I have harangued political conservatives for years on several accounts. Not only are they wrong politically, but they masquerade around as if they were correct. For the sake of argument, I went to the Internet and found that most definitions for conservatives use words like being against change, holding onto traditional values of the past, and not wanting to move forward. Conservatives cling to the past.

I get that. What I do not get is what the past is. We need to set a date for the past about which conservatives wish to cling. If conservatives wish to hang onto what once was and those glory days seem to be receding, the conservatives need to set a date when things were good. Unless they do set a clear and certain time or date, they are dishonest merely to have some utopia of the past as if all was well...back then.

Let us arbitrarily set a date of 1861...just prior to the Civil War. Conservatives then wanted to keep slaves. After the Civil War, conservatives wanted segregation...an American version of apartheid. It took another century before liberals were successful in getting federal laws changed. Both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act were passed by the mid-60s. Name a conservative who fought for either of those laws.

Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina said of the Civil Rights Act,

After 232-years since the Declaration of Independence, America elected its first black president. I wonder how many conservatives voted for Obama. In spite of the election, many of the conservatives still do not like having a black as president. The vocal conservatives on racism are the birthers. The term birther is merely a politically correct way to express racism. Donald Trump's birther lectern is the same type lectern that George Wallace used standing in the front door of the University of Alabama.

This is racism....

This is racism also racism....

Let us be honest. Look at these pictures of Wallace and Trump. They are conservatives...and they were both wrong. Racism was ethically wrong fifty years ago, and it still is. Therefore, employing the term conservative when dealing with racism is logical disconnect unless the birthers and the radical right are racists.

John F. Kennedy

John Kennedy said, "Change is the law of life and those whom look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." However, conservatives have an issue about dating their conservatism. Slavery, segregation, and birther-ism are correct for them from their conservative base regarding racism. However, that is true on issue of sexism, homophobia issues, healthcare reform, voters' suppression, income disparity, global warming, and the list goes.

When conservatives are faced with sexism, they will not deny women should vote, but when it comes to issues beyond the voting of women, which the conservatives fought against until 1920 when the States ratified the 19th Amendment to the Constitution. Nearly a century later in 2009, Congressed passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 to give equality in salaries.

Kennedy said, "Change is the law of life and those whom look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future." I would only add, "Get honest. Being a conservative is merely conserving the mistakes of the past."

Forrest Gump, "Stupid is as stupid does."

Visit the Stupid is As Stupid Does page to read more about this topic.

06/30/14