So when we deal with welfare, well that is for the individual to decide how and when others get their money. When it comes to government it should exist at the smallest level possible to do what is stated in the Constitution oh and yes when I speak of traditional American values, you can begin by using the constitution as your guide.
Interestingly the conservatives believe that the individual is the most important unit not the collective and each individual is special not the collective. Our freedoms and rights are given to the individual not the collective group and therefore the constitution is in agreement with the conservatives, which is probably why liberals, socialists and communists are so interested in getting rid of the document.
Yet many Liberals will state that conservatives are against vaccines or against the poor and that cannot be farther from the truth, in reality most are as compassionate about these social ills as the liberals but it is who is responsible to handle those problems where the disagreement begins. The individual gets to choose if you are conservative and that is the basis of real freedom isn’t it. In fact I would argue that is the real differences between liberals and conservatives, liberals take away your choice because they believe they know better for you then you do and a conservative would say choose but live with the choices you make. As conservatives we understand once we have made a choice like not vaccinating our children, because we do not want them endanger of autism, means we may not be able to utilize public schools and may have to home school, in fact we are OK with the consequence because we knew what it was when we chose in the first place.
What conservatives cannot abide is a government which is dead set on making decisions and taking rights away from citizens, that is not how a free society works and as far as most conservatives believe we are still a free society. It is not the government’s job to take care of my neighbor it is my job and maybe if the government did not take all the resources to handle that we all might be more involved with our neighbors again, you never know when you will be the one in need.
Government’s job is to keep us safe but at the most basic level through police, firemen and military. Regulating everything and charging fees and taxes for every license under the sun was not what most conservatives believe is good government. The free market adjusts for most idiocy and criminal idiocy in particular but is it the government’s job to regulate how much water runs through a toilet, particularly when we are paying the water bill?
Most conservatives would agree that government needs to get out of the marriage business and stop regulating morality, it has caused more problems than it is worth and maybe if the regulations were simpler and government was smaller the focus would be on those things that need doing like roads and infrastructure and not how high some knuckleheads fence is or if their Christmas lights are down after the holiday. The truth is the more government the less free we are and each year it seems the government gets larger and we as citizens get smaller.
So say it with me, it is time to be a classic liberal which simply means today a conservative and believe in the individual and give up the group collective, it is time we become responsible for ourselves and our own actions and stop blaming others for our mistakes and it is time for the government to get out of our way and let us be the best we can be, on our own.