In my web-site journey of values I have explored, from my American-conservative point of view, the essential difference between conservatives and liberals, the urgency of maintaining our values in difficult times, what a code of conduct might look like, whose fault all this political heartache might be, and what we conservatives must do to right the capsizing vessel that was once the United States of America. I even wrote a short piece for any Democrats bold enough to read my stuff suggesting that supporting Donald Trump today is just as okay as supporting Martin Luther King was in 1965. These are a lengthy and tedious read to make points I think are important. Let me summarize all of it in a few paragraphs.
I have a darker view of history than most people. The time before the Common Era on our calendar, B.C. or B.C.E., was mostly unpleasant. Christianity has a story of Crusades and conquest paralleled 610 years later by the Islam jihads. More-recent Inquisitions in Spain were so terrible that the world ran to progressive socialism around 1910. Since then, over our entire world, one death in twenty has been at the hands of their own socialist governments. For Jewish people that fraction is one in four. Anybody whining that last five years 2020-2024 are particularly terrible hasn't been paying attention.
There have been beacons of hope. A singular event on 1215 June 15 led to a prolonged conversation in writings about the proper role of politics and government until 1789 when these ideas were brought to fruition in a new nation, the United States of America. For 120 years from 1790 through 1910, following the principles in its Constitution, the new nation flourished as a beacon of hope and freedom while enjoying spectacular growth in productivity and wealth. It endured a difficult war to preserve our nation's independence and an agonizing war that ended slavery. The economic, social, and religious failures of the Puritans in Massachusetts gave way to the successes of the Quakers in Pennsylvania.
One might conclude from the previous paragraph that I'm biased in favor of America of the 1800s and I'm not the only one who felt and feels that way. There was a steady one-way flow of immigrants and few of them went back home when they found out what life was like here.
I felt more than a glimmer of the same glow 2017-2019, the three non-COVID-scare Trump years. Besides seeing an aggressive turn to manufacturing here in the United States, I had reports from a few yellow, red, brown, and black friends that driving at night meant fewer traffic stops based on their color. In 2020 we saw flights from Tel Aviv to Dubai on El Al and the appearance of a Jewish neighborhood in Dubai. You could go across the street there on Thursdays and buy a pastrami sandwich on rye with extra mustard and how can you hate somebody who makes your lunch once a week? There was a better, more American feeling in the air stateside those three years and we expected it to continue for at least five more.
What created this positive moment in an otherwise negative story of human history was a set of values that were stated once as "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness," and made more explicit as "nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." With considerable thought of my own I express and explain these core-essential values as human life, liberty, livelihood, property, and contract.
Supporting these primary political and social values isn't enough. It is imperative they remain primary and primal, "unalienable" and untouchable, beyond the reach of church or state, to be violated only by voluntary cooperation and never by force. That doesn't mean we never breach these values, only that we expect to be held accountable for doing so. To the extent we can do this we will enjoy what American enjoyed from 1790 through 1910, amazing growth, personal freedom, and continuing elimination of injustices.
Around 1910 (give or take a decade or two) a new "Progressive" movement emerged in the United States of America. Progressivism insisted that, in general, the Declaration of Independence and our Constitution were "obsolete." It insisted, in particular, the previously-primary-and-primal principles of life, liberty, and property are now the property of the state and can be rescinded by the state in favor of some greater good. That greater good has been some manifestation of fairness.
Back in 1917 fairness was economic equality of outcome, "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs." The communists had no problem rejecting the sanctity of property for redistribution and, later on, liberty for what we are allowed to do and, even later than that, life because, somehow, socialist governments, once they have our basic values and rights under their control, seem to find some reason for genocide.
More recently fairness is enforced racial representation for specific groups, Affirmative Action, diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI), and other government quota requirements in hiring, housing, school admissions, et cetera. One liberal progressive friend explained to me that the government was within its rights to tell me what guests I could have in my home if their preferred ethnic groups were discriminated against. He didn't mention it was the exact same progressive presumption that government decides which ethnic groups are allowed that put 120 thousand yellow Americans in camps 1942-1945.
The notion that life, liberty, and property come from somewhere other than government is essential. I don't care if they come from nature, from some god, or from some kind of first principles of decency, they don't come from the government and it is essential we all agree, deep in our bones, that the government is not allowed to take them away. That's why we have the Second Amendment in the United States, not the mamby-pamby language of the First Amendment "Congress shall pass no law," but strong language "shall not be infringed."
