An Outdated Manifesto

I wrote this November 5, 2008. This will be updated, but I think its a good starting place. The purpose of this blog, The New Breed, is to develop a new breed of Young Conservatives in America. We YCs don't have any sounding boards today. Liberals have Huffington Post, Dailykos, etc. and we are left with the hard writings of older people who just don't connect to us all that well.

The goal is here is to create a venue to speak your mind, to learn about issues in a manner that suits us the best, and to come together and work for a better future. I encourage those of you who read this to think about what you're reading and how it affects you. If you have good ideas, reply, let us know what you think. Writing for New Breed right now will be two writers- myself and my good friend and fellow co-worker on the Giuliani Campaign Leanne McCullough. But we welcome new writers. If you want to join us, if you want to write with us, just send us samples, let us know what you think and we will definitely give you a chance. The key here is to grow!

With that said.....A Conservative Manifesto (of sorts)

With all of the mudslinging and whatnot and every liberal and their mother posting their beliefs anywhere they can and then going after any conservative who attempts to speak their mind, I figured its time to put mine up. I’m not devoutly religious, nor am I some right wing extremist, but I am prepared to defend my beliefs to the very bitter end, no matter the cost, no matter what lengths I have to go to. Too many conservatives these days choose to keep their voices silenced because liberals choose to be overly harsh and never ending when it comes to their close minded criticisms and hatred to our side. In that regard, I say bring it. Please. I don’t claim to be the smartest or the best or the most righteous person in the world, but I am deeply invested within my convictions and willing to verbally spar with anyone who has the gall to call me out. This will probably be long winded, a bit rant-heavy, but hopefully entertaining to a few of you.

I am a conservative. These days, that word has gotten muddled in problems. With an unpopular war and an economy on the brink of recession, everyone seems ready to write off the word conservative with ‘evil, misguided, ill-informed’ or other various unkind words. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

As the years pass, people will begin to realize just how unfairly George Bush was treated and will gain a new respect for the man as president. George Bush is a man with a love for America that is practically unparalleled these days. However, he gets dumped on by both sides and it goes back to his 2004 re-election speech where he promises to attempt to bring the parties together and asks the liberals to allow him the chance to earn their respect and work together to make America better, to finish the war, and to rebuild the economy. Those liberals never showed up to the bargaining table. Today, so many of them pound their chests with Obama chants and false pretexts of ‘Obama will bring the parties together. He transcends party politics.” Absolute garbage. The moment Bush tried to step across party lines and reach out to Dems, the Republicans began to fight him. The moment Bush tried to follow his conservative beliefs; the Dems chastised and condemned him. That’s how it’s always going to be, no matter the president. Obama is no different. Black, white, green, grey, color is irrelevant. The moment he steps over party lines to embrace the opposite party, things will begin to fall and quickly.

I do not believe John McCain is the best Republicans had to offer America. John McCain is a great man and would make a great president, make no mistake about it. John McCain would restore honor and integrity to an office destroyed by public opinion, but he was not the best Conservative to offer. Nor was Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Ron Paul, or Mitt Romney.

The days of this breed of conservatives running for our most prestigious office must be upended quickly. Though I believe that all of these candidates would make a sufficient President and better than Obama, I do not believe they were the best candidates. Neither was Palin for VP.

No, a new breed of Republican needs to take form. Economic conservatism needs to be at the forefront, with social conservatism in the background. In an economic crisis, gay marriage and abortion rights are a bit less important. First and foremost, there needs to be a clear divisive line between gay marriage and gay civil union rights. Marriage is and will forever be a church institution between two people in front of the eyes of God and other true believers. This cannot be governed by our government. Civil unions, however, are a different tune. I am not for gay marriage as my church does not allow it, but I am all for gay civil unions. People who love each other should be allowed the same constitutional rights that man and woman married couples are allowed. It isn’t about equality, its about economics.

I believe abortion is a woman’s right to choose, but only in certain situations. Rape/molestation/safety of mother’s health are cases in which abortion should be permissible. I am not, however, in favor of how easy it is to secure an abortion in the world today. Abortions are horrible, horrible things. There should be procedures in place to limit the availability of abortions, whether it be abortion case workers or a criteria that women must meet. I also believe that alternative options should be made more prevalent and as easier solutions than abortion. Whether it be funding government programs that pay for at-risk mothers to keep their children and give them up for adoption or a stronger and safer adoption policy, I line up right behind Rudy Giuliani where I believe abortion is abhorrent and should be outlawed in most cases (again, not all), but ONLY when viable alternatives are available.

