The modern conservative movement is smaller than it needs to be. Conservative values have broad appeal to most Americans, the Classical Liberal roots of those values in fact helped create America as a unique culture and nation. Unfortunately modern conservatives tend to see conservatism as a culture in and of itself rather than a philosophy dedicated to preserving our American heritage and Western Civilization. Thus, like any other sub-culture, we have purposefully excluded people who share a good deal of our values if they are even slightly in variance with what we like to claim is “true” conservatism.
As President Ronald Reagan astutely observed the person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally — not a 20 percent traitor. Ignoring this advice conservatives have allowed our self-appointed spokespeople to make enemies out of allies over disagreements that, in the larger scheme of things, are often quite trivial. Who can seriously make the argument that religious differences we have are more important than fighting Islamism and Marxism? Or that arguing over sexual orientation is more important that protecting our 2nd Amendment rights or stopping the Left from collapsing our economy?
Conservative values are American values and American values work for everyone. Now is the time to reach out to groups we have allowed to to be poached by the Left for too long. Here’s a list of groups who share conservative values but have long been ignored as potential partners for our movement. American values are also universal values, and it is in our best interests as a nation to encourage the ideals of liberty, economic freedom, personal autonomy and the right to self-determination that are so central to conservative thought.
And we’re starting with a religious group originally from India.
5. Sikhs
When governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley began her campaign she was viciously attacked by opponents on all sides of the political spectrum, and one of the most outrageous smears was that she was not really a Christian. Haley had converted to Christianity from Sikhism, which is the religion her family still practices I believe. While her religious views was irrelevant to all but the most small minded of religious bigots the attacks on her made many on the right look like we saw Sikhism as some sort of Satanic cult.
And some on the right no doubt do but this is ignorance fueled by prejudice. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that believes in the equality of all people, has a strong marital tradition and emphasizes dedication to the family and sexual morality identical to most Christians. Sikhism preaches not only strong internal community ties but good relationships with all groups which makes them most amenable to the American “melting pot” theory of culture. Sikhs are also proponents of entrepreneurship and are thus easy converts to American free market principles.
It’s fair to say that the values the Tea Party so admire in Nikki Haley were taught to her by her Sikh parents long before she converted to Christianity. Had she not converted, would she be less a conservative?
Even with increased suspicions of them in the age of the Global War on Terror (despite there never being a terror attack launched on the West in the name of Sikhism) Sikhs have not only remained loyal Americans but haven’t even really complained publicly about extra scrutiny. Yet the TSA has now decided to humiliate Sikhs at airports by making them remove their turbans even as they tacitly admit they won’t screen Muslim women. Does this seem right to you?
Sikhs are routinely assaulted in America by Muslims and Sikh girls in England have suffered under a wave of kidnappings and sexual assaults and forced conversions. Sikh theology posits that if a Sikh was to see those things being done to you he or she would be obliged to help you, which is as conservative a value there is. It’s time we stood up for them, and invited them into the conservative movement.
Next: All the single ladies, all the single ladies…
4. Single Mothers
Every good mother is, on some level, a conservative. Yet we tend to see conservatism as only possible for mothers who are in traditional married relationships. We tend to assume that social liberalism not only led them to single motherhood but indicates a larger political leftism that is at odds with our vision of society. This simply isn’t true.
All mothers want their children to live in a prosperous society. All mothers want their children to be safe and secure. They want opportunity for their children and the ability to protect them from criminal elements. Are these not the same goals of all conservatives?
Parenthood naturally changes people’s views, making conservatives out of even the most libertine among us. Drug dealing may be tolerated by young adults with no responsibilities, but no decent parent will willingly allow their children to grow up around the drug culture. Single mothers often take the blame for a great deal of child abuse in this country, but at the same time many anti-pedophile activists online are single mothers working to make America safer for their children. Most single mothers know the value of working hard to provide for a family and understand how government policies that depress hiring hurt the poor.
Single mothers are also already embracing social conservatism. They didn’t have abortions, nor did they give the child away. The single mother struggling to care for her children is doing exactly what conservatives want her to do. So how do we reward her? Where is the pro-life movement when a woman doesn’t have an abortion? Where are the libertarians who claim charity is better than welfare? We can spend the time and money we do complaining about the breakdown of the family reaching out to these women via food banks and charities which would not only help ease those woman’s burden but would expose them to true conservative values in action.
