Hello and welcome

Contrary to what many people think, not all conservatives are racist homophobes who clean their guns while having the Bible read aloud by one of their militia buddies. The vast majority are reasonable folks. We believe that anyone that wants to get married should be able to, that those that genuinely need help should get it, that government is too big ,too wasteful, and too out of touch, and that there’s plenty of room for everybody and their opinions.

We used to be called the Silent Majority and silent we still are but for different reasons. If we express ourselves at work, we could jeopardize our jobs or lose customers. If we express what we think at parties we run the risk of losing friends. If we express ourselves at a public forum we will be automatically branded as reactionary, extremist, racist, homophobic, fundamentalist, redneck, dim-witted, Nazi … You get the picture.  The best we can hope for if we say what we genuinely believe is that we will be dismissed as a nut case. We have placed ourselves under a voluntary gag order. I have to put up with op-ed pieces and Facebook posts on a daily basis that attack me and my beliefs but I dare not respond.

Given choice, I would gladly put my name and picture on this blog (hopefully I can in the not too distant future) but given the intolerance of conservatism that dominates discourse these days, I must, for the time being, remain anonymous. That doesn’t mean that I must remain silent.

Conservatives like me run into other dilemmas that plague us daily. We do not suffer fools easily. We chafe at hypocrisy. Importantly, we don’t care which party offends.   We wish Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck would shut up right along with Jon Stewart and Bill Maher.  We think the extreme religious left is just as whacked out as the extreme religious right.

This isn’t to say that we’re middle-of-the-roaders or fence-sitters. Our conservative values and beliefs are intact and fully operational.  We just don’t ascribe to the absolutes with which so many non-conservatives would saddle us. 

Which brings me to this blog. When Rush Limbaugh first started out (before he went off the deep end) his popularity soared because he said what the majority of conservatives wanted say but couldn’t. His comments rang with forethought and common sense. Then he discovered that there was more market share in expressing extremist views because liberals would tune in to get fodder for their right-wing extremist diatribes, ”See, this is what conservatives think!”

Only it’s not. Conservatives are laughing at Limbaugh as well, not because he’s a right-wing wacko but because liberals actually believe what he’s saying.  It’s a bittersweet joke and liberals don’t get the punch line. Unfortunately the punch line is delivered at the expense of those of us, most of us, who carry a more moderate view of what it means to be conservative.

My intent is to pick up where Limbaugh started. There is no voice for the average conservative in the media. The media has no market for it. Conservatives with reasonable views don’t sell ads on the five o’clock news. We have been painted by Liberals and the media as the “ party of no” and reactionary nut jobs waving flags at pro-life rallies. Hopefully one small voice in the wilderness can help change that. Welcome to The Unknown Conservative.