Conservatives Without Conscience

Conservatives Without Conscience	Conservatives With Conscience
They have a high authoritarian personality with a host of negative traits.	They have a low authoritarian personality with few negative traits.
They pretend to honor the past while often drawing on its worst.	They draw on the wisdom of the past and not the worst.
Order and safety always trump freedom when government needs to balance them.	Freedom always trumps order and safety when government needs to weight them.
A “unitary executive” branch operates under the president, who has virtually exclusive and unlimited powers in foreign affairs as commander-in-chief.	They insist that the separation of powers in government be maintained, along with checks and balances in all areas.
If conservatives control Congress they run it their way and exclude others from having a say.	They believe Congress must be a deliberative body free from tyranny of the majority.
Federal courts should be staffed by judges who think and act like good conservatives, and if they do not, Congress should take jurisdiction away from lower courts, which it controls.	They oppose packing federal courts with ideologues and interfering with judicial independence.
Because most of the public does not really understand politics, elites must run the government, and equality goes to those who earn it.	They oppose elitism and encourage equality for all.
Government secrecy is necessary in an age of terror, and transparency makes it difficult to run the government.	They reject government secrecy and seek as much transparency as possible.
Terrorism has created an indefinite war, and, as Winston Churchill said, “In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies.”	They believe honesty is not merely the best policy, it is the only policy. And terrorism must be viewed realistically.
America was founded on Judeo-Christian principles, the Bible is an indisputable guide for government, and there is nothing in the Constitution creating a “wall of separation” between church and state.	Religious dogma is personal and private, and the Bible is not a basis for government policy; separation of church and state is essential in our pluralistic society.
Big government is here to stay, deficits do not matter, and if liberal social programs can be choked by cutting taxes, that is even better.	The national government should be limited, and should be fiscally responsible.
Voters who are kept anxious by fears of terrorism will become or remain conservatives and keep Republicans in power; it is time—and smart politics—to go back to a Department of War to deal with terrorists.	The politics of fear have no place in a democracy. A strong defense is the best offense, and the military-industrial complex should not control the Department of Defense.
So long as America remains the strongest nation, it can control the world and maintain peace by preemptively going to war to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.	America cannot police the world unilaterally and needs the good will and cooperation of other nations to prevent the spread of terrorism and WMD.
Tough times demand tough talk, and it is an unfortunate reality that mudslinging works in politics.	Civility is a sign of strength not weakness, and democracy cannot survive without it.