What is Conservatism? Part 1 - Limited Government

What is Conservatism? Part 1

The term gets thrown around allot these days. Most people automatically assume that the term is synonymous with Republican. This is not true. Republicans are a political party. Conservatism is an ethos, an ideology, even a way of life. While people of particular political parties follow the directions of their party leaders, conservatives are bound not by these edicts but by a set of core principals. By implementing these principles in our politics and our lives we seek to make a better tomorrow. What are these core beliefs? There are 6 main ideals to conservatism.

PART 1 - LIMITED GOVERNMENT

1. Limited Government: This is an absolute of conservatism. It is a rejection of the failed policies of Roosevelt’s “Great Society” and the oppression brought upon others via Communism. The more the government becomes entangled in all aspects of life, the more your freedom becomes curtailed. Anyone who runs a small business can attest to this. There is so much over regulation and red tape involved today that it discourages many to even try. An employer these days has to fill out and file reams of paperwork just to be able to hire someone. That time is costly and has contributed to the rise in prices of all goods and services across the board since they now need to hire entire departments just to handle paperwork. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. Governmental over-regulation has so disrupted and hassled business that many larger producers have had to literally flee the country to escape it. This over regulation is an even larger contributor to the cost of running a business than the greed fattened labor unions. All business must comply with rules and requirements from things like:

OSHA (Occupational Saftey and Health Administration)
FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act)
EOE (Equal Opportunity Employment)
ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
Affirmative Action
State, Local, Federal Taxation and for some literally hundreds more things.

Take coal mining for instance. Did you know that before the mining company can even CONSIDER hiring a potential miner they have to send them to a safety training company to take 20 hours of safety training? They’re also required to pay the applicants for their time while their attending these classes? The safety training company on average charges $150 per miner for surface miner safety training, and $250 per miner for underground safety training. All that before they can even consider the person for employment.

How about the treasured EPA -Environmental Protection Agency? Their tendrils are so far into every single aspect of American life today that it’s veritably impossible to so much as build a store, let alone actually produce anything. We all love to bitch about how it’s horrible greedy corporations that go overseas to exploit cheap labor and lax regulation when the true is we the American people have forced them to. The cost of doing business in America today has become so prohibitively expensive than if they don’t go overseas they’ll go bankrupt. That’s without considering how we’re taxing them into oblivion either.

Because of the myriad of social legislation in the last 40 years an employer no longer has control over who they can even hire. Affirmative action regulations force them to hire unqualified and/or deficient candidates for fear of being shut down. A prime example of the old adage “The road to hell is paved with good intentions” is the Americans with Disabilities Act. What started out as a method to level the playing field for people with genuine limitations to be able to work quickly ballooned out of control as most all government interventions do. A man who repeatedly showed up for work both late and drunk was fired. He then with the help of the ACLU sued his employer under the ADA claiming his drunkenness as a “disability” and won a multi-million dollar judgment! A 9 months pregnant woman who insisted she be allowed to work at the McDonald’s she was at hit her stomach on a table edge and also sued and won. Sane judges would have thrown out both cases but today they consider it the duty of mother government to right all of societies perceived ills. Just look at what’s happening in California if you doubt any of this. They’ve been so smothered by Sacramento that their economy is in a state of collapse.

Unless we reduce the size and influence of government we are destined to become dependent on it for everything. Slaves of our own design.

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