Former conservative still scratching his head dumbstruck, say Washington insiders

I was one of them, a conservative, and believed just as wholeheartedly as most conservatives seem to, but with my own weird spin on things, because . . . well . . . I'm a weirdo. Then my eyes got opened. It began by reading the simple definitions of two perhaps not-so-simple words. I used to write for a living, so to a guy like me, words really do mean things:

Conservative - disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones, and to limit change; not liking or accepting changes or new ideas.

Liberal - favorable to or in accord with concepts of maximum individual freedom possible, especially as guaranteed by law and secured by governmental protection of civil liberties; favoring or permitting freedom of action, especially with respect to matters of personal belief or expression.

Conservatives, by definition, either like things how they are currently, or would like to return things to the days of yore, when everything was "better" (i.e., okay to lynch black people, beat up and/or kill gays, force a woman to bear the child of a rapist, see minorities as lesser people, and *not* okay for women to have positions of authority, and better that they stay home and take care of children . . . despite the fact that Reagan's trickle down economics made that literally impossible as wifey HAS to work in order for the family to survive and remain clothed and housed). The only way things were better in our past was that we got paid more - and conservatives killed that as well by giving corporations free reign to do as they pleased. And yeah, maybe we did get paid more, but we also were far fewer in number, we all shared pretty much the same religion, and it society was accepted by the voting majority at the time to be largely white and wholly male dominated.

And that was okay with everyone because that was how it had always been . . . until, again, greed caused women to have to work, which in turn allowed them to have positions of authority, which in turn showed them that being a housewife pretty much sucked ass, which in turn ---- you get the idea. We can no longer live that way. We cannot go back, only forward. Black people will never go back to being second class citizens, women will never depart from the workplace, and we WILL eventually have to accept that Christianity is NOT the national religion of the United States.

I just don't see what's so complicated about that. By saying idiotic things like, "If we raise taxes on businesses, they'll send jobs overseas/raise prices." Not if we ban trade within the U.S. if they try it. It really is that simple.

"Yeah, let's do that thing with the stockings and . . . I'm rich. Do you know how rich I am?"