Steve Frank: I am a “Conservatarian”

Last week I met with a recent USC grad who wanted to get involved in politics in a meaningful way. During the discussion we talked about issues and the State of the conservative movement. At that point he informed me he was a “conservatarian”.


This is a new term for me. I am a conservative and if you read the California Political News and Views for any length of time, you know I am a believer that government is the cause of our economic calamities.

What is a conservatarian? To me that indicates someone who is conservative on the social issues and libertarian on the economic issues. I am pro-life and oppose government financing the killing of babies (or any killing of babies) or bailing out failed companies like Solyndra or General Motors.

In the early 1960’s I started out as a Goldwater conservative. Strong patriotism and a belief in Constitutional government. It was later in his career that Senator Goldwater became more of a libertarian than conservative—including open borders and little support for social conservatives.

When I returned from Viet Nam, after a tour with the First Infantry Division, I was more of a traditional, National Review, type conservative. I was a social conservative but more interested in anti-communism and foreign policy. By the 1980 campaign, in which the Moral Majority was a strong influence, I was a social conservative first and foremost.

In 1988, Pat Robertson ran for President, but I supported George Bush, the Vice President, for President. By now I was working with evangelicals all over the State, and nation. While the Religious Right was almost exclusively one issue, Pro-Life, I thought it needed to use that as a base for an economic policy.

That is when I started using the phrase, “every dollar of taxation is a dollar less of freedom.” I told evangelicals if they wanted to afford religious schools for their children and afford to raise more children, they had to roll back government and its theft of major portions of their paycheck. To me, to be a conservative meant family and personal freedom and government meant enslavement.

One lesson that Kennedy, Reagan and even Clinton proved was that to raise revenues you lowered taxes. Lower taxes meant economic growth and freedom from government.

The Bush years gave us out of control spending, plus a War on Terrorism—both very expensive. Obama has taken away our health care rights, total taxes on MOST Americans —-income, sales, property, etc, plus those passed along by corporations that government puts on them—now top 50% of money earned. We live in a society of takers, not makers.

Ideology, issues and understanding of how the world works evolves. At this point, I believe that all decisions are economic. As long as the choice of car, home and job is based on government regulations and government induced costs, we are not free to truly live our Faith, support our families and be what we want to be—government is standing in the way. Government schools teach our children propaganda and how NOT to think for yourself (the Global Warming canard is the best example—only one side of the debate is allowed by government schools.) Big businesses use government to punish their smaller competitors, and then demand to be bailed out when their strategies fail—just look at General Motors. Worse, the greedy use government to openly steal from families—look at the solar industry and firms like Solyndra. While billions are given to crooks, who have friends in Washington, the White House assures high energy prices and a loss of jobs by not allowing drilling, refusal to allow pipelines be built and tearing down dams to close down hydroelectric facilities.

CONTINUED:  http://www.conservativeactionalerts.com/2012/12/i-am-a-conservatarian/