“You see but you do not observe.” – Sherlock Holmes

By Glen Reaux

Conservative or liberal, these are the names that are often given to or promoted by the two main political parties in our country.  These names supposedly describe the ideologies of these parties, ideologies that often times sway, confuse and divide the populace.  Because of the venom that has been wrongfully attached to the word liberal, Democrats have begun to rebrand themselves as progressives.  People are often placed in these pigeon holes or they readily place themselves in these categories without understanding the consequences that accompany this action.  These consequences are far-reaching and often times devastating.  The most severe of these consequences, come from the use of the people as pawns in the battle for the soul of our nation.

Conserve, the root of conservative means to protect from harm or destruction.  So, a conservative must be one that does these things.  Today, the Republican Party proclaims to be the party of conservative thought.  They promote less taxes, privatization of public schools, the postal system and other government services.  They espouse strong law enforcement, smaller government, less government regulations in all areas, little to no environmental protections, so-called strong family values, and a return to states rights just to name a few of their conservative principles.  For decades, this has been the Republican brand.  And, like cattle, today’s Republicans are branded for life even as they blindly follow their leader over the proverbial cliff to their “bitter end.”

Edmund Burke, an 18^th century Irish philosopher and statesman is considered to be the father of the modern conservative movement.  Burke was not in opposition to a monarchy or social classes.  He also believed that the church and state were inseparable.  He did not believe in a pure democracy.  Thomas Paine was an English born American immigrant, one of the Founding Fathers and he knew Burke.  Like Burke, he did not believe in a pure democracy and was one of the chief proponents for the Electoral College, as a means for electing the president.  Since conserve means to protect from harm or destruction, the Electoral College was a means of protecting the right to elect a president from the harm of the common people.    Remember, many of our founding fathers were born rich or had become rich, well educated, businessmen, landowners, plantation and slave owners.  One of their causes for revolting was their refusal to pay heavy taxes.  Another of the founding fathers doctrines was the three-fifths compromise.  This clause in the US constitution resulted in Black People being designated as three-fifths of a human being.  The founding fathers sound much like today’s Republicans.  And, like the founding fathers, Republicans are not right in all things.

Today’s Republican brand is a different brand from those of former Republicans such as Lincoln and Nixon, yes Richard Milhous Nixon.   Abraham Lincoln and Richard Nixon were true conservatives.  They were not wannabes or pretenders masquerading as conservatives.  Abraham Lincoln, by today’s Republican standards would have been branded a radical liberal and would probably suffer the same faith, assassination.  Actually, his actions to free the slaves, was by definition of the word conserve, a means that protected the nation from destruction.

The infamous Richard Nixon who resigned in disgrace to avoid impeachment was more of a true conservative than Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush or even Ronald Reagan.   As a true conservative or protector from harm or destruction, he fostered many of the policies, executive orders and legislation that have brought about prosperity and equality in America.  Under Nixonian conservatism, the federal government took an active role in protecting its citizens and the environment.

In 1970, Nixon signed into law a bill that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, (OSHA).  That same year he proposed the Environmental Protection Act, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and he signed amendments to Democratic president, Lyndon Johnson’s 1967 Clean Air Act.  During Nixon’s presidency he also signed into law the 1972 Noise Control Act, the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act, the 1973 Endangered Species Act, and the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act.   Nixon proposed the National Health Insurance Partnership Program.  This program promoted health maintenance organizations (HMOs).  Nixon also expanded the food stamp program.  An argument can also be made that Nixon is the father of Supplemental Security Income (SSI).  This part of Nixon’s welfare reform proposal provides a guaranteed income for elderly and disabled citizens. The Nixon administration also brought large increases to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid benefits.  Despite his criminal actions, there was a side of this Republican president that made him a protector of the realm and a true conservative by definition.

Sadly, in the wake of his administration was Nixon’s staunch implementation of the Southern Strategy.  History has recorded that this strategy of actively recruiting Dixiecrats and racially charged divisiveness changed the face of the party of Lincoln and led to a radical change in Republican ideology.  Subsequently, due to the change in ideology, every Republican president since Nixon has demonized and rebranded Nixon’s policies from conservative to liberal. They have done everything within their powers to attack and undo all of Nixon’s and the Republican Party’s greatest achievements since Lincoln, Nixon’s environmental and social policies.

