everything looks perfect from far away

Many times, politics, and a holding particular position, are very polarizing. These are annoying, because I am on the receiving end of this polarization living in D.C. and I find myself doing the same to my own disdain. This polarizing comes from a set of four words: Republican and conservatism, and Democrat and liberalism. One is a political party; the other is a political ideology.

I don’t subscribe to political parties; I do subscribe to a political ideology. That ideology is conservatism and libertarianism. The ideology values are static. The political party decides which values it will use as a basis for its decisions. I am certainly more a conservative more than a liberal. And I a more a libertarian than I am a social conservative. The modern Republican Party (from the middle of the 20^th century) was a combination of social conservatism and libertarianism. Since post-H. W. Bush, the Republican party has leaned much more to the social conservative side away from libertarianism that Goldwater, Reagan, and Lincoln followed.

In a column earlier this week, George Will put together a concise case for conservatism against liberalism.

Today conservatives tend to favor freedom, and consequently are inclined to be somewhat sanguine about inequalities of outcomes. Liberals are more concerned with equality, understood, they insist, primarily as equality of opportunity, not of outcome.^[1]

In other words, traditional conservatives favor freedom and liberals favor equality at the outcome. I don’t like the current stance of the Republican Party. It is not for a small, centralized government; it does not fully support free markets; it does not universally hold up the Constitution. But for the most part, and much more than the other first-line Democratic party, I align with the values that the Republic Party has shed away.

I don’t particularly like any of the candidates running on either side. Hillary has an unforgettable past where I fee she compromised her values for political gain as the First Lady and I question her fortitude to make difficult decisions. I also question Obama’s fortitude in the same regard. They are both too concerned about political fallout.

Much of the same can be said about the McCain, whose campaign reform act is bad to say the least and supported by social conservatives (whom I don’t particularly like). Funny how the 527’s that McCain empowered even more hurt him in my eyes. Romney will say anything and seems to flip-flop just like Kerry in 2004. And Guiliani. Well Rudy thinks 9/11 is the end-all to everything. 9/11 is a big part, but he hasn’t convinced me he won’t bow to political pressure.

Enter Fred Thompson. Fred Thompson has not decided to run yet. Hopefully he will officially enter the race tomorrow. But he is bringing with him the conservatism of bygone days. I will be a Fred Head. And I’m very excited about it. I’m not nearly as articulate as Fred Thompson or George Will. I suggest you read the column linked above, as George nicely puts how I think concerning politics.

The Hunt for Fred November is on!