Posted by Dan Ewert : 4/02/2002 10:57:00 PM (Archive Link)
A friend with whom I worked recently discovered my site and said I must be a closet conservative. My credentials on the matter were questionable since I like John McCain. However, I never said I wasn’t conservative. I just don’t necessarily subscribe to the whole Republican agenda, e.g. I like campaign finance reform (well, most parts of it) even though most Republicans loathe it. Really, I have my own set of values and I’m discovering more and more just how anti-liberal they are. Well, maybe not anti-liberal, per se, since that implies they’re oriented around the opposition of the left. Rather, they’re just definitely contrary to the left. If A=liberal and B=me, then my position can summarized as B and not A as opposed to A, therefore not B.

I see it this way. There are ideals. Ideals are good. They’re the way things should be in a perfect world. Now many Democrats and liberals are idealists who see nothing but those ideals and try to make huge leaps towards them. This is bad. If you’ve been in an organization of some size, those big leaps cause more trouble than they solve because the organization is unable to fulfill the requirements due to logistical, morale-related, or ideological issues. When you try to take strides that are too long for your legs, you fall on your face. I think this sometimes stems from the notion of having a pie in the sky vision while not coming up with any practical method for getting there. For example, I read some song lyrics linked off another blogging site that equated the military with the monetary. It implored the listener to start working for peace. I was thinking to myself, “I couldn’t agree more. I want to start working for peace. What do you propose?” I imagine that would have drawn a blank or at least some 60’s inspired notion about being one with my fellow man (even though there are many men that I would rather not call my fellows).

Anyway, I favor keeping the ideal in mind and taking smaller, more manageable steps towards it while realizing that you likely will never fully realize the ultimate goal. After all, it’s an ideal and making ideals reality is fairly uncommon. The smaller steps will get you closer to where you want to be, in better time, and with better results. I think the only cases where sudden, drastic change is required are those that are moral or involve survival or self-preservation. Examples of the first are slavery, civil right, and the like. Sometimes gradual change will not complete the job (and there was a terrible lot of buildup for these) without a sudden, wrenching change. Examples of the second case are [insert war of choice here]. But other than this, I prefer to work within the bounds of what can be practically accomplished at a given moment. Trying to work outside those bounds will only draw them in tighter and you will be capable of accomplishing even less.