In defence of conservative ideals

I read David Johnson’s most recent column (“A house divided south of the border,’ Cape Breton Post, Oct. 17) with interest, a modicum of agreement and finally disdain.

Johnson is correct that political discourse here in the United States has fallen to new lows of incivility. But at the end of the piece, he shows his true stripes in the descriptions of what each side supports. The descriptors for conservative positions are virtually all negative while those for the liberal ones are not only positive, they are virtuous. Professor, your bias is on full display, including using uber-liberal Thomas Friedman as a reference source.

Except for a three-year return to Cape Breton a few years ago, I have lived in the U.S. since 1986 - New York first and then Los Angeles. Since 1992, I have been a dual citizen. My politics are conservative. I am a registered Republican. There, that’s declared upfront, unlike David Johnson.

Dr. Johnson has described the symptoms of this political discourse disease, not its causes. Unlike his thinly veiled allegations, conservatives are not evil people who want to deny women’s rights (on many levels), keep out all immigrants (just the ones trying to sneak in, especially the criminal elements), appoint Draconian justices or return us to the bad old days of Jim Crow.

Fundamentally, conservatives simply want less government intervention in our daily lives. Where government is necessary, we want the focus to start locally and move to a state or federal level only when absolutely necessary. Given a set of rules, we believe the individual has the capacity to manage his/her own life. Liberals seem to prefer a constant and controlling government presence in their lives. Liberalism assumes that an elite class of bureaucrats is required to micromanage the lives of the great mass of, how did Hillary put it?, oh yes, Deplorables.

The polarization and poisoning of political discourse didn’t start with President Donald Trump. One has only to look to the Obama administration to see an escalation of vitriol, name-calling, vilification and opacity.

If Dr. Johnson would like to raise the level of civility in our discourse, he may want to start by being less blatantly biased in his descriptions of the principal philosophies.

Bruce F. Evans

Los Angeles

(Former resident of Cape Breton and Halifax)