him there. It’s going to be difficult years ahead for the US military conservatives. Obama has stated he wants to cut the military spending by 25% and is likely to do just that. Afghanistan and Iraq are also in question. I think he’ll still do Afghanistan but Iraq may be different.

It’s time now for those conservatives to avoid the silly things I’ve already warned about like declaring America dead etc and move into effective opposition because that’s what government’s need to be more effective for all. No doubt they will also do some naval gazing and might even dump some of the things which just don’t work.

I also note the various gay marriage prohibitions including the more influential proposition 8 have been passed. Discrimination in the US is far from dead, it is in fact quite popular, and that’s quite disappointing.

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Well it’s time now, after far too long a political dance, the US election is tomorrow their time and we will see the results soon enough. I look forward to it.

As I have said, I predict Obama will win this one. I also feel it will be of a more significant margin than expected. Finally, I think this election will see a fairly good turnout. One wonders how many would show up in this country if voting were not mandatory.

I have several reasons for thinking Obama will win. It’s actually quite hard to pick them because you have to hold back your own hopes or fears which visualise one of them winning. The real clout doesn’t come from you, it comes from the bulk of the voters. An obvious way to choose the winner is in the polls. But polls only show snippets of fact not the central election fact itself. I think many in the US are not Bush happy and the US economic collapse on his watch is a very heavy weight for McCain to drag into an election. Oppositions also often win elections when economies go sour.

I also see a ‘weight’ of opinion too which I may explain at length later on. Conservatives are currently too rigid and it’s failure to give ground means a shift to liberal, which probably won’t hold for Obama seems likely to make some badly thought out changes.

Finally there are more subtle things. McCain’s heavy use of negative campaigning, a really big sign of a losing campaign. Palin starting to buck her way out of the election strategy’s entanglement so she can take another shot later is also a disturbing sign for her side.

I am less worried about this election than most it seems. I feel McCain and Obama are both better results than Bush and could live with either one. I feel neither are going to be fantastic and have no false hopes at all about their reigning in the corporate crooks or fixing the economy. Why? Because they haven’t really put much effort into it and because they can’t really fix the economy, it is not really up to macro political machinations.

I am still opposed to Palin, if it weren’t for her I’d favour McCain more clearly. I am glad Hillary isn’t in the race. I think dynastic Presidencies are a poor idea more in line with Monarchy. The Bush men was one but Clinton-Hillary would have been a second.

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election, mccain, obama, Politics, president, usa

It can be hard to convince people to visit this country sometimes…

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australia, Humour, spiders

We we finally come to the third US Presidential debate, This one was done with a more intimate style with McCain, Obama and the moderator sitting at the one table.

For once it was a little more animated. I would dare to say it was the best debate of the three. Some more difficult questions were asked and bold statements made. There was a lot of talk about the economy and taxes. Some talk covered abortions, education and the negative campaigning.

McCain partly made good on his promise go go in swinging. Unfortunately his idea of swinging is my idea of lame. It’s almost like he lets the strength drain out of his punches at the last second. The other problem is the negativity doesn’t look good and Obama is a very good defender. McCain actually had some energy at first but he seemed to run out of steam later on. He made good use of the anecdotal “Joe the plumber” although perhaps overused it. I noticed he had to catch himself back from that ‘maverick’ word, preferring ‘reformer’ instead. Obama performed very well keeping calm and focused and was obviously better prepared for what McCain would say. He seemed a bit aloof at first which is a terrible fault for such a debate but warmed up quite quickly.

Again bull was flung around. I was pleased Obama restated the $4Billion for oil companies properly thereby avoiding the lie spouting in previous debates. But he still told some whoppers, as did McCain.

Obama won this debate but the margin was small. Unfortunately McCain really needed a big win here, and if not in the debate then somewhere else to improve his chances at the election.

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I have said some time ago things are going well in Iraq, but it’s nice to see it in action. Bill of Castle Arghhhh!!! has given us some great insight into this improvement as well as being an instructimental part of it. Clicky clicky now.

The only thing I want to add is the very photo of these graduates you can see as well as media attention is now possible, because things have improved so much the risk to these graduates lives from the enemy has been so greatly reduced. That was not so before where secrecy was survival.

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Iraq, military, success

I’m going to get this out there early.

Right about now the US conservatives are a bit spooked. Radio Doom is blaring out and the news is right on target. McCain is loosing according to polls, not that they are definitive. And this simple fact is throwing panic and fear quite out of proportion with reality. The election isn’t even over yet.

But this is nothing.

Just wait until the election has passed. Presuming Obama wins the election the silliness will go through the roof. Expect some of the following from conservatives;

1) Declarations Democracy has failed

2) Renouncing US citizenship

3) Dumping the Republicans

4) Viciously attacking the candidates that are currently talked up to be so wonderful. That’s right, the fall of Palin and McCain.

5) Some if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em’s. That’s right, conversions to Democrats.

6) Some to go deeper into right wing ideology. Joining the most nutcase right wing groups.

7) Declarations of war, civil or otherwise

and of course loads of despair.

Those most likely to do this are not those that wobble in their beliefs or sit on the fence, but rather the most involved with conservative ideals and politically focused.

You heard it in advance from me.

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conservatives, despair, election, Politics, usa