My Political Views

I sat down and wrote out a quick summary of my political principles last night in response to my cousin (husband to cousin) Cesar who read that I was "conservative" and instantly assumed all sorts of wrong things about me. I wrote this to show him what I believe and show how absurd it is to try and stuff people into little stereotypical boxes.


Let me lay out for you my views. I could give you some labels but the meaning of those labels changes so often that they end up really meaning nothing. A conservative today is different from a conservative ten or thirty years ago just like a liberal or progressive is different from what they were a few years back. The labels change, but my principles remain the same.

I believe in "Natural Law" as opposed to "Civil Law" when it comes to my political philosophy. The concept of "natural law" is that our rights as humans to life, liberty, and property are inherently given to us by the Creator and nothing can change that. "Civil law" is the way of thinking that the government is the top and gives us our rights. The problem is that a government that gives rights can just as easily take them away. But the truth is, whether a government acknowledges our inherent rights or not, they still are our rights and that oppressive government is wrong to deny us them.

My political principles stem from my belief in our inherent rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of property and happiness. That is true liberty. But liberty can not exist where there is no order, and that is where the government comes in. We need government to keep order and protect our inherent rights.

Now, a person who takes another's right forfeits their own right to such.

For example, if a person takes another's earned property (cheats them of their right) then that person needs to be arrested and made to give back what was stolen. If that person would continue to take other people's property, he would forfeit his right to property and go to jail. Same with if a person should kidnap another (cheat them of their right to liberty), then they can be tried and thrown in jail and lose their right to liberty. We all have a right to life, but if a person takes someone else's life, they forfeit their right to life and can be tried and executed.

Our rights are our own and only we have the power to forfeit them. Any government who takes our rights from us unlawfully is a tyrannical government and deserves to be toppled.

Government's job is to protect our rights, and that is why the military and law enforcement is essential. The military protects our liberty from outside our borders and law enforcement protects our liberty from within our borders.

So that is my political philosophy in a nutshell.

So now lets talk about President GW Bush. Based on what many assume of me, I love him. But based on what I just told you about myself, what do you think I would think of him?

In a nutshell, I believe that our rights come from the Creator and it is government's job to keep order and protect those rights. Government should be powerful enough to protect those rights but small enough to not intrude on our personal lives. As did our founding fathers, I believe that the key to our country surviving is strong families, personal responsibility and accountability, knowledge, and virtue.

So what does that make me? I really don't have a party that represents me right now. I disagreed with GWB about 60% of the time (these last few years) and disagree with John McCain about 90% of the time and so far disagree with Barack Obama about 90% or more of the time. I disagree with conservatives for unrealistic and sometimes absurd illegal immigration policies and free trade that leaves our country more bound than free. I disagree with progressives on the sanctity of human life and the role of government. I end up on the scale somewhere between conservative and libertarian (if I must take labels). But rather than float around as an independent, I am going to do everything in my power to fix the Republican party and bring it back to its Abraham Lincoln roots.

Now what does the Bible have to do with these views? Virtually nothing. But the Bible does serve for me as a confirmation of the truth of common law and the responsibility of the government to protect the right and punish the wrong.

This is by no means a comprehensive study of my political beliefs, but it is a 20 minute quick survey of my political views. Is it really possible to put me in a stereotypical box? Nope. But do people try and fit me into them every day? Yup.