I hear many people talking about breaking the cycle of poverty that is caused by single parent households, but you can’t do that by lecturing other conservatives on the Internet. It’s time we showed struggling mothers that our values work for them as well as anyone else.
Next: One of the fastest growing religions in the United States.
3. The Neo-Pagan Right
Conservatives had often assumed that neo-paganism is a leftist sub-culture and for the most part they were right. But the Internet has helped coalesce a rightest Pagan movement that is increasingly public and activist. A few years ago the right side of the pagan Internet was confined to articles by P.J. Deneen and a small list of links she maintained that included one blog – my old site Red Alerts. Today sites like Red State Witch, The Pagan Temple and Hecate’s Crossroads promote conservative politics and gun rights to a new audience of young pagans online.
Though it is mistakenly believed that neo-Paganism is the fastest growing religion in America it is one of the largest religious groups outside of the five world religions. In 2001 was estimated that there were around 400,000 Wiccans and an unknown number of non-Wiccan pagans in the united States, and the numbers of pagans in general are believed to have at least doubled since then. It’s generally believed that there are at least 1.2 self-identified Pagans in America and 3 million world wide. This number doesn’t include African diaspora religions, whose followers often consider themselves Christians and are offended by inclusion into Paganism.
The Left has tapped into that reservoir of unguided believers, turning Wicca into little more than a cheer leading camp for leftist causes. Feminism and radical environmentalism have benefited greatly from the co-opting of Wicca by Marxist activists like the terrorist supporting Starhawk who is a Newsweek “on faith” columnist.
The Right can benefit in the same way the Left has. Dan Halloran, the Theodish conservative who won election to the Queens City Council despite a leftist smear campaign against him has acquitted himself magnificently and makes an excellent example for how well right leaning pagans can integrate into conservatism. More importantly, decline in Christian numbers need not necessarily lead to declines in conservative numbers if we make it clear that there is room on the right for people who have differing theological beliefs as long as they share ideology. As a Pagan I can tell you that I, like many others, strongly support economic freedom, limited government, a strong nationals defense and law and order. Many Pagans are also pro-life, anti-drug and pro-traditional marriage. Should Pagans be turned away because they aren’t Christians?
The Pagan Right is a vigorous defender of conservative values and classical liberalism in an arena that few other conservatives have access to. It is time the movements were linked together so that both are strengthened.
Next: We ignore the African American community at our own peril.
2. African-Americans
That 2010 was the year of the Black conservative cannot be denied. More Black conservatives were publicly active than any other time I can personally remember. Yet, the conservative movement is not only seemingly blase about this development, but we still tolerate voices withing the movement – like neo-Confederates and “Southern Nationalists” – who go out of their way to make Black conservatives feel unwelcome.
This is foolish, decades of destruction under leftism has begun opening the Black community’s eyes to the shortcomings of the American left. Issues like school choice, 2nd Amendment rights and illegal immigration have aligned African American voters with the Republican party and the conservative movement. Meanwhile groups like Project 21 have began working to change the views of Black Americans about the right.
It was Black voters, ironically out in force to elect Barack Obama, who shot down California’s gay marriage proposal but social conservatives didn’t follow up that historic moment with any real outreach to those communities. Since 1973 there have been 16 million abortions of Black babies, a situation that has led to a decline in the Black American population which should sit at around 52 million but as of now only account for 36 million Americans.
One would think the pro-life movement would have something to say about that.
By far the most important issue is the ongoing anti-Black hate crime spree by Latino gangs that the left has tacitly approved of. Blacks are learning that White “liberals” are willing to allow the ethnic cleansing of entire areas by Latinos of Blacks and find themselves with no allies. But why is this? Border enforcement and the deportation of criminal aliens is very much a conservative issue and one where conservatives will find 36 million new allies standing with hem. Why are we letting a few voices of division and bigotry keep us from bringing the Black community back into the fold of the Right?
Next: GOProud is here to stay – and that’s a decisively good thing.
