Tag: philosophy

What Do Conservatives Stand For

(Letter to Baltimore Sun editors -8/25/2026)

I am uncertain how many of The Sun’s readers have a strong sense of what those with a conservative political view, largely Republican, hold dearest in terms of our values.  Whether Republican, Democrat, Independent or “other”, our political views as citizens and voters can vary widely.  This is in part the genius of the American political system often described as a constitutional federal republic with strong democratic traditions, built on a deliberate balance of power, competition, and tension.  Given this framing, how can we share with Democrats, Independents and others the conservative principals most Republicans could logically agree on.

Jay Richards, PhD of the Heritage Foundation, “identifies 15 principles, arranged logically from the deepest foundations upward: moral realism and the natural law, God as the source of moral order, and human equality and dignity; then inalienable rights, government by consent, and the reality of human fallenness; and finally ordered liberty, the rule of law, limited government, religious liberty, the pre-political family, virtue, free enterprise, national defense, and patriotic citizenship.”

Some of these notions are a bit esoteric, like moral realism and natural law (ask AI and you’ll easily grasp the authors point), but I believe most of the principals mentioned are easily understood and align perfectly with the intentions of our founding fathers.  Included in these principles are the need to address human frailty, dignity and equality.  Harsh things are often said about conservative-leaning citizens.  We believe you can have a heart, and a head.  Doing good must be balanced with good fiscal governance.  Other notions like peace through strength and the Constitution as the supreme law of the land have served this nation well. Defending these notions and principles has a treasured human cost, freedom is not free.

The American system has produced the greatest standard of living in the human experience for hundreds of millions of people for hundreds of years.  Based upon a democratic capitalistic free-enterprise system envisioned by the genius of our founding fathers. 

Recent Letters to Baltimore Sun Editor

Subject: Socialism

Those who are too young to remember or are uneducated in the roots of socialism must be taught that the abbreviation NAZI represents the Nation Socialist German Workers Party.  The German nation in the 1920s and 1930s was suffering under the harsh reparations they earned at end of WWI.  Very tough economic times led the German people to increasingly support the hopes that socialism would lead them to prosperity.  Once the socialists gained absolute political power the nation fell into a state ruled by fascists characterized by an authoritarian, ultranationalist regime that violently opposed dissent and that blamed all of its troubles on Jews.  That unrestrained antisemitism resulted in the holocaust and the death of six million Jewish people.

Those in this country who believe that history cannot repeat itself here are disillusioned by the same beliefs that democratic socialism will not lead to a similar result.  Many nations with a quasi-socialist system, like France as an example, find frequent riots in the streets as those fooled by the socialist promises find themselves angered by a system that has failed common workers with inadequate pay, pensions and a national health care system that is characterized by low-quality care including very long waits for services.  All while high income earners can afford a shadow private health care system that provides higher order care.  Those at the top of a socialistic system do not suffer.

Our system is imperfect.  But our standard of living remains far superior to those offered by socialistic systems elsewhere.  We must reject the charlatans touting socialism as the better system.  Once they achieve absolute power, the same story told in Germany would be our likely future.

Curt Rasmussen 

Taneytown MD

Republican Representation in Maryland

There has been much talk on the editorial page citing statistics from various sources.  The worst-case scenario for Republicans, if you choose to believe the touted divisions, is about a quarter of the state electorate is registered as Republican.  

I suspect if you removed the Baltimore City/Annapolis/Anne Arundel Democrat-dominated complex from the calculations, the presence of more conservative voters would be measurably more.  Even with a one in four minority, shouldn’t more conservative leaning voters have one of eight representatives to Congress?  “Leadership” in the Democrat controlled state government say no.  It seems those truly threatening democracy are the ones crying wolf.

Curt Rasmussen 

Taneytown MD

Fixing Social Security

All this talk about what must be done and who must pay for it is hyperbole at best and potentially an egregious miscarriage of justice at worst.

We, among millions of seniors, dutifully paid “our dues” in the form of a SSA/Medicare payroll taxes for 45-50 years!  When we retired, we knew how much we should expect in income support regardless of our retirement age income and based our retirement plans on this iron-clad commitment from our government.  We should not now be asked to forgo a portion of that income to right the ship. 

Any politician in a position of power to make decisions about the way forward will be committing political suicide if they come after those already retired.  Seniors vote!

The system was poorly designed from the outset.  If commercially available, low risk investments options had been utilized we wouldn’t even be having this conversation as the available funds would be plentiful.

Given the current state of affairs, those younger than 55 should have their payroll taxes gradually increased to where they should have been in order to keep the system solvent.  This along, with accelerating the eligibility age increase to receive benefits, should have the desired effect.  Those new funds should be invested wisely as the current scheme is clearly failing.

Curt Rasmussen 

Taneytown MD