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Real Conservative – Part 10
We continue our series of editorials on ten guiding words crucial to the mission of refocusing the conservative movement. We’ve covered reality, reason, morality, unity, responsibility, restraint, law, contribution, and enterprise – this week we conclude our series with the importance of liberty…
Liberty
It’s a curiosity of the twenty-first century that the greatest single threat to freedom are ‘Liberals’ whose origins are found in the word ‘Liberty’. In a world where much is not as it seems, liberals long ago laid aside their dedication to the responsibilities of personal liberty for the indulgences of personal entitlement. Having gained a taste for living off the labors of others, their membership, like man-eating tigers, will not readily abandon their new food source. If there is going to be an America forward that reflects the liberties of an America past, it will fall on real conservatives to champion the cause.
Look Who’s Creating the Hurdles to Liberty
Though conservatives often get the rap for being ‘uptight control freaks’, today that label is more accurately applied to the liberal side of the political spectrum. The left’s exchange of liberty for a special deal is rampant as local, state and national government applies more and more rules, restrictions, procedures, laws, and regulations. As Uncle Sam grows bigger, the rest of us are growing smaller.
Liberals are especially adept at controlling the people most likely to play it straight anyway and indulging those most likely to play the system. Though pretend conservatives have certainly been part of the party, liberals, per intentional policy, persistently wave their magic wand at the flood of illegal immigrants, the drug culture, moneyed interests, and those wishing to live on the public dole.
Most of Us are Afraid of Liberty
There is another major reason that our liberties are in jeopardy – many of us fear freedom. Part of that fear comes from natural doubt in our ability to survive in a difficult and competitive world. As a result we are prone to look for an edge. Americans pursue entitlements and special deals for the same reasons ball players take steroids.
In his book, ‘Escape from Freedom’, liberal socialist Erich Fromm argued that man has the potential to embrace or reject freedom and that most opt for the latter. According to Fromm, the more common means for this escape are found in conformity, authoritarianism, and destructiveness. Again, it is a great irony that these three words are at the heart of twenty-first century liberalism.
True conservatives are no less afraid of freedom than anyone else. We just work harder to resist the temptation to run and are more likely to recognize responsibility as the price of reward. When comfort without accountability becomes policy, somebody is trying to escape freedom and reality.
The Importance of Liberty
Anything sustainable must take nature into account. Nature operates on a self-correcting system that rewards fitness and punishes weakness. It may not always be nice – but it is fair. Central to this filtration system is the freedom to become the best we can. Liberty, accordingly, is about nature. Entitlement, irresponsibility, and socialism are contrary to nature and thus about self-destruction.
Liberty is also a crucial foundation to many of the productive forces of civilization. The capacity to own property; create new things; produce something of value to a needy world; and reach for the full potentials of our heart, mind, body, and spirit require the nourishing hand of freedom. So much of what is central to the American Dream is naturally dependent on liberty.
True Conservatives Carry Liberty’s Banner
Pretend conservatives are geared to liberty only when it does not conflict with political expedience, personal safety, and practical convenience. This version of situational ethics has eroded our foundation of liberty every bit as much as the more direct assaults from the left.
True conservatives don’t just talk freedom; they live it, and absorb the sacrifice and responsibility that comes to those who walk their talk. To do otherwise is to confuse the uncertain and empower our culture’s social predators. The hazy indifference to liberty and other core conservative principles by Bush and a Republican controlled congress opened the door to the more direct assaults of Obama and a Democrat controlled congress.
George Washington minced no words in offering this challenge to future generations – “The preservation of the sacred fire of liberty and the destiny of the republican model of government are justly considered…staked on the experiment entrusted to the hands of the American people. His ‘fire’ is at risk for being extinguished in our lifetime – Washington was speaking to you and me as surely as anyone.
Scott Peck’s ‘People of the Lie’ are hard at work masking harms and distorting truth. Nowhere are these forces more focused than on their progressive assault on liberty.
Those who fear liberty are running from it. Those who seek power are stealing it. Those who value liberty are fighting for it. The latter effort, more than anything else, defines the destiny of the conservative mission…
Dr. Carl Mumpower
The Candid Conservative
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