Conservatives use those words to divide people knowing people in general don't understand the real meaning or interpretation and casually accept the way conservative republicans apply those words. Yet, all those words play a large role in political and civilian life and many times in heated arguments. But never in a real debate because that would expose the fairy tale, the division and the republican party. So lets explore all those words.
Conservatism: The word being practiced and used today goes back to the Newt Gingrich era and represents an ideology of hate, personal attacks, elitism and an alleged superior understanding of government, religion, division, fiscal responsibility and small government and blame. Prior to Newt republicans in congress never much talked about themselves as being conservative. They were satisfied as being conservative and pursuing a conservative agenda without personal attacks. The first words out of a republican's mouth today is, "I am a conservative." Well, so what? I am a American and proud of it.
The conservative movement since Newt has proved there is no such thing as a conservatism in the republican party or a republican White House. Ditto when it comes to big government or government spending. The most recent examples are the republicans failure to pass health care and immigration reform. What the so called republican conservatism actually cover is several factions of extreme ideology with in the party that disagrees on everything and of course their tax scheme that will add $1.5 trillion to the national debt is no where near conservatism.
The underline ideology behind Newt's conservatism was to break the democratic hold the party enjoyed in the U.S. House for many years. Newt resorted to vicious personal attacks against democrats and started the push to dilute the states voting districts in favor of republicans. He also tried to use religion and moral values to divide the people. And today, several states are tied up in court over gerrymandering by the republican party to assure a vote advantage for their party.
The reasons why there is no such thing as a conservative republican party was laid out in PolitiDose many times over in the past several years And just recently the CBO announced that Trump's first fiscal year budget will end on 9/30/18 with a federal deficit of over $800 billion. A 21% increase over President Obama's last fiscal year budget. Conservatism? Yeah right, in fairy tale land.
Pro Choice: The republicans have done a good job convincing the news media and many voters with the fairy tale that Pro Choice means one is for abortion, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Of course they try to use their favorite opponent Hillary Clinton and try to use her Pro Choice position as advocating abortion. But they have a big problem because Hillary choose Life and brought a daughter into this world who in turn chose life and also became a proud Mother herself.
Pro Choice simply means the Supreme Court ruled a woman has a right to choose and make a choice under certain circumstances. Those who protest the loudest about a woman's right to choose are men, the political kind who use the subject matter to divide and seek votes. It is a reminder of a time in our past when women were denied the right to vote. That was a Pro Choice decision too that was also protested by many when they were given the right to vote. The Supreme Courts decision heard the thoughts of the religious and scientific community before they gave their finding. And what chaps most conservatives about the courts ruling was the fact that the court was actually described as a conservative court.
The fairy tale about Pro Choice has gotten so out of hand by those who try and use religion to define the matter have even suggested abortion is murder. Women who make a Pro Choice decision deserve better and the majority of women who support Pro Choice are mothers who chose life.
Pro Life: Conservatives like to describe Pro Life as one opposed to abortion. But Pro Life is about life itself and how one lives life. A person can actually be Pro Life and Pro Choice at the same time and not be a contradiction. Political motivation is used to try and misuse words or their meaning in order to infame some one even though the words can actually apply in another sense. Those who support Pro Choice and who are mothers are Pro Life also. They just understand the real meaning of the two words. If Pro Life is related only to the opposition of abortion it has lost all meaning.
And now, the country will be talking about the issue of Pro Life and Pro Choice once again with the nomination of a new Supreme Court Justice. The story still goes on after 45 years because our political system has to find blame and because of ideology. Those who claim to be Pro Life should respect others point of view to live their own lives, after all, that is what life is all about.
Real conservatism does not exist in our political body any more because conservative values have been absent and ideology has been substituted. It is a fairy tale that has even lost civility. And that really says it all.
This commentary written by Joe Lorio
