I guess we’re having this conversation again. As a conservative libertarian who swims in a sea of liberals, I’m used to being thought ‘wrong’ or ’stupid’ or ‘misguided’. Goes with the territory, I suppose.
On the 4th of July I had a conversation with a 9-year old who seemed to understand the concept of libertarianism and charity better than most of the people I’ve encountered lately. Unlike Mack, young Declan* (not his real name, remember…) got the general idea I was trying to put across. So maybe I haven’t explained myself well enough to be understood out here in the blogosphere. Maybe it’s a conversation that needs to happen face to face. Regardless of the limitations of the medium, I’ll try.
I am not greedy. I do not despise the poor and downtrodden.
Like Thomas Jefferson I believe wholeheartedly in the separation between Church and State. Like Jesus I believe in “rendering unto Caeser what is Caeser’s and unto God what is God’s.”
What this means to me is that I do not believe it is the job of the State or ANY institution, be it a church or faith-based charity to look after the poor and downtrodden. I believe such things are our responsibilities as human beings. Individual human beings.
I have nothing against charities–secular or faith-based–if that’s how a group of individuals decides to make their charity most effective. If you want to give the money you’ve earned to Catholic Charities or the United Way or Mennonite Disaster Relief, that’s your business. But I don’t believe the Government should take your money by force and redistribute it the way they see fit. That’s my opinion on taxes, entitlement programs, and federal funding of faith-based charities.
There’s a common misconception floating out there in the ether to which several liberals seem to be latching on. That’s the concept that conservatism is anti-community and pro-greed. I don’t quite know where these memes generated, but I’ve been seeing them a lot lately. I feel as though I’m not getting the original memoranda upon which they were printed.
And here’s where it gets tricky. Because it is my hard and fast rule that I will not give a resumé of my charitable deeds. Doing so means that the charity aspect of it all stops and the whited sepulchre kicks in. I could go looking for the myriad studies about who gives more to charity–conservatives or liberals–but I’m not playing that game. It’s all judgmental and sanctimonious and advances that hideous “us v. them” mentality.
Conservatism is not about keeping our money for ourselves, but deciding for ourselves the best uses of our money in benefit to the world.
Amen, Amen, Amen, and Amen.
[...] Coble, Exador, and T-man have already chimed in and provided Mack with the fight that he desired. Katherine was even inspired to write a post of her own, as was [...]
Kat,
I couldn’t agree with you more. I believe as you do that the individual can be most effective when helping those who are poor or just less fortunate than ourselves.
And I loove your statement about “rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” Man, if more people would just stick to that simple little rule, Our world would be 50-100% better than it is, morally and socially.
This is going into my list of “All-Time Favorite Posts by the Coble”!
Well, the pro-greed thing comes from GW Bush giving the really, really rich a big tax break and insisting that it was essential for pursuit of a program he describes as conservative. Now, I know that most conservatives don’t consider Bush one of them, but he says he is, and he got elected by saying it, so he seems to have convinced a lot of people that conservatism = giving millionaires more spending money.
And the anti-community thing comes from people who call themselves conservative who fulminate against and try to limit the rights of others for the crime of not being just like them. Again, you’ll say that these people aren’t conservative. But when they say they are….
I am not greedy. I do not … hideous “us v. them” mentality.
Ditto.
Thank you for saying it much better than I ever could.
I think nm nails it.
The reason so many liberals feel conservatism is anti-community and pro-greed is because so many conservatives are anti-community and pro-greed.
But I can understand that it probably stings as bad for you to be lumped in with them as it does for me to be lumped in with the nanny-staters.
Nanny-staters? Where did that come from? (Inside joke here folks, sorry.)
Let’s see…’the rich’ pay exhorbitantly higher percentages of taxes. We are ‘giving’ a tax cut; who should get the cut?
This is assuming that you DON’T subscribe to the liberals’ goal of getting the upper % of people to pay all the taxes for everyone else.
Not to mention that EVERY economist, not on Air America, agrees that the tax cuts prevented a recession.
That’s not true, you know. Not just in the sense of “hey, I bet I can find someone who disagrees,” but in the sense that most economists who don’t conflate the stock market with the overall economy (which is about half of ‘em) disagree with you. The cuts caused one huge recession the first time around, under Reagan, and they seem to be leading to another one now. Look, Ex, I watch the market and I have investments. And I know that all the paper profits in the world aren’t keeping my standard of living from shrinking every year.
More to the point, which is wrongheaded conceptions about conservatism, Bush emphasized over and over that the entire basis of his presidency (which he characterizes as conservative) would be cutting taxes on millionaires. That this was fundamental to his conservative compassion, that his conservative programs and conservative ideals couldn’t be carried out without this all-important first step. If you want to know where people in general get the idea that there’s a connection between conservatism and greed, that’s a big part of it. Another is that many self-styled conservatives don’t seem to be able to discuss any political point without turning it somehow into a rant against taxation. I don’t mean you in general, and I don’t mean this discussion, since I’m the person who raised the question. But it shocks me the way that any topic seems to lead to that reaction among a certain subset of the vocal right-wing population in this country. And they aren’t doing (other) conservatives any favors in doing so.
To me, the whole “render unto Caesar thing”, as well as “render unto God” ideas are, at the least, outdated as guiding principles for life today. I have no quarrel with God, but I ain’t rendering a thing his way. Caesar? He still around? Is it accurate to use Caesar as a synonym for Govt? I don’t think so.
Individual rights are important, Kat, but so are the collective rights of people outside of our “giving comfort zone.”
Anyway, I’m sorry in my haste yesterday I was succinct to the point of sounding shrill, and made you feel personally attacked. I know a great many people who call themselves Conservatives, and I like many of them. This isn’t personal. True that this is a better subject for a face to face discussion.
[...] Me, Last Thursday. . Because it is my hard and fast rule that I will not give a resumé of my charitable deeds. Doing so means that the charity aspect of it all stops and the whited sepulchre kicks in. [...]