I spend hours each day cruising the political blogs and boards. And if there is one thing that stands out above all else, it is that most "everyday liberals" who slam conservatives do not seem to have a clue what conservatives stand for. And if someone tells them, they don't believe it. I suspect this comes from a certain amount of brainwashing from the liberal media that tries to twist what conservatives stand for. For example, many media outlets tell you that conservatives are opposed to stem cell research, which is completely untrue, and they know it. What conservatives oppose is not the research, but the taxpayer funding of that research, since the research is controversial and may violate religious tenets of some taxpayers, and since private funding is available. Conservatives also have a problem with investing taxpayer money into private concerns without the benefit of owning any stock in the venture, to share in the profits.
Hence, this post. For anyone who cares to uplift themselves a little bit by learning what conservatism stands for, here it is, in plain English. Love it, hate it, agree with it or oppose it, this is what 84% of all conservatives believe in. If you agree with more than 50% of these principles, you may be a conservative and not have known it. Are you a closet conservative?
1) English should be the official language. Government should offer stipends to immigrants for the purpose of learning English
2) The United States should only grant citizenship to those who want to embrace American values and culture.
3) Every worker should continue to have the right to a federally supervised secret ballot election when deciding whether to organize a union, in order to protect workers from intimidation.
4) Statements regarding religion and morality made by the Founding Fathers are just as important today as they were 200 years ago.
5) Public schools should teach more American history.
6) Conservatives want to increase the number of visas for highly-educated immigrants or those with special skills, the so-called H1B and H2B visas.
7) The American people believe border control is a security issue. Terrorists are trying to enter the United States illegally.
8) Illegal immigrants who commit felonies should be deported after serving a prison term.
9) There should be a worker visa program making it easier for people to work legally in the United States, but not to include all the rights of a citizen.
10) A real time verification system should be established to verify immigration status and it should be outsourced to companies like American Express, Visa, or MasterCard so businesses can immediately identify whether or not someone has forged papers.
11) There should be heavy monetary fines against employers and businesses who knowingly hire illegal immigrants.
12) We should dramatically increase our investment in math and science education. We support giving large financial prizes to companies and individuals who invent an affordable car that gets 100 miles to the gallon, invents new ways to successfully cut pollution and who invents a new, safer way to dispose of nuclear waste products.
13) We can solve our environmental problems faster and cheaper with innovation and new technology than with more litigation and more government regulation.
14) We support giving tax credits to companies that cut carbon emissions as an incentive to cut pollution.
15) We should give tax credits to homeowners and builders who incorporate alternative energy systems in their homes, like solar, wind, and geothermal energy.
16) We support building more nuclear power plants to cut carbon emissions.
17) We are prepared to use public funds to preserve green space and parks to protect natural areas from development but especially with public and private partnerships.
18) We want our elected leaders in Washington to focus on increasing the energy supplies of the United States and lowering the costs of gasoline and electricity.
19) To combat the rising cost of energy and reduce our dependence on foreign energy sources, we support the United States using more of its own domestic energy resources, including the oil and coal it already has here in the U.S.
20) Our current dependence on foreign oil threatens our national security and our economic state by making us vulnerable to dangerous dictatorships.
21) We believe that if research indicates we could build clean coal plants in the United States with no carbon emissions, it would be important to build such plants as rapidly as possible.
22) The federal income tax system is unfair and a fair tax introduced.
23) The death tax should be abolished. Taxes have already been paid on those assets.
24) We favor tax incentives for companies who keep their headquarters in the United States.
25) The option of a single rate fair tax system should give taxpayers the convenience of filing their taxes with just a single sheet of paper.
26) The United States has one of the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world making it difficult for U.S. corporations to compete internationally which gives incentives for companies to move overseas. To make America a more attractive place for businesses that provide good paying jobs, we favor a single 17% tax rate for corporations, with no loopholes.
27) The current Social Security systems is broken and, if it isn’t reformed, future generations will no longer have it as a safety net for retirement.
28) We favor a Social Security proposal in which, when a worker retires, he or she would use the money in the account to buy an annuity, which is a type of financial benefit that will give monthly payments for the rest of the worker’s life. The annuity will pay at least the same amount as traditional Social Security would. The purpose is to make the funds inheritable to family members.
29) Keeping the reference to “One Nation Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance is very important.
30) Separation between Church and State does not mean there can be no references to God in government sanctioned activities or public buildings.
31) The best way to ensure religious freedom is to protect ALL religious references and symbols; including those on public buildings, lands, or documents.
32) We support the right of high schools students saying thanks to God in a graduation speech, under both freedom of religion and freedom of speech.
33) We must help defend America and her allies.
34) We have to be prepared to survive an attack by a nuclear, biological, or chemical weapon.
35) Terrorism poses a very serious threat for the United States.
36) America should take the threat of terror by fanatical religious groups more seriously.
37) Congress should make it a crime to advocate acts of terrorism, violent conduct, or the killing of innocent people in the United States.
38) Terrorist websites at home and abroad should be closed down using computer warfare.
39) We believe it is wrong to use taxpayer money to fund controversial things, as doing so could violate a citizen's right to honor the tenets of his or her religion. This includes paying for abortion, stem cell research etc. If private sources wish to fund such things, that is not a problem.
40) We strongly oppose partial birth abortion.
41) Abortion laws or regulations is a state's rights issue, and each state should determine what is best for themselves. The government should only declare that abortion shall be legal if the life of the mother is seriously at risk. Any additional requirements, regulations or allowances should be up to the individual states, as dictated by the United States Constitution.
42) We believe the people can manage their money more efficiently and with less waste than the government. Government should be smaller, and assist people to achieve goals rather than get in the way, or compete with them.
43) We believe all adult couples, regardless of gender, should have the right to enter into a legal union and be entitled to all state and federal rights of married couples. However, we hold that marriage shall be defined, as it always has been, as a union between one man and one woman.
Now, very few people will agree 100% with these principles. But polls indicate that 62% of all Americans favor the vast majority of these, and 84% favor more than half. Any person who favors more than half of these principles should accept the fact that they may be far more conservative than they have been led to believe by disingenuous media.
hink about it. Now that you know who we are, do you still hate us? If your answer is yes, then you hate more than half the people in America - including members of your own family, and friends.
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