NOTE: This document is not meant to be all encompassing, just an overview. Thoughts and positions expressed herein, while expressed in plural, are my own.

Introduction

In light of our recent election defeat, we the Conservatives of America understand and recognize that if we want to regain the White House and see another Republican President, it will be vital to develop a message and approach across a wide swath of policy areas in order to better connect with voters. It is our belief that there can be a such thing as a conservative approach to politics which seeks to be as inclusive and appealing as possible while at the same maintaining the key tenets of conservative philosophy.

With that in mind, we offer the following blueprint for a new conservative approach to politics in the United States of America.

Traditions and Values

We believe America is a nation built upon the bedrock of a series traditions and values that just as vital to our country today as they were over 2000 years ago.

Bearing that in mind, we hereby affirm the following statements regarding American traditions:

The word ‘American’ is NOT gender, race or religion exclusive. We believe it is important to recognize that America is a diverse nation and that diversity is, in a majority of circumstances a positive, not a negative.

We support the Democratic system of government as crafted and set into law by the Founders of this nation. We believe every person regardless of race, religion, background or any other factor should and does have an inalienable right to be part of this process in a variety of ways including voting, political activism, political fund raising and seeking political office.

We believe the family plays a vital role in the building of a strong and prosperous society. While we do understand family comes in all different shapes, sizes and forms we believe that a stable loving home is the single most critical component of raising strong children who will most benefit society in the future.

We fully support the rights and freedoms enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. To that end, we do hereby affirm the following statements regarding constitutional laws:

A. We support and vow to defend the First amendment of the U.S. constitution and believe that freedom of speech is one of the pillars upon which every great nation should be built.

B. We support the 2nd amendment rights of U.S. citizens to legally purchase, own and safely use firearms for a variety of uses including target shooting, hunting and protection/defense. We do however, support laws which seek to keep firearms out of the hands of dangerous criminals, mentally unstable people and other individuals who could easily become a danger to themselves or others if given easy access to a weapon.

C. We strongly support and will defend the Fourth and Fifth amendments and will work vigorously to ensure the right of Americans to NOT be subject to illegal search and seizure as well as NOT subject themselves to self incrimination will be protected.

D. We believe the Tenth amendment, granting the states those powers not given to the Federal government in the Constitution is very important. While it can and has been used for certain questionable laws and legislation over the years we commit to developing and providing to anyone who wants to examine them a basic list and explanation of what, in our view, should and shouldn’t be covered under this amendment.

We accept and understand that our opinions may differ from those of the judiciary with regards to this item.

Religion

In line with our above indicated support of the First Amendment we believe all Americans should have the right to practice their religion peacefully in their own homes and in public areas so long as that practice does not violate other established laws.

Though Christianity is the major religion in the U.S., we understand that it is not the ONLY religion in the U.S. We also support and defend the notion of separation of church and state. While we feel that both these institutions can be key to the building and maintaining of a strong nation, we also fee it is inappropriate for them to become too closely entertained.

We believe, as did the writers of the Constitution, that while religion most definitely has a place in the American fabric, its role and influence in politics needs to be limited in scope.

Immigration

We believe immigration is another bedrock upon which America is built. Save for the Native peoples, everyone in this country either is or is descended from an immigrant who came to America in search of a better and more prosperous life. We will not seek to ban all immigration to the United States nor deport all immigrants. We will however abide by the following three directives with regards to this issue:

A. A comprehensive plan must be developed to create a strategy for dealing with the many undocumented immigrants that are already within our borders. While we do not believe in a full path to citizenship, we do support a path to legal residency for many these individuals. We also believe any residency path must also carry with it a penalty of some nature that is to be carried out before residency can be obtained. The reason for this is that we believe undocumented immigrants must pay a price for their violation of U.S. law.

We believe there should be a range of penalties, to allow for wildly varying circumstances of how and why these immigrants came to America.

B. A second comprehensive plan must be developed to address border security, with the goal of tightening security at the border, providing adequate resources to those who defend it and encouraging cross communication and synchronization of immigration enforcement efforts by those agencies involved in such issues. This list includes, but is not limited to: The FBI, The CIA, The Department of Homeland Security, State National Guard officers, County sheriffs/police and other municipal law agencies.

