Queston D3: A Conservative Wake-Up Call

Here is a link to an article that I read recently, and it talks about a poll question known as "Question D3." The question asks voters if they consider themselves to be conservative, somewhat conservative, moderate, somewhat liberal, or liberal. In August 2008, 20% of Americans considered themselves to be very conservative; 40% considered themselves to be somewhat conservative; 2% considered themselves to be moderate; 27% considered themselves to be somewhat liberal; 9% considered themselves to be very liberal; and 3% did not know or refused to answer.

Look at those numbers! A staggering 60% of Americans call themselves either conservative or somewhat conservative! Only 36% of people fell into the liberal category. These numbers have remained consistent in 13 separate polls taken since 2002. Yes, even when Bush's approval ratings went from some of the highest ever to some of the lowest ever, these poll numbers remained constant.

So what has happened to us? If such a large percentage of Americans are conservative, why aren't we winning elections by a landslide? Since polls show that 92% of American's believe in God, why is the idea of removing the words "One Nation Under God" from the Pledge even mentioned? Since 87% of Americans say nativity scenes should be allowed on public property, why are they constantly removed? Since 96% of Americans celebrate Christmas (and 62% celebrate Christmas specifically as the birth of Christ), why do our schools call the break in December "Winter Holiday"?

There could be many answers to these questions. Voter fraud, activist judges, pressure and bias by the media, etc. However, I think the biggest reason is that we don't think we can win, and so we refuse to try. As stated in the article, "Hollywood regularly excoriates the image of conservatives; the mainstream media demonizes conservatives; schools teach that conservatives are narrow minded bigots; academia tries to hound independent conservative newspapers and organizations off campus. It requires much more courage to define yourself as a conservative than any other label, particularly when the banal 'moderate' answer is so easily grasped."

I remember taking a conservative, Christian position in a class discussion in high school, and I really got hammered for it by the liberals in my class. I felt belittled and alone, but I stuck to my guns. Then after I got blasted, the class ended, and several people came up to me and said, "Hey, I'm glad you said that. I agree with you." So NOW they speak up?!?!? But in the classroom - in the public forum - they said nothing.

We have become afraid to be who we are. Afraid to speak up, to be called a racist or a bigot or a Bible-thumper or a homophobe or one of the zillions of stupid labels liberals place on conservatives. We have to stop being afraid. According to the polls I mentioned, conservatives are NOT a dying race. We are the majority! It's high time we stopped listening to what Hollywood and the media says about us. It's high time we stopped letting the little things slide. It's high time we took back this nation of ours. But we must not be afraid to speak up. We must not be afraid to fight.