10 Questions Every Conservative Should Ask A Democrat

The most frustrating thing about debating knee jerk liberals is their tendency to assume conservatives parrot superficial talking points while they, barely holding their patronizing tongues in cheek, are speaking from deep philosophical foundations. When presented with real conservative philosophy, the common reaction is to draft a whole army of straw men (excuse me, straw persons) for distraction followed by a direct ad hominem attack on the messenger. Attempts to articulate why they believe what they believe rarely get any deeper than a citation to subjective judgements of fairness or obviousness with little more than intellectual sand to stand on.

In any system of political philosophy there are points of tension between the ideal and the real, depths of nuance in history and its interpretation. To answer the “10 Questions Every Liberal Should Ask a Republican” could be a delightful conversation, if that was the questioner’s goal. But alas, I fear he’s just being a smart aleck.

Such haughtiness begets hypocrisy and begs for response in kind. My preferred strategy with such folks is simply to ask questions until they are hoist by their own petard. When a friend forwarded me this link, I couldn’t resist answering each question with a question of my own. Mr. Clifton’s query is in italics, my follow up in bold:

If Republicans are so fiscally responsible, why was President Eisenhower (in the 1950′s) the last Republican president to balance the budget?

If Democrats are so sympathetic to advancing the interests of minorities, why did President Roosevelt (in the 1930’s and 1940’s) institutionalize redlining to encourage segregation in housing and discourage black home ownership? Why did it take a Republican to turn that around when President Nixon took office and appointed George Romney, former Michigan Governor and champion of open housing laws, as Secretary of HUD?

If President Reagan was such a fiscally conservative hero, why did he quadruple our national debt during his eight years in the White House?

If President Obama is such a progressive hero, why is Guantanamo Bay still open, the Patriot Act expanded and our troops still in Afghanistan?

If tax breaks are the main driving force behind job creation, how would we create jobs once tax rates were reduced to practically zero?

If higher taxes are the main driving force behind job creation, how would we create jobs once tax rates are raised to practically 100%?

If socialized health care is so awful, why does every country that leads the world in life expectancy have socialized health care?

If socialized health care is so wonderful, why are patients in the tender care of the British National Health Service dying of simple dehydration and starvation? Why is there still a public debate in the UK over whether their typical eight bed wards should be segregated by sex?

If you support the freedom of religion (as per our Constitution), and my church recognizes gay marriage, isn’t your support for the banning of same-sex marriage an attack on my religion’s First Amendment rights?

If you support the Constitution’s restriction on establishing a national religion, and my church doesn’t recognize gay marriage but yours does, isn’t your effort to criminalize my acting on my religious beliefs and impose yours an establishment of religion?

What’s more realistic? 1) That an entire region of the United States that supported slavery in the late-1800′s and supported segregation in the 1950′s and 60′s suddenly stopped being racist, or 2) The racist southern Democrats in the south became Republicans during the 50′s and 60′s when the Republican party shifted toward an idea called the “Southern Strategy,” where the GOP appealed to the racism in southern whites who didn’t like African Americans voting for Democrats.

What’s more realistic? 1) That an entire region of the United States that supported slavery in the late-1800′s and supported segregation institutionalized by the Democrats in the 1950′s and 60′s suddenly stopped being racist, or 2) that racist southern Democrats realized they hated Catholics even more than blacks, couldn’t stand John F. Kennedy, and turned their backs on the Democrats, who then dropped the federal segregationist policies started under the New Deal and started buying black votes with Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society to make up the gap, which had the consequence of driving the South deeper into Republican influence?

If taxes are at some of their lowest levels in history, and the wealthiest in this country are richer than ever, why hasn’t the growth in the wealth of the middle class matched that of the top 2%?

If safety net and education spending are at some of their highest levels in history, and the job market is begging for skilled workers, why haven’t more people climbed out of the safety net and into the middle class?

If our Founding Fathers wanted this nation to be based on Christianity, why don’t the words “Christian” or “Christianity” appear even once in our Constitution?

If our Founding Fathers wanted this nation to be based on Islam or Buddhism or some other foundationism, why are the Ten Commandments carved into the US Supreme Court Building and Christian symbolism used extensively throughout 18th and 19th century public buildings?

If a Republican president reduced massive job losses in the midst of the worst recession in nearly a century by more than 50% in his first 4 months in office; presided over 44 consecutive months of private-sector job growth creating nearly 8 million jobs; killed Osama bin Ladin; saw stock markets reach all-time highs; saved the American auto industry; increased domestic oil production to highs not seen since the late-90′s and championed the largest year-to-year deficit reductions since World War II, would your party not be calling him a hero and a legend?

Sorry, got no question for you other than – what color is the sky in your world? Your Democratic president has cooked the books on job statistics, traded guns to Mexican drug lords resulting in deaths on both sides of the border, slept like a baby while a US Ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an extended attack on a US consulate (I’m assuming he was sleeping, he sure as heck wasn’t in the Situation Room for a photo op), watched Detroit go bankrupt while giving a couple of select corporate auto manufacturers sweetheart deals, blocked a pipeline to transport oil more safely than rail lines, given new life to the term imperial presidency and presided over the steepest increase in the national debt ever. Plus he’s shown zero interest or aptitude for working across party lines in the muddy middle where the real work gets done. Why isn’t your party at least calling him a disappointment, if not an outright failure?

If Jesus spent his life helping the poor and the needy, how does it make sense that a party which claims to be for “Christian values” continues to cut funding for programs that help the poor and the needy?

If progressives are so all-fired concerned about the plight of the poor and needy, how come those who self identify as liberals (with an average family income 6% higher than the average conservative family) give less money to charity both in total and as a percentage of their income than those who identify as conservative?

Jesus spent his life among the poor and needy as well as fishermen, tax collectors and wealthy merchants, neither condemning nor celebrating earthly riches, but recognizing our individual responsibility to use our particular gifts wisely. He didn’t sit down with Caesar and recommend higher taxes and more spending on bread and circuses to keep the poor fed and entertained. He didn’t hang out with the Pharisees discussing alms distribution plans. He did challenge individuals to take a hard look at whether their love of money was interfering with their relationship with God, and with their willingness and ability to follow Him. He did challenge individuals to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” No corporate salvation through the right politics, no policy guidelines for how to express that love.

Jesus message was “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” No back door, no work around, no high standard of perfection to reach by good deeds and proper ritual, no group rate for progressive Pharisees. Just open your door when He knocks. Have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Why not?