Let us first begin by understanding, I know many people who call them conservative. They are very good and genuine people. These are however not the people who come up with the "conservative" positions. It is these people who come up with these positions that are well very out of touch with the common American and person of the global community.
LIE ONE: Conservatives wish to change society to more traditional means.
By the very definition a conservative does not want change. A true conservative wants to keep the status quo. By there very natures, they oppose change. A "conservative" that wants change could be called a populist, progressive, reactionary, or fundamentalist but not a conservative. By showing their ignorance of the very word they claim to support they show that the rest of the positions they take are incredibly flawed.
LIE TWO: Cut taxes of the rich, and the money will trickle down to the commoner.
I guess in the "conservative" world there's no greed. No Kenneth Lay, no Enron, no World Com, Global Crossing, etc. One of the true conservatives I know, my high school governement teacher Robert Topping, said the American tax system works and is the fairest we'll ever get. How many millions does one need to horde in a lifetime? In the latest tax cut, I as a single and finally middle class worker, ended up having to pay income tax instead of recieving any form of refund. I did not get the $300 check from the IRS. I had to repay that in addition to what I owed for the year. Your conservative tax cut helped me. Every president who's ever cut taxes has generated a recession or ended up driving up the National Debt to record levels. Reagan, Bush, and Bush 2, created a bigger mess than help. Recognize Vodoo for Vodoo.
LIE THREE: You can cut taxes, spend money on programs/special interests, and still balance the budget.
Well we see where the conservative trickle down idea could come to this. I mean, we have to line the richest people's pockets with more millions of dollars. However, we want to have programs that may or may not help us, but at least we have them to make us feel good. I would just propose, that everyone with a checking account spend more than you take in. I mean, if good conservative fiscal policy allows it, it should be allowed for the common person. Except that it's not allowed to the common person. The bank charge me $25 for writing a bad check, as does the business I wrote it too, and well they could file crimnal charges (must be a conservative idea too to charge some one an additional money when they don't have it to begin with).
LIE FOUR: Conservatives have a better understanding of foriegn policy than Liberals
This one just pisses me off. Does anyone recall the lessons of the first two World Wars? Much less Korea, Vietnam, the Middle East, the former Yugoslavian States??? Conservatives want to withdraw all US contact from the world when Western Europe and most fledgling democracies tend to look at the US for guidance. Woodrow Wilson envisioned a great community of nations so that diplomacy and statesmanship not war could be used to resolve disputes. No president until Jimmy Carter had the idea of saying, Egypt, you sit down here, Isreal here and now you don't have to like each other, but you don't have to kill each other either. Bill Clinton decided that the genocide of hundreds of thousands if not millions of people in a region with no oil was morally rephrensible and something had to be done. Truman and then Kennedy later believed in fighting Communism anywhere in the world, despite the costs. I give Nixon credit when it comes to China, but he "wagged the dog" when it came to SE Asia. Eisenhower disengaged us from the world after Korea. The three one term wonder Republicans of the 20s made damn sure that America had no contact with the rest of the world, and probably hoped to cut through the Earth so the US wouldn't have to touch Canada or Mexico, caused a depression by allowing their conservative banking buddies run amuck, and stripped down our military so when the build up was required, Pearl Harbor was possible. George Bush only got involved in the Gulf War because of oil, it wasn't a fight for freedom and deomcracy. He refused to get involved in Yugoslavia calling it an isolated incident. His son, born of privelage, has never had any desire to leave the country, much less Texas. I would've killed my own parents for a trip to Europe in college, and know many friends who starved themselves so they could go on such a trip, here's a man with the means, but probably couldn't find it on a map. W was so reactionary to the previous adminstration that he withdrew from the Middle East Peace process that had been going on for my entire llife. We can look where that has gotten us today. He didn't take serious the threats that the Clinton Intelligence took very serious (and quiet). Jimmy Carter was right; American mailaise will harm us more than anything. Our ignorance of our foriegn policy, gluttony, and overall greed brought down two great land marks, killed thousands, and now have us involved in something we should've been involved in but shouldn't have ever known about. If the conservative view of isolationism doesn't work, then there's plan B, blow them up.
LIE FIVE: Conservatives are believe in the Christian nation of the United States.
Besides the first amendment standing in their way, what they mean, is that anyone who does not accept the Bible as the literal word of God, who is not White, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant, is not praying to the same God as they do. I have a news flash, most of the Founding Fathers didn't go to chruch. They were Diests; they believed in a Creator in the line of a watch maker. They didn't believe in Jesus. The Universe/Earth was made and then God went away. He'll come back when there's a problem to attend to just like a watchmaker when a watch is brought to him for repairs. Just remember, if you're Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, athiest, Buddhist, Hindu, etc you aren't protected by the "Conservative God of America". Ask any Jewish Rabbi if the stories of Genesis are literal words of God or just a myth that explains the goodness/divine/special aspects of creation. The Bible, or at least the Torrah, was Jewish long before it was Christian. Also, as a Catholic, I believe God is very forgiving and understanding. I don't see him favoring one group of people over the other. If God does, than he'd be human, and not God. It is only human arrogance that one says God is on our side (no matter who says it). The human mind is very limited in understanding, God is infinite. These conservative presumptions are nothing more than fear and hate made into rhetoric and policy.
There are many other issues I would like to explore: lawyers, abortion, military use, globalism etc. Unfortunately, the stronger I would build my as to why Conservative views and agendas hurt us, the more people would not be able to accept truth. Conservatisms greatest legacy is that when presented with evidence that overwhelms you, attack the messenger. After all, make a big enough noise and no one will notice the actual problems, but then again that is the greatest truth of Conservatives.