Once when I was a child in school I remember asking one of my teachers what the difference was between a conservative and a liberal.  She answered, “A conservative is one who wants to keep things the same and a liberal is someone who wants to change things.”

I answered, “If the liberals ever succeed in changing things and the conservatives want to change it back, doesn’t that make the conservatives liberal and the liberals conservative?”

“No .. it doesn’t”  I can’t quite remember the rest if she thought it was silly or ridiculous but today I was reminded of this as we see many of our Republican leaders who are often referred to as RINOs lean ever further to the left and hardly believe in a republic anymore but because they are in the Republican party are still called Republicans even though they are hardly the sort.

Similar to their Democratic brethren who’ve leaned to the left they are hardly democrats anymore. They are oligarchs.

It’s almost as though at the time they were named because the name meant something a Republican was someone who believed in the rule of law and not just mob rule with 51% of the vote to make sure everyone has equal protection under the law.  Democrats at some point I believe were named so because they would like to believe they want the rule of the majority.

Somewhere along the lines the meanings of the names simply came to represent which brand or team you are, like the Cardinals and the Cubs or Coke and Pepsi.

And the people on either side became men of position rather then men of conviction.

The same thing happened to terms meant to describe them like conservatives and liberals.  The Left have become increasingly professional at swapping terms around to cover their tracks.  As soon as we become familiar with a term like Liberal or Global Warming and what they really mean suddenly they want to use words like Progressive and Climate Change.

How are we supposed to keep track if the labels never stick.  And that is part of the strategy I believe.  But for now I’d like to look at a few of these terms and why they are used.

Liberal has its root in the word liberty.  Of course liberty brings to mind positive connotations of being free and at liberty to do what we want.  But in reality the group calling themselves Liberals want nothing more than to remove our freedom.  They could even care less if we were born and are perfectly happy if our parents would have chosen to abort us preferably before we were born because then they can apply a term like abortion to it instead of murder as if there was really a difference. So once we started realizing abortion was murder they now call it planned parenthood.

Liberals also want to control what we buy and how much we manufacture in the name of saving the planet from yet another fictitious global disaster. I think they operate out of a combination of two camps. Those who want and desire control and those raised in the education system where we are all taught about these dangers where we sincerely want to save the planet until we reach a point where we realize what we  are taught doesn’t match what we observe. Then we either make their desire for control our own or we break free. I went to public school I was there, I know what they taught us.

Now they want to be called Progressives.  From the term “liberal” we can almost guess that since they were trying to cover up a lack of liberty they used Liberal as their name and now if they call themselves Progressive perhaps they are really for the opposite of “progress”?  Of course they call themselves progressive because they want the name to insinuate progress and that brings to mind “moving forward” and anyone who would dare stand against them must not be for progress and is therefore backward.  It’s really quite smart. They’ve used this very argument on the left in regards to republicans.  I remember one speech where the leftist asked “…the Republicans keep saying they want to go back. To when? 1850s?” (I think they were trying to prevent us from looking at the 1850s as a better time but that is a tangent for another day)

Did you know that there were communists some time back that called themselves “Progressives” to hide that they are or were communists?  I’ve provided a link below regarding David Horowitz who claimed this of his parents.

But if we’ve taken a wrong turn and we are now going the wrong way then turning around and going back might be backward from our current position and heading relatively, but not in regards to where we want to be in regards to the unchanging standard. From where we want to be, going back would be moving forward.

When people play with the meanings of the words or worse yet, remove meaning from words they can manipulate those who think they know what the words mean or rather think that those using the same words mean the same as us.  Sort of like when they were vetting the supreme court justices recently and they made comments about the “rule of law”.  The left does not mean the same thing as us when they use words and phrases like “rule of law”.

Then there’s conservatives.  Some people are so conservative they should’ve changed their label long ago … but then by default I suppose that is what makes them one. This word is to conserve or to keep things the same.  But in this fallen depraved world we can’t dare ever leave things as they are. We must always fight to abolish evil to make sure there is justice for the widow, the orphan, and the poor.

“All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But… if you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change.” – G.K. Chesterton

I posted this this morning and I’m sure I raised a few eyebrows.  I wonder sometimes if people notice that I don’t label myself a conservative.  I don’t want to be like the Left and apply a label to myself that doesn’t really mean what I am or what I am trying to do.

Do we really want to conserve things?  As they are?  If we want to repeal Obamacare and get back to the Constitution that sure sounds like we actually want to change things.  Obama and other progressives not only want to keep things this way but go further down this path.  So now the Liberals want to hold the ground they’ve won and Conservatives want to change things.

Does this make the Conservatives liberal and the Liberals conservative?  I still think I’m right in regards to that teacher I was talking about earlier. Because ultimately she missed my point. That the words she gave meaning didn’t really mean to her what she told me.  They were nothing more than brand names. Or did she want me to only think of them as brand names while she slipped up and gave me a definition. Truly the confusion in this area is so deep I don’t even think she would know.

I’ve posted in my Info currently that Politically I am Biblical.  The Bible has a lot to say about politics and I believe the Biblical way is the proper way things are done. A friend of mine called me a reformer when I was explaining this to him so I looked it up.

re·form transitive verb

1a : to put or change into an improved form or condition b : to amend or improve by change of form or removal of faults or abuses

2: to put an end to (an evil) by enforcing or introducing a better method or course of action

Perhaps Conservatives would be better suited to become Reformers. Doesn’t this sound more like what we want?  To improve our condition. To remove faults and abuses?  To put an end to evil run amok in our country?  And then even when we’ve greatly improved things there is always room for improvement especially educating our children to know our values and why they are our values.  Why we are not communists, fascists, leftists or otherwise.

And yes, I realize that the Bible teaches that this world is going to get worse, but nowhere in the Bible does it say we are to simply go behind closed doors and wait for Jesus to return. As Jesus said, we are to occupy until he comes.  That’s going to cost us as the world gets worse. We must keep our eye on the goal.

And who wants to be a conservative Christian anyway?  Don’t you want to grow in love and knowledge and Holiness through Jesus Christ our Lord?  Or are we really happy just staying the way we are?  Did He really save us so we can remain as we are?

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:2

Was it a bunch of Conservatives that unleashed the Bible into the hands of the populace during the Reformation or was it Reformers?

The danger with being Conservative is if there is evil and we simply want to “keep things they way they are” then the down trodden will never have any hope of justice, then agents offering “Hope and Change” will once again seep in and deceive the down trodden … smother them in darkness and with their lies bind them.

I would rather be a Reformer and label myself as such because the words we use have meaning and I think the meaning of the words “reformer”, “constitutional”,or “biblical” more aptly describe what I am politically than conservative.

Ephesians 5:11

Some other reading:

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/07/liberty_sovereignty_and_arizon.html

http://www.americanthinker.com/2010/04/absolutely_fabulists_liberal_m.html

http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/are-progressives-really-just-communists-in-disguise/question-820105/