Don't confuse being a Conservative with being a Republican.  It drives me nuts when left wing democrats and right wing republicans try to bastardize the term "Conservative".  The purpose of this Blog is to try to formulate the principals that make up a real conservative.

• Conservatives believe in self initiative and that one needs to perform functions that are productive and valuable to society that not only benefit themselves but other Americans as well.  It's called work.    

• The more one's self initiative benefits society, the more monetary wealth that individual should be able to achieve. 

• Conservatives believe in a competitive America, where the playing field is equal for all citizens and corporations is fair.  (Corporations using lobbyists to tilt the competitive field in their favor is not conservative.)

• Conservatives believe that Americans are the keeper of their environment.  (Trashing the environment e.g. pollution, based on the bible, doesn't appear to be very conservative. 

• Consevativism does not equal  "greed".  When hedge funds skim the financial system for  billions of dollars in bonuses, this is not Consevativism, this is just greed.  BTW, many of the big bonus hedge fund operators are registered democrat.

• Conservatives believe in financial responsibility, both personally and by government.  I am a huge believer in PAYGO, again both personally and by government.  As such, I believe one's personal financial goal should be to reduce debt.  Governmentally, no spending should be passed without a way to pay for it.  For example, the US is spending over $200 billion a year attempting the stabilize the Middle East, primarily to ensure a future supply of petroleum oil for the world.  The last republican administration had no plan on how to pay for this intervention.  Since the objective is to provide future energy supply, why not increase the excise tax on transportation fuels in the US to pay for the war. 

• Conservative means living by your values, not forcing your own outspoken values on others, especially when you have difficulty living by your own values.  There are numerous examples of religious leaders and politicians espousing family values and then acting in an inconsistent manner.

• Conservatives believe in the separation of church and state as written in the First Amendment to the US Constitution. 

True conservatives believe in a free market, free from unnecessary and restrictive government regulation and free from market manipulation by corporations.