It’s been said that sailors are conservative about change because change gone wrong might just kill you. With Vermonters dealing with…
… a gun ban proposed by people who apparently know nothing about guns
… a so-called “affordable heat act” that makes energy less affordable
… an education bill that threatens to raise property taxes by 20% while still failing to properly educate our children
… an electric vehicle mandate that’s likely to leave dead EVs strewn across our landscape
… rental rules that force a landlord to get a court order in order to force non-paying tenants out of their properties
… and other ideas that have little to do with reality and a lot to do with the proposers’ personal biases…
Maybe sailors know something the rest of us don’t.
What to do about a top-heavy government that continues to stick its nose into things that were once handled privately by individuals? Consider conservatism…
Search online for “what does conservative mean” and you’ll get a truckload of responses, most of which are variants of “…conservatism… seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. (One exception came from a writer at UCLA who claimed that conservatism is “…the domination of society by an aristocracy.” So your sister who votes Republican is an aristocrat. Who knew?)
I’ll suggest another common definition – limited government. Conservatives wish to let government handle the things that it traditionally handled – foreign policy, national defense, fiscal and monetary policy, and so on. To let people take responsibility for running their own lives and making their own household decisions based on their needs.
Limiting government has several huge benefits.
It cuts back on over-regulation. (Why is it necessary to take three exams to become a cosmetologist in Vermont?)
It reduces the ability of government to enact laws based on people’s pet ideas and their need for virtue-signaling. For instance, the current attempt to outlaw the legal ownership of “AR-style firearms.”
It can hold steady the cost of living. Perhaps even (if you close your eyes and wish real hard) reduce it.
Finally, it cuts back on the government’s ability to micro-manage your life.
When election time comes around, think about who’s running for office. Are they proposing things that meet your daily needs, or is your vote just a vehicle for letting them hijack your tax-dollars in support of programs that only serve to hurt you and your family.
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