June 10, 2008
by Clay Barham

Are you trying to decide whether you are a liberal or a conservative? Do you find a lot of inconsistency in the way other people define themselves? Does this sound familiar today?  "The public interest is more important than individual interests. The interests of the government trump the interests of the individual.  Politics is more important than economics.  Economic planning is more important than individual choice.  Only a few select, elite among us can rule."

These five positions define modern American liberalism for me.

They should sound familiar to everyone who cares, because these are the policies of the fascists, the communists, the socialists, the monarchists and the American Liberals of the Democrat Party.  They believe "It Takes a Village." They believe the most important interests belong to community, not to individuals.  Irrespective of historical actions, which have demonstrated the miserable conditions those ideas caused in nations expressing them, they are certainly contrary in every respect to the founding principles and conditions found in the United States, what American conservatives support.

America proved beyond a doubt that individual freedom produces liberty and prosperity for the whole nation.  Frederick Bastiat, an eighteenth century French legislator, said, "All men's impulses, when motivated by legitimate self-interest, fall into a harmonious social pattern." People's self-interests are, by their nature and for the most part, as viewed by American conservatives, harmonious with community. If people's interests are harmonious, liberty is necessary and no one should interfere with their interests. Community should not block their interests or try to redirect them. America proved Bastiat right! They also proved Adam Smith was right, as expressed in his Wealth of Nations.

Why would five percent of the world's population, the Americans, control twenty-five percent of its wealth if it were not so?  Why would eighty percent of the world's population, outside of America, who live in poverty, mostly illiterate and starving, be that way if the Old World modern liberal ideals worked best?

Since Jesus first taught that all men were equal in the sight of their Creator, many acquired a taste and preference for making their own choices.  When a few of those who adopted those teachings arrived in New England, they established a New World wherein the practice of individual freedom got its start.  They proved all men had an opportunity to make their own way in life, be responsible for themselves and their families, and were free of the Old World rules where a few elite ruled the many in servitude.

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Why, then, are Americans being asked today to vote for those who promise change from what has proven so good, to a liberalism proven so bad?  Why are Americans supposed to feel ashamed at being so prosperous and happy when compared to the many in the world with neither?  Why is it so hard for them, the world's impoverished masses, to be persuaded to follow the proven course established in America's New England settlements? What is wrong with freedom?

Here are the issues Americans will be voting for or against in 2008.  First, that public interest is superior to individual interests.  Second, the interests of government are superior to the interests of individuals.  Third, politics always takes the superior position to economics.  Fourth, economic planning is more necessary than individual choice. Fifth, that the select few, the elite among us, make the important decisions for us. Voting yes on these five points is the liberal position, today's Democratic Party views, suggested as the more compassionate view of how things should work.  Voting no on these points is the conservative position, sometimes even Republican, certainly Libertarian.

America began on the side opposing those five ideas, and for the most part, opposition to them was reflected in America's founding.  Opposition to those five positions was also the reason for the freedom and prosperity people enjoyed in America.  In 2008, however, Americans are asked to vote against their own interests, freedoms and prosperity to accept those five propositions, as they exist in the rest of the world, the Old World.

You can vote on personalities, speaking abilities, soaring rhetoric or age, even single issues you hold dear.  Regardless of what stimulates your support for one candidate over another, these five issues reign supreme over all other considerations. These issues will make the difference in how our nation shapes up in the years to come. These are the issues to consider when voting.

To vote yes on them is to vote for a return to the Old World kinds of government consistently failing its citizens.  To vote no on them is to retain the unique American way of life that has worked so well since our Nation's founding.  These are the five issues to consider when defining a position as a liberal or conservative. It is a matter of reason and not emotions. The five liberal positions devalue individuals, while the opposite values each, including the unborn, the young, the aged, and the infirm.

Try this in your quest to define what it means to be liberal or conservative. Do not assign a "good or evil" status to either side.  Such a value judgment does not apply. The Old World, current American liberal view is the oldest, most experienced form of governance in the world.  The American conservative New World form of governance is barely four hundred years old, is the newest and the one with the least experience, except in America.  They are simply two views on how a nation is governed. 

There is no real centrist or middle view, as what kind of compromise can exist between liberty and tyranny?

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Clay Barham [send him email] has been a candidate for the California legislature and a stand-in talk show host for ABC.  He was educated in physical and behavioral sciences, with a Ph.D. in sociology.  He is the author of five books, with his latest being Foundations of Modern American Conservatism and Liberalism: The Roots of Freedom and Tyranny.  Visit his website at http://www.claysamerica.com.

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