This is why

Slapping this together in a hurry as always, but wanted to say something while everything is still somewhat fresh.

None too pleased with the Republicans right now. People keep wanting me to be a Republican because I am a conservative, yet I keep trying to tell people the Republicans are not really conservative. Well correction; many of the rank and file are, but the leadership at the national level is not. And not only are they not conservatives they continue to prove repeatedly they do not care about our country, our future, or actually what any sane person may think of them.

For example, think about what one of our country’s needs: better education. I hate slamming educators as a whole because many of them are very good. I am talking about the overall concept of education by Republicans in D. C. Shoot you would have thought that the business leaders would have actually stepped up and said do not confirm the appointment of Ms. DeVos. They are always saying we cannot find the people we need or find people who are trained or educated enough for the jobs we have. Yet nope, no lobbying for sanity in our country. And of course, the go along to get along Republican leadership rubber stamped the horrible choice for Secretary of Education.

We need to overhaul the public education system of this country. And as a conservative I believe much of that overhaul needs to come at the local level. I truly do, yet we need to make major changes at the national level to give our local public schools the help they need to be successful.

Instead we confirm a person who has no concept of the problems many school districts face. Our future is how well we educate our youth. Our education needs to be well rounded and do more than teach to standardized tests. Ask any decent educator and they will tell you these tests interfere with real education. We need to improve math and science yet also civics, history, arts, physical education, literature, and most important the ability to communicate well.

Corporate leaders truly know how important it is for new employees to be able to communicate with upper management or across great distances. Email scandals aside, corporations need their managers and workers to be able to express complex thoughts to each other and email is still the major form of communication in corporate America. How many times has someone made a mistake or wrote something that wasn’t clear in an email? How much time and effort was spent trying to clarify the meaning? Sometimes it is cleared up quickly. Sometimes it is days later that the mistake or mis-communication is discovered. Writing well is important. And yet some school districts are graduating students who have what is determined to be 7^th and 8^th grade reading and writing comprehension skills. And the determination of what is 7^th and 8^th grade is based on older models. Quite frankly we are regressing by holding onto the same standards. The levels of measurement must move on an upward gradient scale. We must improve to succeed. Mr. Trump keeps talking about making America great again. His choice for Secretary of Education proves he does not care at all about the future of America at all, much less making it great.

And I prefer to be an independent conservative than to join the charade shoved down the rank and file Republicans who hang onto a misguided hope the National Republican Party has their best interest at heart.  And then there are the Republicans who are so accustomed to being told what is good for them they have no idea how to think critically and so misunderstand the message they are receiving is in sharp contrast to the actions being taken against them. IE the election of Mr. Trump.

So I believe conservatives care about our country, our values, our society, want to share these values with others so they too want to participate and contribute. I believe you can maintain a value system and still transition with the times. A successful business person certainly understands this or they run the risk of going out of business. Conservatives feel strongly about protecting the community and having a say in what is going in in their cities and towns. And this is good.

Holding onto the past is counter-productive to being a great country. The real task of a conservative is to maintain a core value system that protects the overall strength and good of the community and country and still moves forward incorporating changes that can benefit the whole and includes more and more people. The more we grow and share our values the stronger we become. Relying on others to tell us what is right is counter-productive to being a good conservative. Conservatives understand greed, hate, ignorance, self-serving interests or choosing the few over the many are dangerous traits to a Republic like ours. Conservatives strive to find the best people to do the best in any endeavor that is needed. Unfortunately, the National Republican Party has forgotten all this and this is why I cannot be a Republican. Ms. DeVos appointment and confirmation is an ugly and glaring example of this problem.