One Guy's Opinion on the Political Scene By: Jim Herndon
Hard Being a Conservative
It’s difficult to be a conservative. It was so easy being a Liberal. All one had to do was disengage the brain and go with heart, be guided by whatever feels feel good, and avoid all that tedious studying the issues, and risk learning something unpleasant or having to take on unpopular views.
No more fun demonstrating, marching, holding up signs trashing the President, proclaiming for animal rights, the environment, or other nice sounding stands. It is uncomfortable to learn there is a limit to the damage we should do to our way of life in the name of the spotted owl, the fairy shrimp, or the delta whatever. One must face up to the fact that we cannot reward illegal aliens and their offspring with benefits simply because that sob-story about the poor hard working immigrant family touched our generous and sensitive nature. One must become aware that raising the minimum wage does more harm than good; that it damages the economy and invariably causes unemployment of the low wage workers, the newest entries into the labor market, and working students. It was so easy to avoid these unpleasant facts and merely concur with the Democrats populist dictum, “everyone needs a raise.” Most of the Democrat politicians are not that spectacularly ignorant of Economics; they are merely taking the politically advantageous route. Some philosopher said “No people do so much harm as those going about doing good.” It is hard to admit that the Islamo-fascists are evil – that they actually want to kill us all for no reason except than we are non-Muslims and our way of life is abhorrent to them. It would be so much easier to adopt the Liberal 1970s attitude that we are all the same; we can love each other, that we can negotiate with terrorists, have a group hug, and then put it behind us. It was easier to blame the world’s problems on America, or, specifically, on those mean Conservatives who want America to be the most powerful nation and don’t care if the world doesn’t love us. Gosh, it’s hard to be reasoned about these things? I may go back to being a Liberal.