Hi, Dave,
I took a little time out to see if I could find any true conservatives but all I achieved was a delay in responding to your post.
My search consisted of hours of long distance calls to USA and Europe. Trying to get anybody to say exactly what they think these days is almost impossible. (free information and free service - anybody can ask me how I manage to call USA and the rest of Europe from Spain on my mobile for €0.01 per minute nothing to buy but the calls and - NO - it is not a biz op - it just makes all these telephony suppliers lookrather expensive)
It seems to me that everybody wants to be a conservative but we have got the world in such a state, they really find it difficult to find anything that they would want to conserve.
The major problem I faced was that nobody could agree what respect is. Here in Adland it seems to mean that you accept anything anybody else says at face value - no matter what your own opinion might be - and compound this lack of critical perception by saying how lovely it was and thanks for telling me.
Out in the real world it seems to mean that you are not allowed to say that you dislike somebody so you wrap up the feeling in the simple phrase "I respect him/her" - indeed, "I respect him/her" seems to have become synonymous with "I'd rather be in another room"
It is this fear of openness and this constant search by the rabid minorities for something to be offended by that will eventually cause the collapse of society as the majority live in ever increasing fear of the thought police.
A recent debate that I attended gave a good example of the problems we face. The subject for debate was "This house believes that parents should be responsible for their children at all times - at least up to the age of 14 years."
The opening address was by a rather forceful lady who believed that it was not possible for a parent to be held responsible for any child because we live in a much different world now and the children's rights came over the will of the parents.
I thought that she opened up a great range of topics for discussion but then sat in absolute dismay as person after person got up and, in various different ways, said how much they endorsed her views (even those who later admitted to me that they thought she was wrong on some points).
All very respectful (in newspeak) but nothing more than word formulae to fill an hour or two - debate is dead.
I was not strong enough to stand and make a contribution - probably just as well!
Respect has been usurped by the 'agree with me - or else' crowd.
Politics is just the trough that the pigs keep the gravy train in so it can only go round and round under their snouts.
The rise and fall of the Roman empire translates very well to what is happening now. The one major difference is that, in the Roman empire days, the lust for blood was satisfied by setting a few men and animals against each other while we have seen the slaughter of millions since the start of the 20th century to satisfy the blood lust and avarice of our leaders.
No wonder Google hates you! lol! (Yes - that is where we started!)
The Old Coot