PoliticalChic
Diamond Member
1.How about this as a new understanding of what motivates a conservative: a recognition of what Western Civilization has accomplished and a desire to see that provision and promise continue.
It could be that simple: conservatives desire the perpetuation of America and the journey Western Civilization has taken to lead us to this: The American dream has always included material aspiration, especially for those who start out with little or nothing. But as James Truslow Adams —who popularized the term in his 1931 history, "The Epic of America"—wrote, it was "not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
And we are most of the way there….but have to recon with those who hate America, American heritage and values, and even the American flag:
NYT, MSNBC contributor shocks critics by saying it was ...
NYT, MSNBC contributor shocks critics by saying it was ‘disturbing’ to see ‘American flags’ flying during Long Island trip
MSNBC contributor Mara Gay has said it was "disturbing" for her to see American flags flown during a recent trip to Long Island, New York, likening the images to hate symbols.
2.What brought that idea to mind was this passage in a Vince Flynn novel:
“Great civilizations rose and fell as surely as the tides. The Egyptians, the Incas, the Mayans, the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, the Mongol empire, the Ottoman empire all came and went. The Austro-Hungarian empire, the French, the British, the Russians, and the Nazis would someday merit only a footnote. Who knew what waited for the Americans? The other superpower, the Soviet Union, had lasted less than a hundred years with their grand experiment of communism. A blink as far as history was concerned. If Abel had to guess, America’s preeminence on the world stage would last no more than another hundred years. The country had too many rights and too much wealth. Not enough sacrifice. Too much selfishness. The civilizations that had made their mark did so through brutality or great self-sacrifice by the populace, and often both. The Chinese would become the next sole superpower.”
“Consent To Kill”
The brilliant view of history contained in that passage is that the control of human passions led to prosperity, prosperity led to license and corruption, and that led to the internecine warfare that destroys a society.
3. Consider the journey from the jungle and paganism and to this
This is what we had within our grasp: Compared to an earlier time, mothers and their children can expect to survive childbirth, and their children live another eight decades. Almost every American lives in a climate-controlled home with food and a TV. They have a car, refrig, microwave, and a cell phone. We have computers with internet, buy products from all over the globe, and cheaply, at that. None will be enslaved, few murdered, and free to have unpopular views or lifestyles. You can worship as you wish, or not at all. There is no institutional racism, and no governmental requirement to have or not have children. There is no aristocracy, no perennial wealth class, and most will die richer than when they were born. Western Civilization, here, and promised to the whole world.
4. What made it possible?
"This is the great contribution of our Judeo-Christian foundation to Western civilization. The principles of justice are laid down in the Torah and the Gospels, and implemented through human actions memorialized in judicial codes.
The written laws and rules are codifications of the unwritten ones worked out over millennia as the result of human interactions and experience."
David Mamet
And, under Democrats/Liberals/Progressives, the book that sets forth the rules, the manual itself, is banned in the government school system.
It could be that simple: conservatives desire the perpetuation of America and the journey Western Civilization has taken to lead us to this: The American dream has always included material aspiration, especially for those who start out with little or nothing. But as James Truslow Adams —who popularized the term in his 1931 history, "The Epic of America"—wrote, it was "not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position."
And we are most of the way there….but have to recon with those who hate America, American heritage and values, and even the American flag:
NYT, MSNBC contributor shocks critics by saying it was ...
NYT, MSNBC contributor shocks critics by saying it was ‘disturbing’ to see ‘American flags’ flying during Long Island trip
MSNBC contributor Mara Gay has said it was "disturbing" for her to see American flags flown during a recent trip to Long Island, New York, likening the images to hate symbols.
2.What brought that idea to mind was this passage in a Vince Flynn novel:
“Great civilizations rose and fell as surely as the tides. The Egyptians, the Incas, the Mayans, the Greeks, the Persians, the Romans, the Mongol empire, the Ottoman empire all came and went. The Austro-Hungarian empire, the French, the British, the Russians, and the Nazis would someday merit only a footnote. Who knew what waited for the Americans? The other superpower, the Soviet Union, had lasted less than a hundred years with their grand experiment of communism. A blink as far as history was concerned. If Abel had to guess, America’s preeminence on the world stage would last no more than another hundred years. The country had too many rights and too much wealth. Not enough sacrifice. Too much selfishness. The civilizations that had made their mark did so through brutality or great self-sacrifice by the populace, and often both. The Chinese would become the next sole superpower.”
“Consent To Kill”
The brilliant view of history contained in that passage is that the control of human passions led to prosperity, prosperity led to license and corruption, and that led to the internecine warfare that destroys a society.
3. Consider the journey from the jungle and paganism and to this
This is what we had within our grasp: Compared to an earlier time, mothers and their children can expect to survive childbirth, and their children live another eight decades. Almost every American lives in a climate-controlled home with food and a TV. They have a car, refrig, microwave, and a cell phone. We have computers with internet, buy products from all over the globe, and cheaply, at that. None will be enslaved, few murdered, and free to have unpopular views or lifestyles. You can worship as you wish, or not at all. There is no institutional racism, and no governmental requirement to have or not have children. There is no aristocracy, no perennial wealth class, and most will die richer than when they were born. Western Civilization, here, and promised to the whole world.
4. What made it possible?
"This is the great contribution of our Judeo-Christian foundation to Western civilization. The principles of justice are laid down in the Torah and the Gospels, and implemented through human actions memorialized in judicial codes.
The written laws and rules are codifications of the unwritten ones worked out over millennia as the result of human interactions and experience."
David Mamet
And, under Democrats/Liberals/Progressives, the book that sets forth the rules, the manual itself, is banned in the government school system.