A Return to Blogging and Some Tidying Up

It's been quite some time since I posted here.  Some of that has to do with frustration at the electorate, and much of it has to do with the demands of meatspace--job, family, etc.  Nonetheless, I hope to begin writing again here, probably 2-3 posts a month.

I've also changed the description of the blog somewhat.  Whereas I once described myself as "a committed conservative with some moderate tendencies", I realize that is not really accurate.  I was allowing myself to be trapped by a leftist prism on what constitutes conservative and moderate in regards to social issues.  Although I have compassion, I would not categorize myself as a "compassionate conservative" in the mold of George W. Bush.  Specifically, this realization came to me during the recent Supreme Court deliberations and decisions on gay marriage.  I realized that it does not make me a moderate to support fair treatment of homosexuals, just as it does not make me some reactionary h8ter because I oppose state-sanctioned gay marriage.

Further introspection has made me aware that I have a fair libertarian streak in me as well.  Again, I had previously allowed my interpretation of libertarianism to be unfairly biased due to a false preconception, that libertarians were simply about legalization of drugs.  What I discovered was that libertarians (as opposed to the Libertarian party) were those who wished to maximize individual liberty.  To my thinking, this puts libertarians (classical liberals, as Locke or Madison might have understood them) much closer to conservatives than the modern liberals (Democrats, Socialists, Communists, etc.), although on a different axis.

However, I am in no danger of going on full-on libertarian, which stands only a few steps away from anarchy in some respects.  I believe that a strong but tightly limited government is necessary for the common defense, a precursor to having any degree of liberty in society as opposed to a Hobbesian jungle.  I believe the Founding Fathers were much, much smarter than many people give them credit for by choosing a constitutional republic rather than a democracy or even democratic republic as the blueprint for the United States.  Unfortunately, the original Progressive movement from Teddy Roosevelt over a century ago has gradually altered that blueprint, building up paper mountains of laws and regulations that have pushed inexorably in a direction of statism.  But this author will not quietly submit to a socialist agenda, or the implicit messaging of der State über alles that modern leftists such as President Obama support.