The New Paradigm

Conservative?
I suppose some would wonder how I could be a supporter of President Obama, against the Tea Party shenanigans and call myself a conservative.
Let me explain a few basics.
When I call myself a conservative, I use the term relative to my stand in American political/economic/social policy. That stand is relative to the ways that the aforementioned policies affect the world in which I live, the nation as whole, and the earth in general. It's not all about me. Some would argue that I have it pretty good in this life and that's reason enough to support the status quo. Others might say that I should stop my whining and just work withing the existing system to better myself. Well, no. Man is a social animal. None of us can live on our own in this world. We survive as a group and if we are responsible human beings, we support and work towards individual and group behaviors that assure the survival of that group. Our nation's constitution begins We the people, in order to to for a more perfect union, not me, the rugged individual, in order to to reach greater self fulfillment. (To me, libertarians and the current mob of tea baggers are nothing more than weak sociopaths who will, if left unchecked, allow corporations to completely devour our nation, our rights, and our future as a free society.)
When I call myself a conservative, it is a description of how a person selects policies to support. In simple terms, a conservative defends existing institutions because their very existence creates a presumption that they have served some useful function or because eliminating them may lead to harmful, unintended consequences.
Ronald Reagan called himself a conservative. Ronald Reagan saw a tax code and labor laws that had helped create a thriving middle class. If you are a baby boomer, you grew up in a time that was unprecedented in America, with a vibrant middle class and an expectation in that middle class that their children would be at least as secure as their parents. During the Eisenhower administration the top tax rate was 91%! (more on that on a later post) Ronald Reagan, with willing approval of Republicans in large part and Democrats in small part, took that tax code and those labor laws to the scrap heap and took a liberal approach to a new tax & labor direction - ignoring the goodness that the existing institutions provided. Almost 40 years later, we now know the results of that change. The middle class is shrinking. People working at our nations number one employer can no longer afford to support a family on one income, most people can no longer afford to save for retirement, buy health insurance, or put money away for a rainy day. Who benefited from this change? In short, the upper 5% of our nation and huge corporations (who are seen as individuals in our current legal and economic world) . Their wealth and security skyrocketed to historical highs. And they are now using that wealth to gain more wealth, and more after that. There is no limit. There is no limit because they have, so far, successfully convinced the American people that limits are un-American. They cherish the "free market" and then work rig that market behind the scenes to assure that they and only they will prosper. Walmart believes in a free market for themselves, but not for their employees. Monsanto believes in a free market for their corporation, but not for farmers. Pfizer believes in a free market for themselves, but not for ill Americans. When the employees or the farmers or the sick try and limit the abuse set upon them by Walmart, Pfizer, Monsanto, and the rest, these corporations run to the Constitution and cry out against the government limiting our freedoms.

In sumation, from my conservative perspective, I have witnessed the existence of a strong, vibrant, and growing middle class, the liberal removal of those institutions that helped create and nurture that middle class, and the resulting deterioration of that middle class.
The question then becomes, is an America with a strong middle class a better nation than one without?
This conservative says "yes" and this conservative is working to return to the principles, values, and institutions that that we know will work to being it back.