What Conservatism Needs to Explain to Me

in terms of philosophy.

I read a book review this a.m. of a biography of William Rehnquist, the long serving Supreme Court Justice and the start of what is likely to be at least a 40 year run of Conservatives at Chief Justices of the Supreme Court.  Rehnquist served. as Chief Justice for 19 years and his clerk, John Roberts, is very likely to serve at least 21 years given his youth.

Rehnquist devoted his professional life to opposing federal government imposition of any controls over discrimination.  He wrote opinions rejecting integration and upholding "separate but equal".  He upheld the right of state legislatures to prevent poor people from voting and actively worked to do so in elections before he became a judge.  While he did vote for certain cases that upheld Congress's right to impose rules on states; overall, he generally came down on the side of state's rights and the application of political thought to legal decisions.

Chief Justice Robert's, with the notable exception, of the Affordable Health Care Act, and the remainder of the conservative majority on the current Supreme Court are from the same school.  I personally do not have a problem with the slicing and dicing of the line between the rights of the Federal Government and the rights of the States.  What I do have a problem with is the inconsistent legal lines that occur with the application of political thought.

Thus, we have the situation where gun control laws cannot be created by Congress even though there is interstate commerce in guns and state gun control laws are essentially eviscerated by reality.

We have the situation where neither the Federal Government nor the States can control campaign finance spending despite there being ample evidence of money corrupting politicians almost since the founding of the United States of America.

I am sure there are other examples but you get my point.  Individual rights should be subservient to good of the population when violence or corruption is the result of the exercise of these individual rights.  Such a belief does not impinge on an individual's right to free speech, right to own a gun (just certain types of guns with certain requirements), right to freedom of religion or the right to privacy.

There is nothing in the Constitution that prohibits regulation of interstate commerce, protection of the environment and the right to inhibit corruption.

Only when Conservatism can explain to my satisfaction that they will protect and manage efficiently these responsibilities will I consider voting for a Conservative.