1. Gays
The conservative obsession with marginalizing gays is almost self-defeating. The only reason the unreasonable amount of anti-gay sentiment on the Right hasn’t hurt us politically is because gays are a fairly small part of the population. But increasingly non-gays are put off by our tolerance of Marxist style anti-gay rhetoric.
Much like Stalin’s Russia, the modern conservative movement is more concerned with male homosexual behavior than they are with lesbianism, which has always led me to believe that anti-gay sentiment is largely a result of an internal fixation on oral or anal sex rather than a coherent moral stance. But if we are a free society, are we not free to be gay?
Because the marriage issue tends to be the most polarizing I would remind my fellow conservatives that gay marriage was first proposed by the right as a way to make male gays more moral, and it was strenuously opposed by the Left. I have no real feelings one way or the other, except to recognize that gay marriage will likely happen within my lifetime and it won’t effect my marriage at all.
But arguments about gay marriage and the morality of two men getting it on are basically theological. Ideologically, gays can be as conservative as anyone else. One need not love the ladies to want lower taxes, promote a strong national defense and recognize American exceptionalism. A gay man or lesbian may not make a good Christian, but they are often good Americans.
The Pink Pistols have worked hard to protect our 2nd Amendment rights and bring people who are otherwise not political into the fight to stop leftist gun control. Is their sexual activity more important to you than having an ally in the fight against civilian disarmament? Even as conservative organizations boycott CPAC over their participation GOProud is passionately defending conservatism in the media. Can we afford to lose these loyal and articulate allies over some people’s distaste for man on man action? Is placating people who think far too long and hard about male homosexual behavior worth being painted as myopic Falangists who care more about hating a tiny group of people than we do about defending our country from tyranny?
It is 2011 and it is time to for conservatives to grow up and realize that gays do not threaten society, and certainly not to the extent that leftism does. So why can we not agree to disagree on one or two issues and ally ourselves with gays for the other 80-90%?
——-
These are just a few of the potential allies we have failed to reach out to, which allows them to be co-opted by the Left even when they don’t share its interests. We can no longer sit by and let the Left become the de facto home to anyone who is not a married, White evangelical Christian. Conservatism is not a provincial philosophy, it is light in the darkness and the inheritance of all civilized peoples. Let us build bridges to those who have a stake in keeping America free, prosperous and strong. The time for dividing Americans around theological, ethnic and even sexual preference lines is over, it is time for Americans to embrace the strength of the melting pot once more.
Conservative values are American values and American values work for everyone. Now is the time to reach out to groups we have allowed to to be poached by the Left for too long. Here’s a list of groups who share conservative values but have long been ignored as potential partners for our movement. American values are also universal values, and it is in our best interests as a nation to encourage the ideals of liberty, economic freedom, personal autonomy and the right to self-determination that are so central to conservative thought.
And we’re starting with a religious group originally from India.
5. Sikhs
When governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley began her campaign she was viciously attacked by opponents on all sides of the political spectrum, and one of the most outrageous smears was that she was not really a Christian. Haley had converted to Christianity from Sikhism, which is the religion her family still practices I believe. While her religious views was irrelevant to all but the most small minded of religious bigots the attacks on her made many on the right look like we saw Sikhism as some sort of Satanic cult.
And some on the right no doubt do but this is ignorance fueled by prejudice. Sikhism is a monotheistic religion that believes in the equality of all people, has a strong marital tradition and emphasizes dedication to the family and sexual morality identical to most Christians. Sikhism preaches not only strong internal community ties but good relationships with all groups which makes them most amenable to the American “melting pot” theory of culture. Sikhs are also proponents of entrepreneurship and are thus easy converts to American free market principles.
It’s fair to say that the values the Tea Party so admire in Nikki Haley were taught to her by her Sikh parents long before she converted to Christianity. Had she not converted, would she be less a conservative?
Even with increased suspicions of them in the age of the Global War on Terror (despite there never being a terror attack launched on the West in the name of Sikhism) Sikhs have not only remained loyal Americans but haven’t even really complained publicly about extra scrutiny. Yet the TSA has now decided to humiliate Sikhs at airports by making them remove their turbans even as they tacitly admit they won’t screen Muslim women. Does this seem right to you?
