Republicans: Conservative, Liberty Minded, Moderate, Progressive, Oh My!

Conservatism or Liberty Minded, what is the difference, and does it matter within the Republican Party?

Nationally, Statewide, and locally, the Republican Party is disjointed, consisting of Progressives and “moderates” (those who are either democrats in Republican clothing, or in complete denial regarding their democratic leanings), there are “conservatives” and there are those liberty minded folk, that are treated link the fringe of the Republican Party.

Words have meanings, so let’s start with Webster’s 1828 American Dictionary of the English Language, (because it is my favorite dictionary).

Conservative: Preservative; having power to preserve in a safe or entire state, or from loss, waste, or injury.

It is immediately evident that one can not call themselves “Conservative” and make exception for the murder of the pre-born, making exception for abortion does not “Preserve in a safe state” because a child being aborted is not safe, is not free of injury, and is a great and tremendous loss of life.

It is also pretty clear that one cannot be Conservative and support any gun control measures at all (any restriction on gun rights is gun control), they cannot be opposed to any measures that protect or restore gun rights (like Stand Your Ground, and Repealing Gun Free Zones).

They cannot support any tax or tax increase, any fee or fee increase, and any regulations that could (financially) harm individuals, businesses, and entire industries.

They cannot support tax payer funded subsidies and grants, because if a recipient fails at their task, that is a waste of task payer money, and is a complete loss to the taxpayers, and also tax payers are not banks, and should not be forced to invest in a business or entity that they do not support or agree with.

Liberty [Minded]: ¹ Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind.

² Natural Liberty consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except for the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption from the control of others, and from positive laws [laws requiring a person or entity to do something] and the institutions of social life, this liberty is abridged by the establishment of government.

³ Civil Liberty is the liberty of men in a state of society, or natural liberty, so far only abridged and restrained as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society, state, or nation. A restraint of natural liberty, not necessary or expedient for the public, is tyranny or oppression.  Civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty.

So, to be liberty minded everything I said above about conservative must apply, so are they the same thing? Can someone be “conservative” and not liberty minded? Yes, and here’s why.

Let’s approach health, because it is the easiest subject to point out the difference between those who are conservative and those who are liberty minded. (I will get to progressives and moderates, and why they are not actually Republicans in a bit.)

The elephant (pardon my Republican pun) in the room is marijuana, so let’s address it. (I wrote two articles on the subject if you are interested  you can read Marijuana, The Four Letter Word -Part 1  <–here and Marijuana the Four Letter Word -Part 2 <– here)

The Conservative position is that marijuana is harmful, and is should be illegal, they will tell you this over beers, forgetting the fact that alcoholism destroys families and lives, they will tell you this without connecting the dots to the prescription opioid crisis plaguing our country through the irresponsibility of doctors and pharmacists, and patients assuming they have a handle on it and do not need pain management.

The liberty minded individual looks at it as a personal choice up until that choice negatively impacts the life, liberty, or property of another individual or entity.

The conservative wants smaller government only until they think the government should protect people from themselves.

The role of government is to protect our rights, that includes the right to make bad choices, so long as they do not negatively impact the life, liberty, or property of another… (I repeated it, because it is something so simple, yet so difficult for some people to understand, I assume my readers got it the first time, or already knew it.)

The conservative should be against any government mandates of any kind, but might make exception to vaccinations, for the good of society, after all.

The liberty minded person would say, there needs to be personal responsibility for our own health, we need to take measures to protect our own health (and the health of our children) it is not the role of the whole of society to keep you healthy, it is not the role of government to mandate that individuals inject themselves and/or their children with chemicals and toxins that could cause them harm.

Moving on…

Moderate: ¹ Literally, limited; restrained, hence temperate; observing reasonable bounds in indulgence.

5 Placed between extreme; holding the mean or the middle place.

The moderate is hard to pinpoint, they flail in the wind, and are easily swayed, most often to the left.  The moderate does not stand on principles, rather popularity, the moderate will tend to publicly side with the more popular position, while not really having a position that is their own.

Progressive [Minded]: Moving forward; proceeding onward; advancing; opposed to retrograde.

Are the principles laid out in our county, state, and nation Republic platforms (there are minor differences in each, they are not identical) supposed to be timeless or not?

If you cannot agree with the timeless principles laid out in the platform, why are you a Republican? Are you a Republican so you can disrupt and upset the party?

The concept of Liberty is timeless, and very simple, liberty can get a little messy at times, but it is necessary to preserve freedom. Without liberty there is no freedom.

Progressive minded individuals do not value life, they either fully support the murder of babies in the womb, or they make exceptions to it (as do most moderates).

Progressive minded people think restrict the rights of responsible, law abiding gun owners will somehow protect people from those who seek to harm others (the non-law abiding). (Moderates also often times fall into this trap)

Progressive minded people want the government to provide as much as possible for the people, and that means the tax payers must pay a steep price for the privilege of having the government provide things they may not want or need or will never benefit from.

If you are a moderate or a progressive, you are not a Republican. Most Republicans elected to various offices locally, statewide, and nationally, are moderates; they are weak and pathetic, they have no principles and change with the prevailing wind. Those “Republicans”, are not real Republicans either.

Now you must decide if you are conservative, or liberty minded, and you need to ask yourself why.  You need to ask yourself, as a Republican, if there is ever a time when it is acceptable to put party before principle, and remain liberty minded.

If you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you know that we all have free will (liberty), but we are not exempt from the consequences of what we do with that free will.

As for me, I am a Christian first and foremost, the platform I live my life according to is the Word of God, and I will support the Republican Party platform until it goes against the Word of God. I am a liberty minded individual, and I take great offense anytime any individual or entity wants to infringe upon my personal liberties.

I am a Republican and will fight to restore the party to what it should be based on the platform. If you make exception for the murder of babies in the place they should be the safest, you are NOT a Republican. If you support any kind of gun control, any kind of restrictions concerning firearms and our right to keep and bear arms, you are not a Republican. If you support excessive and frivolous spending of taxpayer money, you are not a Republican.

Democrats in Republican clothing, you may be pulling the wool over the eyes of those around you, but you can’t fool God. He knows exactly who you are. He knows exactly where you stand. And if you are standing contrary to His Word (that included the right to self-defense, by the way), you should probably do some self-reflection, and start being honest with yourself, then come clean to those around you.

My county party has been fully infiltrated, and I have nothing to lose, I will be calling out everyone who is in our party under false pretenses. I will continue to fight for liberty.I will continue to stand for and fight for my principles.

Whether or not you are a person of faith,  you should always be rooted firmly in your principles, and maintain that there are many things to which a compromise can be reached, but not when it comes to our principles.

So, what about you? Are you on solid ground or sinking sand? Do you know where you stand, or are you flailing in the prevailing wind? Do you stand for liberty, or stand contrary to it?