They Tell Me I’m Nuts
That’s My Opinion
By Bob Robinson 

This was originally written in 2003 and is a chapter from my book, God Don’t Make Junk, from Ramblings of an Old Man. While parties in power may change, the ideologies between the left and the right don’t. If anything, the divide between these two forces have intensified… 

Three California professors, plus one in Maryland, conducted an exhaustive study – at taxpayer expense – and have now published their results. 

Conservatives are nuts. 

The American Psychological Association published the study, which our researchers said involved culling through “50 years of literature about the psychology of conservatism.” Following this exhaustive research, they concluded that conservatives suffer from some disease or malady. They didn’t identify it, however. 

Many of their conclusions are sheer lunacy, like lumping Ronald Reagan and Rush Limbaugh with Hitler and Mussolini. 

Other observations, however, were typical areas conservatives and liberals often debate. Since we don’t agree with them, we evidently must be sick. Among our symptoms are uncertainty avoidance, the need for cognitive closure, terror management, a resistance to change and a tolerance for inequality. 

Will everyone who enjoys uncertainty and terror and doesn’t give a damn about closure please raise your hands right now? 

Then there’s a tolerance for inequality. I beg your pardon. I have no tolerance for forced inequality and I’m about as conservative as you can get. Inequality under the law – women’s suffrage, emancipation, etc. – was changed. And rightly so. 

Once a law is enacted it must be obeyed. If it isn’t obeyed, the perps must be prosecuted. Simple. 

Are there still social inequities to be addressed? Sure. But social inequity simply isn’t government’s role. Creating and enforcing reasonable laws is government’s role, not redistribution of wealth or social engineering. 

Then there’s resistance to change. Damn straight! I resist change for change’s sake, I refuse to fix something that ain’t broke, and I am constantly horrified over the damage done by the best intentions of our liberal friends… If something really does need fixing – like public apathy – pardon me if I don’t believe government is the answer. 

Off the top of my head, I can think of two major disasters for which I hold liberalism responsible. 

First, there’s education. Liberals bridle under the phrases “new math,” “whole English,” “fuzzy math”… Why? Because they are liberal failures. Then there’s the “feel good” approach that wouldn’t allow us to flunk students because it would hurt their self-esteem. And don’t forget “dumbing down” SAT scores so more kids could pass. Then there are the bilingual courses we’ve been teaching for decades because it was unfair to make immigrants learn the language of their new country. And, of course, we have to overrule traditional parental roles by teaching tolerance to every life-style in the world, except that of Judeo-Christian ethics. 

After 911, many of the same universities and secondary schools that refused even to acknowledge Christian ethics as a standard or way of life, began offering – and in some cases requiring – course studies in the Koran. 

Many of the same state regulations that allow teaching evolution and the “big bang” theory prohibit the teaching of creationism or the possibility that the two might even be compatible. 

Many of today’s universities teach our children that Abraham Lincoln was a racist. Our elementary school children come home wondering why we are destroying our environment and asking if they are going to die when global warming turns our world into a fireball or the oceans and lakes submerge our cities. 

And while our kids understand we are simply a cog in the “global village” and have been taught how to use a condom, they often can’t read or write. 

A constitutional authority and libertarian columnist, Vin Suprynowicz, put it into perspective when he said: 

“By 1940 the literacy figure for all states stood at 96 percent for whites. Eighty percent for blacks… Six decades later, at the end of the 20th century, the National Adult Literacy Survey and the National Assessment of Educational Progress say 40 percent of blacks and 17 percent of whites can’t read at all.” 

In other words, white illiteracy more than quadrupled (4 percent to 17 percent) and black illiteracy doubled (20 percent to 40 percent), despite the fact that we spend from three to four times as much (real) money as we spent 60 years ago. 

That’s progress, folks. 

The other destructive force for which I hold liberalism responsible is the systematic removal of God from our nation. 

Amendment I to the Bill of Rights says, in part, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” 

Our forefathers were against the establishment of a national religion, such as the Church of England. But they would also be horrified to learn of the extent to which we have banned it in the country that they sacrificed everything to establish. 

We do not require others to worship God. But God is part of our national heritage and I find it unconscionable that we have allowed His removal from our public life and institutions. 

The following quotes were supplied by a reader. I haven’t verified them for historical accuracy, but these are the concepts I remember studying when I was in school. I believe the intent can be substantiated. 

In 1821, Pres. John Adams referred to the “indissoluble bond (of) the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.” 

In 1776, Patrick Henry wrote: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great Nation was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For that reason alone, people of other faiths have been afforded freedom of worship here.” 

Thomas Jefferson wrote on the front of his Bible: “I have little doubt that our whole country will soon be rallied to the unity of our Creator.” 

Then, of course, there’s our infamous Declaration of Independence… the one that has those words that we can no longer use in school. God. Creator. 

I mean what were those guys thinking back then? 

According to the liberals, they were part of a time and place that is no longer applicable today. How can anyone watch the growth of a country that has been so blessed by God and then say our thanks to Him is no longer applicable? 

When we say “God Bless America,” I question why He would bother. 

He has been removed from our schools. He has been removed from our public institutions. His commandments – the basis of our judicial system and the ethics of a fledgling nation – are no longer considered appropriate. 

And as God has been removed from our society, our values have correspondingly deteriorated. We give God a back seat in our lives and then ask government to fill the vacuum. It can’t be done. 

I remember debates when I was in college… avowed atheists and deists would talk about not needing God to maintain high human and ethical standards. 

Forty years later, I sadly rest my case. 

The list of complaints I have against liberalism is almost endless. Especially since most liberal programs cost money. 

Case in point. Some poor sap’s taxes paid for a study by a handful of liberals so they could say conservatives are nuts. 

One of our readers said that 100 years ago “our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.” I could add a few more “talking points” but I think you get the drift. 

This, folks, is what liberals have been trying to “fix” for decades. And to accomplish that, they’ve added 54 new taxes that didn’t exist 100 years ago. And damn near broke the bank. 

And I’m the one who is supposed to be nuts? 

That’s my opinion. What’s yours?