Sikhs are routinely assaulted in America by Muslims and Sikh girls in England have suffered under a wave of kidnappings and sexual assaults and forced conversions. Sikh theology posits that if a Sikh was to see those things being done to you he or she would be obliged to help you, which is as conservative a value there is. It’s time we stood up for them, and invited them into the conservative movement.
Next: All the single ladies, all the single ladies…
4. Single Mothers
Every good mother is, on some level, a conservative. Yet we tend to see conservatism as only possible for mothers who are in traditional married relationships. We tend to assume that social liberalism not only led them to single motherhood but indicates a larger political leftism that is at odds with our vision of society. This simply isn’t true.
All mothers want their children to live in a prosperous society. All mothers want their children to be safe and secure. They want opportunity for their children and the ability to protect them from criminal elements. Are these not the same goals of all conservatives?
Parenthood naturally changes people’s views, making conservatives out of even the most libertine among us. Drug dealing may be tolerated by young adults with no responsibilities, but no decent parent will willingly allow their children to grow up around the drug culture. Single mothers often take the blame for a great deal of child abuse in this country, but at the same time many anti-pedophile activists online are single mothers working to make America safer for their children. Most single mothers know the value of working hard to provide for a family and understand how government policies that depress hiring hurt the poor.
Single mothers are also already embracing social conservatism. They didn’t have abortions, nor did they give the child away. The single mother struggling to care for her children is doing exactly what conservatives want her to do. So how do we reward her? Where is the pro-life movement when a woman doesn’t have an abortion? Where are the libertarians who claim charity is better than welfare? We can spend the time and money we do complaining about the breakdown of the family reaching out to these women via food banks and charities which would not only help ease those woman’s burden but would expose them to true conservative values in action.
I hear many people talking about breaking the cycle of poverty that is caused by single parent households, but you can’t do that by lecturing other conservatives on the Internet. It’s time we showed struggling mothers that our values work for them as well as anyone else.
Next: One of the fastest growing religions in the United States.
3. The Neo-Pagan Right
Conservatives had often assumed that neo-paganism is a leftist sub-culture and for the most part they were right. But the Internet has helped coalesce a rightest Pagan movement that is increasingly public and activist. A few years ago the right side of the pagan Internet was confined to articles by P.J. Deneen and a small list of links she maintained that included one blog – my old site Red Alerts. Today sites like Red State Witch, The Pagan Temple and Hecate’s Crossroads promote conservative politics and gun rights to a new audience of young pagans online.
Though it is mistakenly believed that neo-Paganism is the fastest growing religion in America it is one of the largest religious groups outside of the five world religions. In 2001 was estimated that there were around 400,000 Wiccans and an unknown number of non-Wiccan pagans in the united States, and the numbers of pagans in general are believed to have at least doubled since then. It’s generally believed that there are at least 1.2 self-identified Pagans in America and 3 million world wide. This number doesn’t include African diaspora religions, whose followers often consider themselves Christians and are offended by inclusion into Paganism.
The Left has tapped into that reservoir of unguided believers, turning Wicca into little more than a cheer leading camp for leftist causes. Feminism and radical environmentalism have benefited greatly from the co-opting of Wicca by Marxist activists like the terrorist supporting Starhawk who is a Newsweek “on faith” columnist.
The Right can benefit in the same way the Left has. Dan Halloran, the Theodish conservative who won election to the Queens City Council despite a leftist smear campaign against him has acquitted himself magnificently and makes an excellent example for how well right leaning pagans can integrate into conservatism. More importantly, decline in Christian numbers need not necessarily lead to declines in conservative numbers if we make it clear that there is room on the right for people who have differing theological beliefs as long as they share ideology. As a Pagan I can tell you that I, like many others, strongly support economic freedom, limited government, a strong nationals defense and law and order. Many Pagans are also pro-life, anti-drug and pro-traditional marriage. Should Pagans be turned away because they aren’t Christians?
The Pagan Right is a vigorous defender of conservative values and classical liberalism in an arena that few other conservatives have access to. It is time the movements were linked together so that both are strengthened.
Next: We ignore the African American community at our own peril.
