The message for the new Conservative Party could be simple: As You Live, We Will Govern. Its founding principles should be clearly stated and clearly understood. Its policies might look as follows: On National Defense. Provide as a top priority for our nation’s defense. In this vein the government could provide generous tax relief from a national sales tax for businesses that provide services to achieve these national goals, revitalizing our lagging space efforts with a focus on both exploration and designing new technologies to avert disaster from errant asteroids or comets that could negatively impact life on earth as we know it. Encourage new jobs, new technology, new science and new opportunities in varied fields in the private sector for these industries. On the role of the federal government: Where possible return responsibly to the states for those functions that are duplicated by the federal government, with few exceptions. Only those function that the federal government must perform, should it perform. Minimize the federal bureaucracy and reduce the state tax burden at all levels of the federal government. The federal government should live within its means and prioritize spending based on legitimate needs, not wants of its citizens and its function should be to assist with and support, not manage state functions. Adopt only those regulations that common sense and the public good require. Eliminate regulations that stifle reasonable and responsible growth. On social programs: Require some form of work for from the able-bodied to receive public benefits like EBT or Medicaid and set limits on how long these policies and benefits will remain in effect for otherwise capable individuals. The emphasis should be on assistance, not lifestyle. The Conservative Party should take pride in assisting the needy: elderly, handicapped, destitute. But it should be dogged in its management of these and other programs and cut programs that fulfill a growing public want at the expense of meeting a genuine public need. On immigration reform: Remove all benefits, except emergency care, for those who entered and live in our country illegally and end the practice of giving citizenship, free education, housing and other benefits to the same. Children born in this country to parents who entered this country illegally are born in America to foreign parents. America has no claim to their citizenship over that of their own parents, nor they to ours. Exceptions to the rule should be few, well-defined and strictly enforced. Protect our borders with increased border security and deportation of law breakers, including those who entered this country illegally. For foreigners who come here legally, require that they adapt to a common language, a common culture, a common history, a common social norm and standard of conduct among civilized people. Begin imposing six month prison terms on those who hire immigrants who enter our country illegally. On our judicial system: Reign in our judicial system so that judges apply the law, not “interpret” it to their own liking. If a law is vague, it is up to the legislative and executive branch to clear up any ambiguity. It is not up to unelected, unaccountable judges to do the work for them. On tax reform: Eliminate yearly trillion dollar deficit spending and spend only that which is budgeted. Eliminate the income tax altogether and instead adopt a national sales tax. It is the only tax whereby Americans can decide how much they are willing to pay. This proposal eliminates most of the IRS altogether. Under this plan, the higher the tax rate the government sets, the less most Americans will by. And everybody will pay into it: rich, poor, legal and under-the-table illegal enterprises. If you purchase a good, you pay a tax on it. Reduce your tax by spending less. Encourage business growth and investment in America with tax policies that give American entrepreneurship the edge and encourage corporations to reinvest in America. Impose reasonable tariffs on goods coming from foreign nations. And begin to pay off our national debt with these tariffs. On Energy: End our dependence on foreign oil and invest in American ingenuity and enterprise to solve our energy needs, advancing safely our natural gas and oil reserves and other sources of potential energy for the next century. On Education: Return the educational function of the federal government to its original purpose: to inform and assist states. Stress educational excellence in our schools by emphasizing in every school at every level: English, History, Science, Geography and Mathematics. Go back to the basics and restore order to our classrooms. Transform the Department of Education into just that, and make its first priority the dissemination of useful information to help achieve these goals. On personal responsibility: America was founded by people who accepted personal responsibility for their actions and who looked to their own initiative not a permanent government handout to succeed in life. America prospered and grew while adhering to these principles. It can grow again, but only if it shakes the socialist mentality that seems to have settled in both political parties today. To the extent the government can assist in that movement, it should, for nothing less than the future of our society is at stake. These are the policies a majority of Americans who identify themselves as conservative and moderate would support, for the natural base of the Republican Party and the traditional base of the Democratic Party: all working men and women who worry about making ends meet when they receive their weekly paycheck, who are not socialists, but hard working individuals who want the government to take a leaner interest in their lives, who want the government to stop wasting money and running deficits and enforce our national borders, bringing a halt to the hemorrhaging of our national language, culture and history. If it isn’t obvious by now, neither of the parties offer such an agenda. Let the wheelers and dealers of the Republican Party and the big government socialists of the Socialist Democratic Party go their own ways, they will represent the 21 percent of people who support their ideals. As for the rest, their rightful home is where their own common interests and sense lie – with a new party that lives and spends much like the average family: prudently, within their budgets, safe and secure in the knowledge that their nation’s best interests will be second to none and America’s future truly will be assured and bright. Democrats, Republicans, Independents, Libertarians — all conservatives should be welcomed to the new Conservative Party. I believe the motto I propose for this new party is fitting: As You Live, We Will Govern.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 15:49:07 +0000