Stan Deatherage: I Am No Longer a Conservative | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Being a Conservative once meant something positive - a progressive form of thought. Currently, it is just a label that politicians use to describe something that they may, or may not be, and the principles of which, they may or may not truly understand. I am no longer a politician, so it is no longer useful for me to be known by a descriptor that has lost much of its impact, and one that, accordingly, no longer fits my needs, or the needs of others to know me by.

    Unbeknownst to many in these parts, the sum of my being has always consisted of far more than just the politician thing. The politician part of me was merely the process of getting elected, and thus serving Beaufort County, against insurmountable odds, to turn this county into one that was managed properly, with its governing body making wise decisions to further the county's total viability into the future. To that end, my efforts were sincere beyond measure, but incalculably impossible to achieve because I am not the king of Beaufort County; or just a wise, measured voice among peers of equal devotion. After 18 years of devoted service, it just was not going to happen.

    Many of the Republicans that I served with, along with those many liberal Democrats, did not have any concept of Conservative principles, yet all the Republicans espoused to understand such, and proclaimed to be such, when they ran for office. For them, declaring Conservatism meant that they were miserly with their own money, but not with the public treasury, or the assets of Beaufort County that served as part of the collateral of what comprises our treasury's balance sheet. It was as if the public treasury, and its assets, were largess to buy votes to continue their political position. Their purpose became a never ending political loop of taking what was not theirs to allocate to others that would sustain these politicians' overwhelming political egos, that which offered them the impetus to continue.

    As I continued as a functioning politician, I noticed that beyond Beaufort County, that so many from other geocentric locations, at varying levels of governing positions, would endeavor to employ the People's treasury, with the same motives of the identical purpose of remaining in elected office; just in larger or smaller quantitative measures as dependent upon their position. What I knew of the Conservative principles of my political Forefathers, as a tool to control the proper method of governing others in the construct of a smaller, a more nimble, less intrusive power of providing a governance of people as a eclectic, but cohesive unit was an unknown quantity to so many, and often to those with so much power. Sadly, many of these political, and intellectual neophytes regarded themselves as Conservatives.

    The Conservative brand may be irrevocably tarnished, just like the Republican brand of Ronald Reagan was nearly destroyed. Only time will tell, and our Lord only knows if it can, or should be salvaged. I hope it can be salvaged. Regardless of any of my pronouncements, I will help in my own way to further such, but not by declaring that I am such, for simply what was is no more.

    And while I well understand that all works are relative and the fruits of those deeds transitory in a real sense, we all can agree that mere political labels are both useless and necessary to understand the point of it all. Such a paradox is the struggle to understand life, and to lend those efforts, our relative understanding of that inescapable truth.

    The meaning here is that I am no longer a Conservative in a relative sense; however, I pray that one day, when I will once again have the desire to declare proudly: "I am a Conservative". Until then, and we must all understand that labels; however so often obtuse in a relative sense, are the fastest way to present any idea, and therefore, I shall self-label myself what I have long been to my core: Realist Libertarian.

    I never actually thought of myself as anything politically, other than being a conservative Republican, until a board of county commissioners' retreat, where the UNC School of Government administered a psychological test that would render where these Beaufort County Commissioners lined up on the political scale. It was about a decade ago when this test was administered, so I shall not attempt to be conclusive in my exact remembrance of that test. I do recollect that a sketch of the results of that test did reveal: my friend, Hood Richardson, was indeed graded a Conservative; one of the other commissioners (I can't recollect which one) was a Liberal; four of the others (two Democrats, two registered Republicans - I do remember that) were graded somewhat as Liberals, but also fully as Authoritarians; and I was graded borderline Conservative, but deeper into the Libertarian sector of the political pie chart.

    My conclusion of the larger political perspective: If Commissioner Richardson was the full-throated antithesis of the one liberal county commissioner, then I was the antithesis of the other four Liberals /Authoritarians. Accordingly, if these 'registered' Republicans, and others elected since with strong streaks of Liberal running down their backs, can pronounce themselves as Conservative, there is no need for someone, like myself, who actually knows well who he is to the core, to declare myself a Conservative. Good men shrink from bad company.

    This tarnished Conservative brand will only be re-burnished when there is a true leader that will rally the forces of 'right' thinking individuals, these new recruits to sustain our Republic. These Republicans, who will be the core of the New Republican party, will hail from those that were formerly: Democrats, squishy Independents, those apathetic to any poorly considered cause, and even RINOs, establishment Republicans - all will be forgiven with one caveat. That caveat: No RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), or establishment Republicans can assume any leadership positions until they have paid full, and significant, penitence, as a significant symbol that these untrustworthy RINOs have accepted their transgression and can now be trusted. The core of the New Republican party, in its inception, will have to be the real Republicans, Real Conservatives, Realist Libertarians that can be trusted to have the fortitude and the wisdom to build a Real Republican party.

    Then, and only then, will I take the Conservative movement seriously. Alternately, I will remain a Republican - the Republican party still far exceeds the Democrat party, and that will not change in my lifetime; however, I expect more from the Republican party than just being far superior than the egregiously pathetic Democrat party. I expect the Republican party to embrace the real Conservative principles of: a far smaller, less intrusive government; a powerful, innovative military; an adherence to the United States Constitution; an integral distaste of favoritism; to govern its People, as much as is possible, locally; and to preserve our nation, our laws, even our environment, but not in the manner of the gross stupidity of the Liberals.

    I am a Realist Libertarian, and I support Conservative Principles, but not to the point of denying the personal liberties of others, and that includes the unborn. I am a Realist Libertarian, and I support that each among us have the opportunity to pursue what lies within our hearts, that which is our passion, but not to the point where government provides for such, and not to the point where the evil agents of mind altering substances be unfettered in their release upon a public, whose collective intellect is already growing dimmer by the day.

    I am a Realistic Libertarian, and I will no longer assign the label of Conservative to my being; not until my perception of the brand of conservatism is worthy enough to include me.