ABG
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contributors
  • ABG CFB
  • Reference center
  • Contact Us

Cumberland Island

Vote or Be?

3/15/2016

0 Comments

 
By Sam Burnham
@C_SamBurnham

This election is driving me crazy. 

I've been a political junkie all my life. Even as a adolescent, I had a love for elections. I followed candidates, listened to their speeches, considered their ideas. I remember sitting during the allotted time during my civics class reading through Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report learning about current events and how they played out in the press. I remember the red sweeping across the map as the results of 1984 showed Ronald Reagan squeezing Mondale-Ferraro into Minnesota and the District of Columbia and holding them there. I remember working election night as a high school journalism intern at a local TV station covering the 1992 election and realizing that for the first time in my political awareness a Democrat would be in the White House. And I remember always wishing that I could vote. I wanted to play a role, not just follow along in the news. 

So you can probably understand my utter disappointment as I watch the process this year wishing once again that I could play a role and not just follow along in the news. I have taken to ABG in the past in order to offer an official endorsement, for whatever that is worth, and to list my reasons why I made that endorsement. That may happen yet this year but not today. 

Instead, I'd like to offer a different type of endorsement. I believe I've communicated my conservatism here on more than one occasion. But I also refuse to be counted among the Republicans and this election cycle is a perfect example of why.  The level of discourse, the lack of a strong candidate that represents my views, and the overall juvenile tone have me looking at the Republican primary with very little enthusiasm. 

There are several hot button issues that I want to hit on because I think the only way that our society, as we know it, is going to survive is if conservatives take on a holistic approach to the philosophy they claim to espouse. I'm going to do it in a way to point out the difference between policy and principle, between law and lifestyle. 

I can't think of a better place to start than with religion. Conservatives are quick to point out that there is no designated "separation" of church and state and, for the most part, I agree. I think there should not be laws neither requiring nor disallowing the practice of a particular religion or denomination but the "separation" goes too far in policies and court rulings today. 

However, this is not our problem in society today. The problem is that we are fighting too hard to get our religious freedom in the public arena but we are not doing enough to exercise that freedom on private terms. We beg for prayer in school but we neglect prayer in the home. We scream for the Ten Commandments to be placed at the courthouse but we don't follow them at our houses. Until faith, a cornerstone of conservatism, permeates the personal lives of the conservative electorate, it will never be a major force in American society. 

Being Pro-life is a major stance among conservatives. We often equate that to standing against abortion and that is certainly part of it. But we need to be molding a society that removes abortion from the equation, not because we passed a law against it but because we addressed the core issues at the heart of unwanted pregnancies. Raising children to become responsible people who deal with each other with wisdom and also with a respect for the well being of others would go a long way in reducing the number of unplanned pregnancies. And it's very easy to point a finger at the role of the media in the sexualization of our modern culture, it also has something to do with the acceptance of that media by the first role models our kids will have, us, their parents.

One more for now. As conservatives, we fight and claw every two years with the mantra that we are going to make government smaller, address economic issues such as the national debt, tax reform, and reign in spending. Sometimes we win elections, sometimes we lose. But a few things never happen: the government never gets smaller, the budget never gets balanced, the debt clock never slows down, taxes never get fairer, and spending never decreases. Oh, and we never quit supporting the party that is lying to us.   

With that, I'd like to give this challenge. For those of us who consider ourselves conservative, are we content to merely vote conservative? Or are we going to commit ourselves to be conservative? Is our philosophy something that points us in the column of a particular political party in the voting booth or is it something that influences how we live our everyday lives?
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Sam B.

    Historian, self-proclaimed gentleman, agrarian-at-heart, & curator extraordinaire
    ​READ MORE


    Picture
    ABG Sponsor, Click Here
    Picture
    ABG Sponsor, Click Here
    Picture
    ABG Sponsor - Click for Link
    Tweets by @BiscuitsGA

    Social Media

    RSS Feed

    Books Blog Directory

    Categories

    All
    Agriculture
    Art
    Books
    Business
    Christmas
    Civil War
    Community Revitalization
    Culture
    Education
    Family
    Fashion
    Fiction
    Film & Television
    Food
    Garden
    Hiking
    History
    Home
    Industry
    Local
    Music
    Native American
    Outdoors
    Politics
    Restaurants
    Revolutionary War
    Tradition
    Travel
    World War II

    Archives

    November 2022
    July 2022
    March 2022
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    December 2013
    October 2013
    July 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    January 2013
    December 2010

Copyright 2015
ABG. The celebration and preservation of Southern history, culture, and agrarian ideals.
Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Contributors
  • ABG CFB
  • Reference center
  • Contact Us