Let's define Conservative and Liberal more Clearly | Eastern North Carolina Now

    The terms have been tossed around for many years. It seems the frequency and fury attached in this election year is turning them into missiles of hate and revenge.

    I think we can do better.

    I grew up in the 50's and it was not as much used. I think, for my generation, it came into vogue during the radical 60's. The Viet Nam War split us. John F. Kennedy was assassinated over his attempt to pull back and withdraw from a third world country with a history of head-hunting. He had been accused of "being a Northern Liberal" for sure. His Vice President, Lyndon Johnson, was a Democrat also, but was considered a "Southern Conservative" on racial matters. "Dixiecrat" was the name given men like Strom Thurmond or Jesse Helms. They were powerful politicians who were not interested in "all men created equal." It had "always been this way" in their view---and they needed to "keep it that way." When the Supreme Court decided it was Constitutional to integrate schools, they revolted. Despite the decision and change, we still have racial and social hate in abundance today---some 60 years after Integration.

    That is why the party picked him as a running mate with their nominee for President. Nixon was called a Conservative. He was also mean when it came to any opposition. He was bent on getting even and pulling any trick to get at an opponent. In sum, Nixon was not nice nor secure in himself. He feared the world was against him. The Watergate scandal was the result of people wanting to please an anxious man.

    My personal association with Liberal and Conservative is along the religious lines of the "Battle for the Bible" in the Southern Baptist Convention. It went on in the lifetime of my father extending back to the early 1900's. It goes to the nature of the Bible and how you use it to live and preach. It is a battle over the nature of Faith and how one deals with Doubt and questions.

    You can be BOTH educated and a person of faith, in my father's view and mine.

    My father grew up in a little country church where shouting and emotion were the sign of "being spiritual." When he felt his call to preach, several well-meaning women came by to "help him." They warned him about going over to Mercer University --- and how that kind of education would ruin him from being a good preacher. In other words, if you are highly educated and logical you don't fit the mold of "ignorance is bliss."

    The core of Liberal vs. Conservative has to do with education and outlook. Conservative Catholic leaders took a literal view of the Bible. They believed the world was flat and had 4 corners. One would fall off if he ventured too far from land. Further, they believed the earth was the center of the universe with the sun and stars going around it. We all learned better in grammar school, but the Church leaders would burn you at the stake if you dared say different! It was based on ruling others and using fear to keep people in line.

    "Conservative" really means keeping things as they have "always" been!

    My education from first grade to Master's Degree in Theology to education in Insurance to a Series 6 Securities license all had to do with broadening my mind and deepening my understanding of the world from 1946 to now.

    Getting through Emory University also required I learn the Trim Carpenter's Trade. That is the most "sophisticated and smart" part of building houses. Anybody can pound nails into studs and put up the framing. Only the true craftsmen can "put the putty man out of business." The two masters who taught me had tricks at every corner to make things "fit right." The difference between "perfect" and "hatchet job" was based on which side of the measuring line you made the cut. Instead of saying, "The painter will putty the crack so don't bother to do it again," my bosses both said, "I made a mistake and must do it right rather than walk away!" It applied to them --- and also to me in my apprentice stage of carpentry. They taught by example.

    That, in no way, demeans a good frame carpenter. We once trimmed a house that had a new framer put it up. There were some places the door framing was not plumb. Every room had a corner that was not square. It took us extra time to cover those imperfections and make a finished product that looked right without cracks.

    Only a perfectionist trim man could do the paneling right in a corner of a room that was not plumb! Instead of slapping a 4X8 piece of expensive real wood paneling --- and then covering it with a piece of corner trim, you had to carefully scribe the imperfection out of it. Nobody takes such time today. Bugs have plenty of places to nest. The Exterminator becomes essential to pump such places full of poison! Then people live with deadly chemicals all around them. They can get cancer from such "cover up."

    The core of shoddy houses today is "you only make money by doing it cheap and fast." Use an air-powered nail gun and "git 'er done." A true builder, taking pride, makes sure to put in larger framing boards properly aligned. I have a good friend who builds here. He is picky over the wood used and the subcontractors with real skill working with him. He is one of a few "in it to build a quality house" over those who "slap one together." I would want ONLY HIM to build a house for me, should I want a new one. In fact, when I think a little more, there are TWO such builders I personally know in Beaufort County! Both of them are honest and neat. Neither is rich!

    A true Conservative Builder "conserves" the basic tenants of square, plumb, properly supported with good engineering in the basic plan used for construction. In this example a Liberal Builder doesn't care about anything but "fast" and "maximum profit." He might "get rich quick," however; in a few years his product is falling apart at the seams!

    What I am trying to really say is that the terms, "Conservative" and "Liberal" do not automatically say, "It is good and right." Moral values are attached which go far beyond a surface look. If it helps people to ALL live better in a better world, I like it.

    If it is a cover for using people and making money, I have my doubts