Eagle Forum

This past Thursday and Friday, I learned that liberals 1) are destroying America; 2) hate marriage -- except between 2 men; and 3) are "exquisitely selfish." I also learned that "I'm not a scientist, but..." qualifies anyone with a microphone and a business suit to offer their opinion on global warming.

After the Conservative love-fest of Wednesday, when my boss set up a meeting with smorgasbord of organizations and Congresspeople, I had pretty much figured out that I'm not a Republican. But I had more lessons to learn on the front: the next two days, I attended the Eagle Forum annual collegian conference. It meant another bout of Congresspeople and conservative leaders, and this time instead of smiling and shaking hands with them as they walked in, I had to listen politely as they spoke.

Phyllis Schlafly ran the whole thing, since Eagle Forum is her brainchild. Among many contributions to the "conservative movement," she gave the impression of having single-handedly killed the Equal Rights Amendment. While I am leery of the implications of the ERA for abortion and enjoy the privilege of being undraftable, I do not understand why she considers it as evil as Democrats. Much as I disagreed with her political philosophy and her scorn for political, scientific, and philosophical facts to which I subscribe, I admired her energy, vivacity, and dedication to her beliefs. I hope to be that intense when I am her age.

Day One, she brought in mostly politicians: Michele Bachmann from Minnesota, Steve King from Iowa, Jason Chaffetz from Utah, Jim DeMint from South Carolina, and Tom Price from Georgia before my migraine sent me home. I enjoyed the personal stories and anecdotes from most of the politicians, but the alarmist rhetoric overshone the reasonable points they made about the shortcomings of the current administration. I am perfectly willing to believe that Cap and Trade will have a negative effect on our economy if you give me details as to why; I'm less willing to believe it if you tell me that if CO2 in the atmosphere causes the planet to heat, we will have more rain equally distributed across the planet to allow desert regions to bloom.

Tom Price impressed me the most and I don't think it's simply because I had a migraine and didn't listen as closely as I would have liked. Not only did he offer hard numbers to back up his anecdotes about the negative impact of government health care, but he offered an alternative. I need to learn more about both the current plan and his proposed patient-owned, tax incentive-based system before I judge if it is a good alternative, but at least he had a suggestion.

We also discussed the liberal agenda of higher education and the differences between conservatism and libertarianism, but those shall be separate topics for separate posts.