Preserving Citizens' Rights
From an interview that Raw Story had with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), this excerpt:
“It seems like on every front they’re [Republicans] trying to frustrate, obfuscate and make it as difficult as possible for citizens to assert their rights,” he added.
Conyers said he believes the American democracy is struggling under the weight of current policies.
“This should be a wake up call to a lot of people who begin to realize that we’re moving backwards in terms of democracy,” he said. “We’re moving backwards in terms of economic security, we’re having many of our rights taken away that we thought we had in the courts. ”
Which is confusing me when it's put this way, I have to admit. After all, I'd think that if it's one thing that "conservatives" would want to "conserve", it would be constitutional rights. Even if they are more libertarian in bent, when you boil down both of the "legitimate reasons for government" that libertarians believe are the only ones (that would be protecting property and ensuring military strength), don't they basically distill into "preserving constitutional rights"?
Clearly, being a conservative takes lots more brain power to unravel all these complicated philosophical things than I can muster in my tiny little liberal mind.