Is a teenager conservative in growth? An octogenarian liberal in speech? A mother conservative in love? Or a father liberal with his family’s safety?
Is a government that taxes heavily without having achieved conservatively efficient government operations liberal in returns for the taxpayer? Is a government that conservatively taxes too little in a time of war, dislocation, and societal disruption liberal in defense and care for the nation?
To be meaningfully conservative or liberal is about good timing. And it is about what we are liberal or conservative with. It is about ably forecasting and preparing for changing seasons and matching the right responses to them.
Doing the right thing requires awareness of contexts, that is, what the seasons will likely bring. People successfully adapt when they have both conservative and liberal qualities to master adapting foresight to the best possible preparations with sound timing.
We rely on each other in a society that works and excels. Wise foresight rests on us gaining firsthand personal knowledge of those we mutually rely on in and out of season. People we might otherwise prejudge if we did not come to know them better.
That means getting personal knowledge of not only what we need to know, but who: those people who share our country. Unity then, is not individually and selfishly preparing for end times but using the time we have preparing with fellow Americans and allies to successfully navigate each season together.
We must put away dark and demoralized prejudices about others and experience personal relationships with them to get to know them and ourselves better. We will best know and be known by service to others.
What of nation states and great powers? Wars and rumors of war? Should we likewise find peace with rivals or go to war with them? Are those the only choices? In this we will not be able to do our best until and unless we are first unified at home on most important things.
Unified in our priorities we can work together solving problems effectively, not with half-measures. By unity in family, country, respective faith, reason, and friendship at home we can better know ourselves, friends, and rivals to best decide what must be done and not done internationally.