I believe in equal rights for all people, regardless of sex, skin, or orientation. I am appalled at the constant cries of racism in this election. Just because I am white and voted for McCain does not make me a racist, it makes me a conservative. Just because I do not believe in Obama’s plans does not make me a racist, it makes me a person with an opinion. However, if you voted for McCain because he is white, yes, you have racial issues and are racist. If you voted for Obama because he is black and you are black, you have racial issues and are racist. This is rather cut and dry. If you agree or disagree with either candidate because you have followed the issues and have chosen the person closer to your political orientation, you are simply informed and intelligent, regardless of choice. Race and sex should not matter. Yes, it is historic for Obama to be the first black man in office. However, he is not the first black man to run for office (Allan Keyes), nor is he the first black man in a position of high governmental authority (Condi Rice, Colin Powell). I find it disheartening that black parents and family members have in the past told their kids to try for something else other than president, because it seems too lofty a goal. Martin Luther King Jr would be absolutely ashamed of you. For all your grandstanding about equality, show it. Children should never be sidetracked from their beliefs and dreams, no matter how lofty they are. In fact, when I was a child, I wished I could be as great as Michael Jordan. I even dreamt of changing my middle name to Jordan to be more like Mike. There is nothing wrong with dreaming, and for everything your ancestors fought for and tolerated to get to this point so that Obama could win, to spend years discouraging your children is horrible. Did you learn nothing from MLK? “I Have a Dream’ for christssakes! Its in the name of his most famous speech! He dreamed of this day….and it has arrived, for better or for worse. If you can follow a man based solely on his dreams, how can you discourage your children from theirs? This racism explosion needs to die down, and quickly. Anything McCain and his supporters did in this election was considered racist, and its sad that liberals had to cling to that notion to gain sympathy and give their supporters the fire to continue. He is a man running in a presidential election, which has been known for the increasing ferocity in which the position is fought for in the general election. He’s targeted in negative ads not because he’s black, but because he’s the opponent. That’s the ONLY reason. Race has NOTHING to do with it. Yes, there are racists on both sides, but I assure, there’s probably more racists on the Obama side when it comes to voting for a man because of his color.

I believe the economy is more important than foreign relations. The bailout is and will be seen as a failure, but could have been a beginning solution if applied correctly. Some companies deserve to go under for the way they mistreated the economy and their employees, but not at the risk of hurting the employees themselves. I believe outsourcing needs to be cut off quickly, with some sort of tax benefit created to allow companies to come back to America and operate cheaply enough to stir up employment booms. Foreign countries should be courted as hard as possible to outsource to America, with even greater tax breaks to allow them to do so. Not for the good of the government, but for the good of the public who needs work. I believe the American auto industry should be nationalized for a couple years before being given back to private owners. Not only will this allow for increased employment, sales, and beneficial business practices, but with government money behind the program, it will also fund newer and better green technology and implementation with the American auto market (hydrogen fuel cell, stricter emissions standards, etc)

I believe that, on a nonpermanent basis, the United States should most definitely back out of most foreign affairs and recreate Fortress America. If world opinion is so negative against us, we should give the world the opportunity to work without us and see just how badly they would do. This will also grow our economy, as the US would be relying on purely US products. Then, once the world comes back to us, sorry for its misdeeds, we can respectfully and responsibly roll our influence back out in the world, thus increasing our soft and hard power. This would also help us replenish militarily. Deserting all foreign barracks and having all troops report home would allow us to reorganize, restructure, and reconnect our armed forces. We should be staying in Iraq until everything is finished and the region is stabilized. Same goes for Afghanistan. Iran should most definitely be looked into as a future target if they continue to insist upon nuclear weaponry. Pakistan SHOULD NOT be considered a target until they become hostile toward us. Obama is dead wrong for pointing out Pakistan instead of Iran. Absolutely 100% dead wrong. Gen. Petraeus and CentCom are working well and just recently put in control of Afghanistan and should be allowed to do what they do and stabilize Afghanistan without further interference from Congress or the rest of the Executive Branch.

I believe in smaller government. I believe welfare should be either restructured and handled more strictly or dropped altogether. It has been abused for too long and keeping it around is hurting both the taxpayers and the people currently needing welfare. Need Based Assistance Programs need to be scaled back for the economy to heal itself or be eliminated. Social Security needs to be privatized once the economy has been rebuilt, giving people a better than normal chance to secure good plans for themselves. Before you accuse me of not knowing the situation in terms of Welfare- well, my family was on food stamps. I have been there. My sister, mother, and I lived in a three bedroom house with my aunt, uncle, and two cousins for a number of years. Had it not been for that, we would have been living in the street. This experience humbled me, but at the same time does not make me sympathetic for welfare. The program is broken. It must be fixed or it must be eliminated.