Liberal in American politics has become a word of scorn, a venomous word.  In the fifties, it was not uncommon to hear Republicans refer to Democrats as left-wing, liberal, commie bastards.  Even today, conservative talk show hosts and Republican politicians use liberal as if to imply something dishonest, evil or even deadly.  Let’s set the record straight.  The literal definition of liberal means open to new behavior or opinions and willing to discard traditional values.  It also means government should be active in supporting social and political change.  The root word for liberal comes from the Latin, liber, which means free.  Liber is also the root word for liberty which is guaranteed to you by the constitution.  So, is being pigeonholed as a liberal a bad thing, something that inspires angry rhetoric or violence, something shameful, embarrassing, or something to be proud of? Espousing liberty does not make a person dishonest or evil but, quite the opposite.  Liberal, democratic administrations have come in the names of John Kennedy, Lyndon Baines Johnson, Barack Obama and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, FDR.

FDR is the only American president to be elected to four terms.   He served from 1933 till his death in 1945.  He is considered by scholars and politicians as one of the three greatest presidents alongside Washington and Lincoln. When Roosevelt took office, the country was in the Great Depression, one fourth of the workforce was unemployed, agriculture prices had fallen by 60%, industrial production had dropped by more than half since 1929, two million people were homeless, people were starving in the streets and the District of Columbia along with 32 of the 48 states had closed their banks.  Roosevelt knew that to save the country from the worst economy in history and its greatest disaster since the Civil War, he had to find a way to put the nation’s fifteen million unemployed back to work, stabilize the economy and fix the banking system.  His battle to save the soul of the nation had begun.

Roosevelt’s solution was The New Deal, a true conservative agenda in every sense of the word.  The Roosevelt New Deal not only saved the country, it protected it from harm or destruction until the Reagan era when conservatism took on a new meaning.  Roosevelt’s New Deal consisted of revolutionary financial legislation which included the Emergency Banking Act, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Glass-Steagall Act, creation of the Federal Depository Insurance Corporation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.  The social programs of the New Deal were awe inspiring.  At the heart of his federally funded social programs was the 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA).  The NIRA included $3.3 billion in funding, the equivalent to $63.87 billion in today’s dollars.  This money funded the largest infrastructure program in American history and through the Public Works Administration, employed more than three million people in the first year via the Work Progress Administration.  The New Deal also established the National Youth Administration, The National Labor Relations Act and the Social Security Act.  All of these conservative programs were developed to protect from harm or destruction the United States of America.

Following in Roosevelt’s footsteps was John F. Kennedy, a Navy officer and a true American war hero.  Recognizing the need for a change in the social consciousness of America, Kennedy backed and provided aid to the civil rights movement of the sixties.  President Johnson continued Kennedy’s support and in 1965 signed the Voting Rights Act which aimed to overcome state and local barriers that prevented African-Americans from exercising their 15^th amendment rights to vote.   And, from 2009 to 2016, president Obama followed in Roosevelt’s footsteps and once again saved the country from an economic disaster created by Republican policies of excessive tax cuts and a reduction in financial regulations.

Are Republicans conservatives and Democrats liberals?  Perhaps the answer can be found inside a famous Sherlock Holmes quote:  “You see but you do not observe.”  If you pay close attention and examine what you are seeing, you will realize that they are neither.  Conservative and liberal are two ideas that are interdependent.  They are two elements of a duality.  In Chinese philosophy, the Yin and Yang represents the duality of hard and soft, male and female. Each one is distinct, yet each contains a small portion of the other.  This duality creates balance and harmony.  If you label yourself or drink the Kool-Aid and let someone or something pigeonhole you or fool you into accepting their designation, you become imbalanced and unable to understand or seek the truth that will set you free. You continue to be a pawn in the game of divide and conquer.  Odds are, you are not a conservative or a liberal.  If you are balanced, then like the Yin and Yang you are harmonious and complete.  This harmony will lead to intelligent arguments, positive political actions, reductions in partisan tribalism and renewed attempts to reach across the aisles in the halls of congress.  Become the example that your elected officials, regardless of party, must follow.

So, if Republicans are not conservatives, what are they?  What is in the Republican Kool-Aid?  What does the Republican culture have in store for you?  The answer is simple.  Just look behind the marketing curtain of the Republican so-called conservative brand, close your ears, and you will find the Wizard of Oz pulling the strings and moving the levers (see and observe).  The Republican game of divide and conquer, driven by fear mongering leads to policies that only protect and benefit the super wealthy, corporations and the Republican confederates that they keep in their pockets.  The Republican mantra of fewer taxes, less regulation, smaller government, stronger states rights, racist rhetoric and legislation will not “make America great again”, it will destroy it. The current battle for the soul of our nation, with great costs has been fought before and the opposition failed miserably.

A confederation or confederacy is a union of sovereign states united for the purpose of common actions such as trade, defense, foreign policy or currency.  Each state is obligated to the other in areas of defense.  Other than that, the central government policies are subservient to those of the individual states.  The last confederacy in this country destroyed friendships, turned brothers against brothers, fathers against sons, devastated our nation and caused the deaths of an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 Americans.  America does not need another one.