What is Conservatism? Part 3 - Personal Accountability

The term personal accountability 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.

3. Personal Accountability: This day and age governmental programs exist for anything and everything. Housing aid, food stamps, mental health, veterans assistance, job service, even help for paying the heat bill in the winter. Why do I cite these particular examples? Because they’re all programs that have helped me in the past. I’m grateful that they were there and it helped me to gain some perspective when it come to social spending. Not all programs are bad, nor are they wasteful. Instead I’d say it’s a sign of how prosperous and productive we are as a nation that we such bounty to share. But not all people whom are enrolled in various social programs use it as the helping hand, but as a hammock.

It’s a widely held misperception that conservatives are uncaring and self absorbed.

Both as an ISTJ and a conservative I consider it a point of honor to help my fellow man. It’s a widely held misperception that conservatives are uncaring and self absorbed. When you look at the statistics of personal charitable contributions you’ll find that it is conservatives that give the lions share. Those living in the New England area are very stingy, yet those living in the west and south give in far greater amounts. To give to the needy out of your own pocket is honorable. To use the government to forcibly take from others to give to the needy is despicable. But this begins to stray from the main point of this post.

Back in the 1800s immigrants came to this country from all over. Most stepped off the boats with no money, no possessions and most didn’t even speak the language. But was there social safety nets there to help them? No, if anything the government showed disdain to these unwashed masses. Yet they made lives for themselves, raised families, even started businesses. How is this? How were they able to prosper when all the odds seemed to be against them? Because they had the power of rugged individualism, the strength that came from working for what they had. They had no one but themselves and their dreams and they did whatever it took to make it. America was the land of prosperity, where you were limited only by your own drive. Most may have died poor but they died free and proud. What they had they got with their own 2 hands and the sweat of their brow.

It used to be that if you had a limitation you simply worked that much harder to be successful.

Today things are different. Ever since the 60’s everyone is suddenly a victim. But why strive to be a victim? Because it implies some sense of being wronged. Because if you’re a victim you’re somehow entitled to compensation. Instead of the mind set that no matter what you can do it, people today will go to great lengths to show how they can’t do it. They can’t because society has wronged them. They can’t because they’re disabled. They can’t because they’ve got ADD, etc. It used to be that if you had a limitation you simply worked that much harder to be successful.

Why didn’t someone tell Benjamin Franklin that he couldn’t found a successful newspaper and the groundwork for what would become the postal system because he had bad eyesight? Why didn’t someone tell Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that he wasn’t allowed to have a dream because he was black? Why didn’t someone tell Stephen Hawkings that he should’ve simply checked into a home and died? Because they held themselves to a higher standard. They knew they could be more.

When you make it more beneficial for people to be on assistance than to work you not only disincentivize them to find a job, you create a dependency upon that aid. Why would a single mother take the chance of working a job when she knows she’ll make as much simply relying on programs like welfare, WIC (Women Infants and Children - A food aid program), state Medicaid, and state sponsored day care? We’ve seen the effects of this in the black neighborhoods in America. In the last 40 years the black family has become an endangered species. Their young men are increasingly in prison and their neighborhoods have become battle fields. Black conservatives such as Walter E. Williams and the Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson advocate paths toward breaking what that dependency on government has caused. They seek to educate others towards the traditional ideals of 2 parent homes, family values, and making strong leaders of young black men. But since they dare to question the modern “civil rights” organizations like the NAACP they are ignored by the media, and denigrated by supposed black leaders like Al Sharpton.

I’ve been told by many people now that I could apply for SSI (social security) and be approved for disability benefits. I could basically have a free ride for the rest of my life. But I haven’t applied, I won’t. I will live or I will die based on my own abilities, I won’t sit back and become a leach on society living off the productivity of others. The ideal of personal accountability is a cornerstone of my life.

Next Segment,

What is Conservatism? Part 4 - Strong National Defense and Foreign Policy

What is Conservatism - Series:

• Part 1 - Limited Government
• Part 2 - The Rule of Law
• Part 3 - Personal Accountability