C. Immigration policies should be overhauled and simplified. This would include elimination (or unification) of some visa types, tighter limitations of certain visa types and shortened wait times/application requirements for certain visas.

Importance of Life

We believe in the sanctity of life and are committed to developing an all encompassing approach to provide adequate resources to not only unborn children and their mothers but also to these same children and parents after birth. We believe it is inappropriate and counterproductive to offer aid during pregnancy but then either scale it back or remove it completely upon birth.

We accept the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion and understand that until such time that decision is overturns, no anti-abortion legislation will be enacted that will pass constitutional review. We do commit to ensuring that any abortion restricting legislation that is passed will include exceptions for rape, incest and life of mother.

Health Care

We believe that private industry can play a vital role in providing health care. We also believe the government can do the same. We also believe hover that both of these entities are only effective within certain arenas and that it’s important to craft an approach that utilizes the strength and weaknesses of each player.

We believe everyone in America, regardless of medical insurance, has the right to an annual physical (including basic labs) at no cost to them and we pledge to pursue fiscal and economic policies that will not make implementation of such a goal cost prohibitive.

Fiscal/Economic

We believe in cutting wasteful spending and putting into a place fiscal policies to encourage economic growth and keep the U.S. government stable. While we agree that taxation is a necessary evil, we do not believe it should overused, abused or otherwise enacted.

We believe austerity measures are NOT the best approach to dealing with our national debt. Rather, we propose a three step strategy to deal with it:

1. Eliminate wasteful/unnecessary spending. This will be done following a review and study by a non partisan agency to identify those areas where spending could be either cut back or eliminated.

2. Ensuring that those areas where the government spends a great deal of its money (social security, medicare) are administrated in such as way to minimize waste and keep costs as low as possible while maintaining the quality of those programs.

3. An overhaul of the Federal Tax Code and associated laws to provide for a simpler, fairer and better functioning system by which income taxes are levied, collected and policed.

Free Market/Regulations

We believe in capitalism. We strive to allow hard working Americans to keep as much of their money as possible. We also support markets that are as free as possible, allowing for only the minimum amount of necessary regulations to safeguard the lives of American citizens.

We believe small business is the engine which drives America and though we do desire to keep major corporations strong, we pledge to strongly support small businesses and develop economic legislation to allow these businesses to continue driving immigration.

Military

We believe in a strong military, we do not believe in a bloated military. We believe in strong military spending, we do not believe in out of control military spending. We believe a well equipped, well staffed, well manned and efficiently run military is the key to both preserving American sovereignty and protecting our citizens and interests around the globe.

We agree that terrorists, militias and religious radicals pose a constant threat to the well being and national security of the United States and it is vital to have in place a system that can respond and eliminate said threats as quickly as possible with only the minimum amount of human loss and collateral damage. We understand however, that situations can change minute by minute and sometimes a hasty decision is the only one that can be made. Therefore, we realize the above desire to limit damage will not always be possible to fulfill.

Foreign Policy

We support and stand with Israel and believe the relationship between our two nations is extremely vital.

We support foreign relations measures which focus on diplomacy before force and believe that, in many instances, dialogue is the best way to resolve an issue. When dialogue fails we shall be prepared to respond with punitive measures up to an including military intervention. We pledge that any punitive measures will be carefully considered and analyzed prior to implementation.

Environment

We support the notion climate change is real. Scientific data shows the climate of our planet has been changing constantly for generations. We believe endless debates over the source of the change are not productive and that, regardless of cause, there are things that can be done to help preserve our nation and its natural resources for future generations.

Although we do support resources preservation, we also support the rights of individual land and property owners and do not agree with eminent domain and other legislation which seeks to take power out of their hands.

Bipartisanship

We believe that while there are vast ideological differences between those in different political parties, it is important and indeed essential that we find ways to work past these differences and develop legislative compromises so the American people can have an effective, functioning government.