The tyranny of progressivism, communism, socialism, et cetera is severe. Hundreds of millions have lost their lives to their own socialist governments since 1910, far more than all the wars over that same period, five percent (5%) of all human deaths. (If you're Jewish, that number is one quarter (25%) thanks to Herr Hitler's holocaust. With all its horror, the Jewish holocaust is less than three percent (3%) of the lives lost in socialist genocide.) The cost in liberty and property has affected thousands of millions.
If you don't think it can happen to you, then look at the once-thriving economy of Venezuela over the past twenty years. They didn't think it could happen there. I think a lot of people living in Russia in 1915, Germany in 1930, Cuba in 1950, and China in 1960 thought it couldn't happen to them either. They lost their guns, then their property, then their liberty, and, finally, many lost their lives. All of these countries became horror shows of poverty, despotism, and tyranny. It's not too far off this track to check out how quickly the Boeing Company descended from excellence to depravity.
If you're still not sure, then look at the outpouring of sympathy for Hamas and their friends at ANTIFA, BDS, and Black Lives Matter (BLM). Hate for Jews in the United States progressive-Democrat left wing goes back to the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan and before, but recently it has moved from dark rooms behind locked doors to mainstream media and major universities.
When men who fantasize about rape act on their fantasies decent people come down hard. When people who fantasize about sex with children act on their fantasies decent people come down hard. When people who fantasize about socialism, liberalism, and progressivism act on their fantasies decent people should come down hard.
We must change back to being people of principle. If there must be tax, then it should be levied equally so everybody pays the same amount just like it says in Article I. People must be physically and legally empowered to defend themselves against violations of values and must be held responsible when they abuse that power.
Faith doesn't come from the fountain of reason as it's a deeper and more-primitive thing. People must recognize that religion is a personal thing not to be involved in politics. If it helps, then try saying the traditional Pledge of Allegiance as Red Skelton spoke lovingly about it. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. It's not that hard, just practice like I have done all my life. In my opinion "One Nation, Indivisible" is the most important juxtaposition in the American liturgy and must be preserved. Go on, say it, "One Nation, Indivisible." Say it again, it's not that hard. Not "Under Allah," "Under Buddha," "Under God," or "Under Ganasha," just "One Nation, Indivisible." There are 5500 million non-Christians out here and we can be just as good Americans as you can. You can still go to church on Sunday and respect the separation of church and state in politics.
Abortion bans are a religious-Christian position and bans on killing cattle for beef are a religious-Hindu position. Neither has any place in politics. If you don't want to get an abortion or don't want to eat beef, then fine. But you're sounding just like the liberals when you say, "Hey, I don't like abortions so you can't have one."
Redistribution of wealth is evil, it was back then, it is now, and it will always be. Government race and sex quotas like Affirmative Action or Title IX are evil, they were back then, it are now, and they will always be. Politicization of environmentalism like Global Warming is nasty, it was back then when it was eugenics, it is now, and it will always be. Government messing with health care is terrible it was back then, it is now, and it will always be. These are basic tenets of Wilson, Stalin, Hitler, FDR, Castro, LBJ, and Mao.
When you're sitting all alone in the dark at home in the middle of the night when all is quiet and serene, try to guess how many of your third-grade classmates had sex with a parent or how many twenty-something women you know have been raped by their boyfriends at least once. Twenty percent? Thirty percent? Half? It's not a pretty picture. Yes, we have animal urges and the principles of decency demand we put those urges aside and respect the primary-and-primal principles of life, liberty, and property.
Political urges towards progressivism and liberalism and "fairness" in politics are similarly animal urges and similarly must be put aside in the similar name of decency. These level-playing-field programs must be voluntary as education controls and health care restrictions must be voluntary as race and sex fairness must be voluntary. The alternative is Russia in 1925, Germany in 1938, Cuba in 1955, China in 1965, and the United States in 2020 with COVID and George Floyd and a stolen election and in 2024 with the rising tide of anti-Jewish hate.
Just as we describe a person who can't keep his sexual urges to himself regarding children as a "pedophile," maybe we should refer to a person who can't restrain his political urges to invade the rights of other people as a "politophile." Both hurt a lot of other people because they can't control their behavior and both are convinced there is nothing wrong with them or their actions. Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) is a manifestation of this politophile disease with all its associated hate.
Another analogy is they're the ones who leave the dishes in a dirty pile and let somebody whose cleanliness standards are higher give in and clean their mess.
It's not two sides of the same question, our way or your way to goodness. It's respect for basic principles of human decency and an attitude that says that those principle are subject to subjugation for some greater good, usually without the consent of those being stepped on.
