Bill Beardsley: I Believe

There is a rising tide for conservatives. Read More...

Tue, 02/09/2010 - 7:21pm
Beardsley for Governor

I BELIEVE

There is a rising tide for conservatives. We witnessed it in the recent successful campaigns in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts. The Republican candidates in these formerly Democratic strongholds ran hard on the economy, they ceded no ground to liberal opponents, they were intelligent, experienced, articulate and they campaigned hard. They built their platforms on foundations of solid fiscal and social conservative values, and those foundations stood the test.

Recent polls suggest that Maine people are basically a conservative lot. The results of the Question One referendum last November certainly stands as evidence that Mainers hold onto traditional values, much the same as the rest of America has. These traditional values, when combined with competence, can win elections in 2010.

Conservatives rightly focus on the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, the right to bear arms and our core American values because we believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, our faith, family and community. Furthermore, we need not cede the higher ground on the conservation of our natural resources, an issue that recently has been owned by liberals. Conservatives need not cede ground on the promotion of excellence in public education, on finding ways to provide clean, lower-cost energy and electricity for our homes, industry and transportation.

I believe in a free market economy, in providing opportunities, not guarantees. I believe in extending compassion toward others, a compassion that begins in our homes, churches and towns, not institutionalized and dictated from on high. All these characteristics are inherent in true conservatism. Not only is this right, but it also provides us with a basis for a winning strategy.

Conservatives do not pick and choose which right in the Bill of Rights to honor. They are all of equal importance. We start with the premise that freedom begins with the individual and should only be limited by government reluctantly and with the greatest care. To be conservative in my book means that you start by protecting that which you have which is good, such as traditional marriage and life, and build everything else around the protection of those good things.

I believe the right to bear arms should be viewed as the way the Founding Fathers intended individual rights would be secured. I believe in the sanctity of life, be it the life of an aging loved one facing grave illness, a convicted criminal, a troubled young person contemplating suicide, or an unborn child. I believe life to be a sanctity that is ceded only when one’s own life or liberty is directly threatened. I believe this nation was built on the right to own property, a right that government lately seems all too eager to regulate away.

These are values that a majority of Mainers live by. That is why I believe that Maine can ride the rising conservative tide in 2010.

Bill with two of his grandchildren
www.billbeardsley.com
Paid for by Bill Beardsley for Governor Committee - Glenn Goodwin, Treasurer