OPINION: Sweet land of liberty not really home to conservatives

With the heated political season now behind us, here are some observations on what I call the “Great American Con.” 

We heard all kinds of declarations about who is what and why, as in conservative or liberal, left or right in the political spectrum. Some of these claims are realistic, and some of course, in the tradition of “anything goes” elections, have to be seen or heard to be believed. My personal favorite is the candidate declaration that he or she is a conservative. Every time I see or hear this, I shake my head and wonder what county, state, or country are these people trying to represent? Surely not anywhere in the United States of America.

Conservative in what? What are these people conservative about? Consider the following facts about the country we call home. American democracy is known worldwide as the most liberal form of government existent today. There is nothing conservative about it. Conservative governments are run by people like Kim Jong Un, the House of Saud, and Putin. One person calls the shots, everybody follows, or they get shot. Don’t see people by the millions flocking to those places annually to get a piece or their governmental/political pies do you? Why? They’re too conservative.

For all our shortcomings, we’re nothing of the kind. We have the freedom and liberty to vote for whom we wish in every election, or the freedom and liberty not to vote at all. Nothing conservative about that in any way.

Then there is our economic system, American capitalism. Battered as it may be, it is still considered worldwide to be the most liberal economic system in the world today. There is nothing conservative about it. Conservative economic systems have been run by people with names like Khrushchev, Mao, and The Ayatollah. Don’t see people by the millions flocking to those places annually to get a piece or their economic pies do you? Why? They’re too conservative.

Further still, look at religion in this country. Conservative religion? Where? I dare you to open your phone book and look in the Yellow Pages under churches. What do you see? Multitudes of ways to worship and praise the Almighty. If you are a Christian there are at least two dozen flavors of church to attend. No other country in the world is so liberal in the ability to pursue your religious beliefs. Tell me now, what is conservative in that? Imagine trying to be Jewish in Afghanistan, or Christian in Somalia.

Last but not least, we have the most liberal laws in the world concerning guns. There are almost enough legally owned guns for every man, woman, and child in the USA.

The economy, God, government, and guns, four elements that permeate the lives of most all of us, and in America it’s liberal, liberal, liberal, and liberal. When we participate in all four, as most people in America do, we are being shaped and shaping four very powerful liberal forces that makes us what we are: a liberal democracy, with a liberal economy, the most liberal pursuit of religious freedom in the world, and the most liberal access to weapons.

Notice it’s not The Statue of Conservity gracing New York Harbor, it’s Liberty, as in liberal, from the Latin Liber, (Freedom) vs. conservative from the Latin Contra, (Against). So when you hear people, pundits, elected officials, or those running for office calling themselves conservatives and complaining about liberals and liberalism, these are people who are (contra) against (liber) freedom. What kind of American is that, someone who is against freedom? Who are all these people running for office, claiming conservative this and conservative that? Con-servative, are we being conned?

The term left and right in American political discourse, in case you didn’t know, is a very French political invention, born of the French Revolution. Oui! Today in America everyone talking left and right in politics is French (socialist) at heart. So for all you socialists who voted this year, don’t forget to thank those cheese-eating surrender monkeys for helping shape our collective political state of mind. Oo la la!

Marshall is a resident of Hot Springs, Montana.