2. African-Americans
That 2010 was the year of the Black conservative cannot be denied. More Black conservatives were publicly active than any other time I can personally remember. Yet, the conservative movement is not only seemingly blase about this development, but we still tolerate voices withing the movement – like neo-Confederates and “Southern Nationalists” – who go out of their way to make Black conservatives feel unwelcome.
This is foolish, decades of destruction under leftism has begun opening the Black community’s eyes to the shortcomings of the American left. Issues like school choice, 2nd Amendment rights and illegal immigration have aligned African American voters with the Republican party and the conservative movement. Meanwhile groups like Project 21 have began working to change the views of Black Americans about the right.
It was Black voters, ironically out in force to elect Barack Obama, who shot down California’s gay marriage proposal but social conservatives didn’t follow up that historic moment with any real outreach to those communities. Since 1973 there have been 16 million abortions of Black babies, a situation that has led to a decline in the Black American population which should sit at around 52 million but as of now only account for 36 million Americans.
One would think the pro-life movement would have something to say about that.
By far the most important issue is the ongoing anti-Black hate crime spree by Latino gangs that the left has tacitly approved of. Blacks are learning that White “liberals” are willing to allow the ethnic cleansing of entire areas by Latinos of Blacks and find themselves with no allies. But why is this? Border enforcement and the deportation of criminal aliens is very much a conservative issue and one where conservatives will find 36 million new allies standing with hem. Why are we letting a few voices of division and bigotry keep us from bringing the Black community back into the fold of the Right?
Next: GOProud is here to stay – and that’s a decisively good thing.
1. Gays
The conservative obsession with marginalizing gays is almost self-defeating. The only reason the unreasonable amount of anti-gay sentiment on the Right hasn’t hurt us politically is because gays are a fairly small part of the population. But increasingly non-gays are put off by our tolerance of Marxist style anti-gay rhetoric.
Much like Stalin’s Russia, the modern conservative movement is more concerned with male homosexual behavior than they are with lesbianism, which has always led me to believe that anti-gay sentiment is largely a result of an internal fixation on oral or anal sex rather than a coherent moral stance. But if we are a free society, are we not free to be gay?
Because the marriage issue tends to be the most polarizing I would remind my fellow conservatives that gay marriage was first proposed by the right as a way to make male gays more moral, and it was strenuously opposed by the Left. I have no real feelings one way or the other, except to recognize that gay marriage will likely happen within my lifetime and it won’t effect my marriage at all.
But arguments about gay marriage and the morality of two men getting it on are basically theological. Ideologically, gays can be as conservative as anyone else. One need not love the ladies to want lower taxes, promote a strong national defense and recognize American exceptionalism. A gay man or lesbian may not make a good Christian, but they are often good Americans.
The Pink Pistols have worked hard to protect our 2nd Amendment rights and bring people who are otherwise not political into the fight to stop leftist gun control. Is their sexual activity more important to you than having an ally in the fight against civilian disarmament? Even as conservative organizations boycott CPAC over their participation GOProud is passionately defending conservatism in the media. Can we afford to lose these loyal and articulate allies over some people’s distaste for man on man action? Is placating people who think far too long and hard about male homosexual behavior worth being painted as myopic Falangists who care more about hating a tiny group of people than we do about defending our country from tyranny?
It is 2011 and it is time to for conservatives to grow up and realize that gays do not threaten society, and certainly not to the extent that leftism does. So why can we not agree to disagree on one or two issues and ally ourselves with gays for the other 80-90%?
——-
These are just a few of the potential allies we have failed to reach out to, which allows them to be co-opted by the Left even when they don’t share its interests. We can no longer sit by and let the Left become the de facto home to anyone who is not a married, White evangelical Christian. Conservatism is not a provincial philosophy, it is light in the darkness and the inheritance of all civilized peoples. Let us build bridges to those who have a stake in keeping America free, prosperous and strong. The time for dividing Americans around theological, ethnic and even sexual preference lines is over, it is time for Americans to embrace the strength of the melting pot once more.
Article printed from NewsReal Blog: http://www.newsrealblog.com
URL to article: http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/01/22/5-potential-allies-conservatives-ignore-at-peril-1/
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