Change to blog name...focus remains the same

I have changed the name of the Blog from "Conservative Issues, Conservative Guy" to "The New Conservative"...

The previous title, I thought, limited the scope of my articles, and/or gave a preconceived notion as to what my thought process was: as a "conservative".

But as I have been continuing my education as a leader, in the Leadership Program of the Rockies, I have determined that labelling myself as THE Conservative Guy discussing Conservative issues was not entirely accurate.

In our last class, we discussed a model of the political field that was split into five categories, shown below with the percentage of Americans who also fit into the categories...

The left to right resembles the apparent location on the political spectrum. The first category is the one in which your belief is that regardless of work in, the output should be the same for everyone (i.e. socialism). Care & Fair represents the fundamental belief that everyone should have the same opportunity, and believes in social progress. Economy voters are pocketbook voters, and will vote on the basis of Jobs, taxes, and the economy first. The Order group are those who will vote on social order first (i.e. immigration, national defense, anti-crime). And the Faith group are those who vote based on faith related issues, and as such, are the very social conservatives.

We were then asked to fit ourselves into one of the categories...

I struggled with my decision, because my stance (politically) is an issues based stance... and as such, I had to select the "Care & Fair" category... Because I care about the issues, as well as the people that the issues effect. But that does not mean that I do not care about issues such as Life and Marriage, that are key to the Faith group... or that Immigration and National Security are not very important to me... or the Economy for that matter... I believe that all these issues are important, and can be handled in a way that is RIGHT, morally not just politically. And that is where the Care and Fair comes into play... doing what is right is to do what is not easily defined, sometimes...

As such, I began to think about the shifting political field, from the SOCON and FICON stances, into the Care and Fair group... I believe that there are those of us who fully embraced George W. Bush's "Compassionate Conservative" stance... And the compassionate conservative is one who doesn't fit easily into one of the above categories, but spans the spectrum of the four on the right... We are complicated, motivated, and changing the way the political game is being played.

I am a New Conservative... Compassionate yet Logical... Caring and able to Reason past Emotion. And I am looking for answers to the problems of the world, in a way that heals this nation's divide. I believe in personal responsibility and moral obligation... obligation to ourselves, our fellow man, and our planet... But obligation that is not to be forced by government, rather led by Divinity, and free will. I believe that government is not the answer to our problems, rather the source... and the only solution is the moral high-ground...

I say, "Let's do what is RIGHT... let's think vertically"... and that makes me a New Conservative.