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Recently Human Events ran a story where they polled conservatives on what were their top ten issues. Here they are again but with some thoughts about each.

1. Illegal immigration — 86%

This one is hot right now and for good reasons. Like most real conservatives I believe the current drive by legislation is really scary. First off they are not illegal immigrants. That is like saying jumbo shrimp. Real immigrants work hard to come here and become citizens.Where I differ with most conservatives is on building a fence. I spent time working on The Fence many years ago and saw it was a joke. It is to easy to dig a hole along hundreds of miles of fence. If we want to stop Illegal immigration we need to allow law enforcement to forward cases to the INS, where presumably people who are here illegally are deported. Unfortunately in many cases law enforcement officers are instructed to not ask if a person is illegal. Why? What do we have to lose? If some one asks me do I have weapons in my suit case I do not take it as an assault on my human rights. Same should go with the questions to determine if a person is a citizen of this country and not a terrorist from another.

2. War on terrorism — 80%

I support John Ashcroft’s approach. If you spit on the side walk we will be looking at you closer to see if you are a terrorist. If it is obvious you are not an asset to the United States say good bye. Again I have nothing to hide. If I get pulled over for speeding and you want to run my records knock yourself out. If we had done that with some of the 9/11 suspects all of us would not remember the date September 11th for anything tragic.

3. Federal spending – 65%

Say no to drugs, say no to pork and taxes. I can not understand why Bush signed off on so much spending. At times I think he has only one issue that makes him look like an Uber Conservative and that is his willingness to not hide in the face of war. But his record otherwise is dismal.One program that sounded good to many Christians was the Faith Based Initiatives. The more I have thought about it the more I disagree with it. First I do agree with Government not dictating religion, even Christianity. But more importantly every time we take money from the people and distribute to others we are robbing the churches of one of the purposes it has to help those in need. Redistribution of hard earned money for programs we do not agree should be criminal.

4. Supreme Court and other judicial appointments — 64%

Here is one of Bush’s few successes and it is in a critical area. For many years now the far left has been out of step with voters and unable to push it agenda forward. The exception has been the courts where they have seen success in legislating from the bench. Unfortunately the a good Supreme court can only review so many cases a year and a lot of bad law makes it onto the books from places like the 9th circuit of Appeals here in California.

5. Flat tax/tax cuts — 61%

I like flat taxes. I can not believe how much work there is to complete the paperwork so I can give my money over to the state! What could be more fair. As long as we have politicians that think that taxes revenues are theirs, like Hillary, we will continue to fork over money for the next failed liberal programs. If we used a flat tax and cut the entitlement programs taxes would drop overnight and people would not become suicidal trying to prepare their taxes. See #3.

6. Size of government — 61%

I believe in a small and effective government that has only one role of protecting my family and me. This means a strong defense, police, required infrastructure, an effective justice system, and just laws that do not seek to give new rights to the individual at the expense of the whole nation. Anything else is bloat and likely done to create new constituents.

7. Iraq — 55%

Bush will be know as a one issue president because of the war in Iraq. It is on this issue that I admire his determination to do what he thinks is best. While he does many things that make conservatives cringe I think he does try to make decisions based on what he thinks is best. I supported from day one our going into Iraq with concerns about how easy it would be to bring peace. Now years later I do wonder if we will succeed in bringing democracy to that country. The most convincing thing for me is to hear the soldiers, and I have spoken to many, tell us we are doing the right thing. Thank God we have a generation of people that are willing to serve to better not themselves or even their own country but others as well.Greg, a friend of mine, believes the worst that could happen if we pull out is that the country plunges into civil war that would have little impact on us. The Islamist from both sides would be to busy killing each other to build bombs to kill us.One final thought on the war. While the left wails at the loss of soldiers it forgets that all are volunteers, most support the war, and most are republicans.

8. Social Security — 45%

While I agree with very limited government(see #3) I probably do not have a big issue with social security other then it is a terrible investment for retirement. The problem is that to many people save zero so this is the only system to force some kind of savings. The reality is we are stuck in a system that pays the benefits from the current working class. We better hope there are enough workers when we retire. Privatization has merit as long as we limit the choices for people. Some would rather bet on the dogs then put it away in an S&P 500 index fund.

9. Entitlement programs — 38%

See #3. Cut most of them and let private groups and Churches take it on. Welfare is a miserable way to live and it is passed down from generation to generation.

10. Abortion — 36%

Conservatives should not loose sight of the importance of this one. As was the case with slavery, there thankfully came a time where we were ashamed of what happened. I can only hope the US one day will feel ashamed for the brutal and selfish murder of innocent life.

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