Conservatism

I tend to disagree with most of the tenants of conservatism but I've always believed that it's healthy to have at least a moderate understanding of ideologies that differ from your own. I understand the basics of what conservatism is about; small government, traditional values, tax cuts, etc. However as I grew up, I found that I'd had many problems with some of those tenants. While I do think that the government should be kept in check and should remain existing for the purpose of serving the public, I think that making it so small to the point that it hardly has any power at all is counterproductive to that purpose. A lot of conservatives tend to over exaggerate what they see as government overreach. They throw around terms like "big brother" and "1984" and I think that is just blowing things way out of proportion. I think that having "traditional values" can be either a good thing, if they are shown in a non hypocritical fashion, or a bad thing if they are used to suppress the differing views of others. Judeo-Christian values have a lot of good ideas but I feel that a lot of people on the right pick and choose which of those values they want to act on, often times for self serving purposes. I think that if you choose to emulate the life of Jesus by serving your fellow man and being a prime example of a good person, then traditional values are a great thing, but if you choose to use those values to, say, restrict the rights of others, than you've lost sight of what's important. I have many conservative colleagues and I always enjoy having a healthy and civil debate. I think that dialogue is important for both parties to gain a greater understanding of each others view point and grow as individuals. I don't look down on those with right leaning views because I know that we all gain our political stances through the experiences we've had in our lives, and I haven't lived their lives. I firmly believe that you shouldn't fear or hate viewpoints that are different from your own. In fact, I believe quite the opposite. I believe that you should have a healthy exposure to ideas that you may disagree with because that exposure will help you to better understand your own beliefs, as well as get a peak into the minds of others. Though I don't often agree with conservatives, I recognize that they have just as much of a right to speak their minds as I do, and I always welcome civil and well intentioned dialogue.