Jefferson Conservatives – we embrace:
- We embrace Jefferson’s view that ‘Not every difference of opinion is a difference of principle.’ Whether you are conservative or not, you are welcome among us and we would hope that you welcome us among you. We do not value opinion as much as we do reasoned argument; if you are going to take a position based upon some premise then footnotes are welcome as to ‘why’ you believe something. Faith in ideas without facts has little place in a world where the lives and fortunes of a people are at stake.
- Tell us what you are for, and why we should support that position. Do not bother to tell us only what you are against.
- Concentration of wealth and manipulation of finances by institutions are inherently not to be trusted. We should demand transparency in the flow of money within our government and between our government and its relationship with financial institutions.
- Political parties are bad for America. They serve a purpose and the grouping of people into parties is a natural human tendency, but political parties probably do more harm than good. We prefer non-partisan elections and elected officials that represent us based upon their ideals and allegiance to those ideals rather than their allegiance to a corrupting party-line groupthink and actions that represent little more than an attempt to preserve political party power.
- Good government comes from transparency of process and a focus on issues, not on personalities. We may never be able to restrain the flow of special interest money that often represents the real power behind candidates and issue advocacy. Yet we can demand transparency as to the source and the kinds of behind-the-scenes methods used to influence us.
- We respect property rights and the call for minimum taxation. Taxes should be fair and equitable. Equitable does not necessarily mean that we all pay exactly the same. Equitable means that we each pay a fair share. We recognize the axiom that ‘to whom much is given of him much is expected’.
- We seek a balanced budget amendment with a line item veto authority given to the president. The line item veto should be overrideable only by a two-thirds majority congressional vote.
- We seek faithfulness to the U.S. Constitution knowing that it is more than a guideline. The U.S. Constitution represents a social and political contract that unites us even where and when we are of different opinion. By safeguarding the rights of all Americans, especially those with whom we disagree, then we are safeguarding our own rights and those rights of generations to come. Fortunately, our nation’s founders recognized that they may have ‘missed’ a thing or two. That is what Article V of the U.S. Constitution is all about.
- In all else we seek open and honest debate among America’s citizenry. Rather than keeping an ideological scorecard we resolve to identify promises made to the American people by our elected leaders and to track how well they have kept their word. Forever may the red, white and blue wave over a people free to decide its own destiny — a destiny perhaps different than we would choose, but a destiny chosen nonetheless by ‘we the people’ which must be forever our overriding objective.