I believe that religion played a large part in the founding of our nation and should do so today. Mentions of God should not be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance. Ten Commandments tablets should not be removed from courthouses. We live in a society where you are supposed to be allowed to profess your faith and your beliefs wherever you want. If you do not like the fact that our founders were religious, nor that we were founded on religion, do not say ‘one nation under God’. Replace it with whatever you wish. But removing it is a slap in the face to our founders. What is so terrible with religion? Most religions preach tolerance, fairness, and the need to be good to everyone around you so that you may live a just life and be rewarded after. This is not some crazy idea, this is what everyone should be doing anyway. Teachers should be given the ability to teach both Creationism and Darwinism and the children can decide which they believe in.

Speaking of teaching, the education system is dying. No Child Left Behind failed. We cannot teach standardized testing in our schools, but we also cannot rate teacher pay based upon performance clauses like Obama plans. If that is the case, inner cities will be without teachers, period. Vouchers are not a bad idea and should be invested in further. If city schools are failing, parents should be allowed the choice to send their kids where better opportunities lay. If a program falls in disrepair, money should not be pumped into it, they should be closed and re-evaluated for reopening, or merged into working programs.

I believe Obama supporters are so extremely hypocritical now that he has won that it makes me want to cry in shame and vomit out of disgust. For the past number of months, you have slandered conservatives as racists and bigots and warmongers and hateful people and now you extend an olive branch of peace? Are you serious? That just goes to show how deceitful and guileless liberals can be. Once you get what you want, anything you said before was merely ‘heat of the moment’ and forgivable? I beg to differ. I, for one, am leaving this election with a horrible taste in my mouth, one that will not go away for quite awhile. Distaste for my liberal brethren is at an all-time high. You ridiculous hypocrites need learn to control yourselves and you might do some good some day. You claim Obama can unite the masses, yet you yourselves sit there and decisively polarize the sides. Conservatives had to tread on thin ice to avoid racist charges at all costs, yet you still found ways to demonize us and cast us down into...well…not hell, because you’re all apparently against religion and freedom of speech….but wherever you go when you die that may not be a good place. When Bush narrowly defeated Kerry, we tried to bridge the gap between both sides, but liberals were too busy hating Bush and feeling sorry for themselves that they couldn’t beat a man they absolutely loathed (how stupid are you if the man you feel is the worst president ever beat you, twice!) and wallowed in self pity and negativity. After 8 years of constant negativity from liberals and absolute refusal to stand with conservatives to attempt to change things, now you want to do so? Hypocritical.

I will not stand behind you. I will stand next to you. I will not wallow in loss or self pity. I will stand like a true American and fight for what I believe in right next to you, whether you deserve the presence of conservatives or not. I will not fight with you, but I will continue to fight for America. I will not fight Obama, but I will do exactly what you used to do, only classier- he will be watched like a hawk. Any slipup and you will hear about it to no end. Any misspelling, mispronunciation (my Muslim faith, anyone?), anything….it will be documented…and just like in 2004 against Bush, every single bit of it will be unloaded at you at the same unimaginable rate you threw it at us. This is the monster YOU created. Deal with it.

I do not believe in Obama, nor the democratic party, only America. Which is why I and my conservative brethren will stick around and watch and see what Obama does. Progression or Regression, whichever comes from Obama, we will be here to see and partake in. Come 2012, you will have the political fight of your life on your hands. I cannot wait for it.

I cannot wait for Bush to be out of office, simply to watch Democrats squirm in the spotlight. 8 years of finger-pointing erased in one day. As I’ve said before, how can you blame The Man when you are The Man? What happens if/when Pelosi and Reid and the rest of the Democratically controlled Congress destroys the aura around Obama and don’t allow him to unite the parties or achieve his agenda because it conflicts with their own personal agenda (its happened before- look at Reagan and his Republican Congress)? What happens when all the air you’ve blown Obama up with begins to deflate? His ideas for education are going to hurt more than they’re going to help. His energy plan is green, but its not plausible yet, especially his plans to decrease our use of coal- coal is our country’s MAIN natural resource. You get rid of coal, you bankrupt Wyoming and West Virginia for a ‘clean coal technology’ we haven’t even fully developed.

Come hell or high water, positivity or negativity, you’re going to get your ‘change’, Democrats. But America doesn’t need change. It needs balance. We’ve changed too often in the past decade or two. Don’t focus on changing America, focus on balancing America.

We don’t need change, we need a positive balance.