One step is using the power of the state to gang up on people you don't like or you don't know and to take their property and their liberty. Another step is putting people you don't like or you don't know into gas ovens and mass graves. How great a leap is it from the first to the second? History suggests that the gap between the New-Deal, National-Socialism communist-welfare state and the National-Socialism Holocaust isn't much. It's always for some greater good, isn't it?
A perfect American-conservative world is a community of human beings all working towards their own ends while respecting human life, liberty, livelihood, property, and contract for everybody. Well, that's a little optimistic. A more-realistic conservative world of self-serving people following their own visions interacting mostly with friendship and economics with breaches dealt with by criminal or civil law and little other forceful intervention by church or state. There would be taxes to pay for national defense and law enforcement and little else.
A perfect progressive-liberal world will have central, common community goals and a central committee of some sort to carry them out. As our lower standards of common good are met we will see increasing restrictions on those deviating from the common good. Punishments will become harsher and harsher to create the utopian, or, more likely, distopian world that is totally good and totally fair. This central commitee will have a public face, but the most-important decisions will be made in secrecy, some kind of Star Chamber. The progressive state will use whatever persuasion and punishment it needs to make sure we call cooperate and conform to its vision, not our own individual visions of what is good. An example from fictional literature of how a progressive-liberal society would handle a crisis (or a perceived crisis) is A Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
I'm sure our progressive, liberal, Democrat friends will counter that this asymmetry is a straw man and say something like, "We're both trying to get the same things." They'll use words like "freedom" and "liberty" while advocating exactly the opposite. It's true, we conservatives are trying to keep what we work for and liberals are trying to take from us what we work for. Advocates for government health care have the obvious motive of having those in charge, liberals of course, decide who gets which organs. Nobody on either side is vying for the lives, liberty, and property of liberals, only the lives, liberty, and property of conservatives that we want to keep and they want to take. Their symmetry argument is the same as arguing that potential rapists and potential rape victims are equals vying for the same thing, a woman's body. It's not symmetrical, it's not equal, it's not the same.
In case you're still wondering who is going to feed the hungry without the government, you can ask any economist who isn't a complete idiot why the government doesn't, won't, and can't actually create more wealth for less-well-off people. If you're wondering who is going to educate the ignorant without the government, talk to several graduates of public schools and see if you still feel that way. Many more examples are available of government doing badly or not at all what real people can do much better and more easily
Private institutions can voluntarily deliver just about anything useful the government can deliver. (I'm certainly not happy with government control of education, for example.) I imagine a politically-decent America will have most of us subscribing to a service that does those things, including leading us to good philanthropic choices. The difference is they're voluntary and I can go somewhere else if I don't like the people I'm dealing with now. There are anarchist views of how law can be made private, I would like to see those things happen, but I suspect even the most libertarian future will have public police and courts.
Who are the grown-ups here? Who are responsible for what happens next? It's not the primitive-urges rapists and pedophiles and liberal-progressive "politophiles" because they're animals, they're like children. They don't know better, they won't know better until we tell them how to behave. We have to be the adults, the grown-ups, the parents here. We have to say "NO" to liberal-progressive-Democrat socialism.
Our country has to change back to the way we were and we ourselves have to change back to the way we were with burgeoning personal concern about racism and sexism and hate and no expectation that government is going to fix the problems. We need good law (I have some ideas, of course) and good people enforcing those laws (I think most police are good people). When people act like rapists or perverts or pedophiles or liberal "politophiles," it's time for them to be ostracised, contained, restrained, and kept away from decent people.
My focus is on saving America. Africa is savage, Latin America is corrupt, Asia is authoritarian, Russia and China reflect the tyranny of Marxism, and Canada and Europe are stagnant socialism. As much as I care about these places and feel sorry for the people who live there, we can best serve humanity by making the United States of America the beacon of freedom it was from 1790 to 1910, to lift our own lamp beside our own golden door.
This is my attempt at a short-and-sweet summary of my political views and my previous documents on values in American politics. I tried to say a little about a lot of things and I hope I made my reader interested enough to think more and to learn more about America's foundational values and the nature of those who subvert them. The ultra-short version of the past century is that liberal progressives horrifically ended the lives of hundreds of million of people that the conservative movement was unable to save. If you're a liberal, then, yes, all of it is your fault, including the six million Jews who died in Hitler's holocaust.
Just as we can have children without rape as there are women who actually like sex, we can have a society with very little government without forcing people into social and economic roles against their wills. We can realize what's wrong with government control like anti-semitism, corruption, hate, inefficiency, poverty, mediocrity, racism, tyranny, and war. It's not enough. We must realize what's right, the sanctity of human life, liberty, livelihood, property, and contract, the importance of leaving other people alone. Only then can we plot and pilot a course forward to decency.
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