From an email I sent to a friend.

     Pursuant a conversation prior and after reading a brilliant essay by Thomas Sowell, Is the US Now On [the] Slippery Slope To Tyranny?, I want to address and further explain why having principles matter.

     To rehearse briefly, Liberals and Democrats (although a huge overlap among the two sets, not necessarily identical) are agenda based.  They are interested in wanting to reach a goal or a defined state of affairs different from what they consider to be worse than ideal.  Their teleological approach to political discourse makes them proactive.

By contrast, Conservatives (and by extension, non-RINO Republicans) are reactive, hence the label ascribed to the extreme form of Conservatism, 'Reactionary'.  For them, there is no agenda or end goal.  Conservatives follow a set of ideas or core principles which they aim to preserve not the status quo but the ideals that upon which, to be specific, this country the United States were founded.

     Neither being agenda driven or being guided by principles is better or worse than the other; they are just different.  The difference matters when we consider the fundamental ideology against the background realities of the political stage.

An agenda based approach is bad and especially dangerous when the goal of the agenda is against either the wants or the welfare of the citizens.  Personal claim: Obama is spearheading with the help of Democrats and liberal biased (news) media e.g. Jon Stewart of "The Daily Show" and Andrea Mitchell on, as of to date MSNBC, an agenda to create a nation in which the citizens are dependent and beholden to the state or the powers that be i.e. Liberals and Democrats.  'Dependence', by definition, implies against individual liberty.  Liberals/Democrats defend themselves against Conservatives with the argument: 'We know what is in your best interest. We only want to help you.  Those nasty [or insert more vulgar explicative] Conservatives strip away the government programs set-up to help people.  Conservatives do not care about you.'  This is a lie, but repeated so often that it is accepted as fact.  As Hitler demonstrated, no matter how big, a lie told often enough will be accepted as true.

     Conservatives have no agenda.  Their position is 'some things are working well, if we are going to change anything, let's make certain we are not going against the rules with which we have agreed'.  Conservatives, and let us restrict ourselves to the domain of the United States, cannot work against the interests or welfare of the citizens because the first premise is believing that everyone accepts and agrees with the US Constitution and the ancillary laws that come about since e.g. do not rob a bank, do not graffiti.  Liberals and Demoncrats (intentional misspelling)  have behaved in such a way as to demonstrate that they do not accept this fundamental premise and follow an agenda that aims to radically change or eliminate/nullify the US Constitution and other laws.  

     Liberals/Democrats promote the false notion that Conservatives follow principles that work against the interests and welfare of the American citizen.  The only real danger from a Conservative following their principles are those who choose to comprise or abandon the principles.  Principles are not a Chinese menu in which one picks & chooses when to follow or accept what principles at varying times.  Accepting principles is absolute and not subject to conditionals.  The strength of one's character is their resolve to follow their principles even when the decision or actions that must be made as result of the principles are unpopular or undesirable because one trusts and believes that the principles are the Right thing.  Some one who switches political allegiance or abandons their principles indicates either (a) that there was something wrong with the calculus they used or are using to make their choice, in other words, calls into question their rational thinking or (b) they are willing to place their personal [or other’s] interests ahead of their principles[, or (c) they were deceived by a group that purported to share and to follow similar principles].  Either case, any one who vacillates or comprises cannot be trusted because of either their untrustworthy decision-making process or by nature of their dishonest character.

     For mathematicians, it is necessary to accept unconditionally all the axioms of Set Theory.  Set Theory is their core principles.  A mathematician cannot reject, dismiss, or ignore any axiom because some inconvenient situation.  As a mathematician, I am accustom to the  idea of accepting core principles and following them to their logical conclusion.  If I know what is correct and true, then my conclusions, decisions, and any actions thereof are true.  This holds for me both in mathematics and in politics.

Conservatives deal with facts and reach conclusions; liberals have conclusions and sell them as facts.

-- BookwormRoom.com