BIKEPGH MESSAGE BOARD ARCHIVE

Personal responsibility! Personal responsibility!

brad, as a card carrying member of the grand ole party, what do you think?

There's a growing movement on the fringes of conservatism (not Republicanism) to re-embrace conservation and criticize the conspicuous consumption that characterizes contemporary conservatives. These folks are pretty far out of the mainstream, however, as the talking heads try to marginalize their views best they can.

it's a bit surprising that it's only on the fringes, in a way.

As a card carrying member of the Grand Olde Party, I do consider myself a conservative cyclist. It truly fits in with the main tenets of my political party - personal liberty and responsibility and the quest for smaller government.

It is a shame that the Grand Olde Party does not seem to cater to conservatives like me. I had to cross party lines last election day.

you must be in that fringe

Brian is right. There is a relativly large movement in some Christian circles to return to conservative roots.

See this blog for example:

http://distributist.blogspot.com/

A quote:

"We should be clear that there are things the individual can do. First off, one should start by consuming what one needs instead of what one desires. He or she can decide to cease shopping at Costco or Sam’s Club, opting instead to purchase goods at the small shop. This may mean a higher price, but it also means greater value, quality, and investment in community. Due to this cost, the individual will practice thrift or what Solzhenitsyn called “self-restraint.” He or she will utilize discernment when expending earnings and limit resources rather than exhausting them, because judgment will be regulated and more acute."

My corner of the Republican Party is lonely. I don't get invited to many birthday parties.

that's a stark contrast from the "i should be able to buy/drive whatever i want. i earned it" mentality

I like to tell people we have one political party in America with two factions the "fascists" and the "communists" (republican or democrat), when history shows the past of both factions get pretty much the same result.

I am currently a registered republican because I liked Ron Paul quite a bit, but I would happily switch to a democrat if I liked someone from that party enough to take the time to fill out a form. If I don't like any of them, then I will go back to being a libertarian and not get to vote in any primaries.

I think there are good people in every political party, and bad people (predominantly it seems sometimes).

Is it just me, or does it seem like a higher percentage of mountain bikers are republican than the percentage of roadies who are republican?

"As a registered Republican, I believe..." has a certain ring to it that cuts through a lot of peoples ear plugs.

LOL... I don't get along (politically speaking) with republicans or democrats most of the time (at least people who are blind-sided and loyal to one over the other). I cut through a lot of people's ear plugs on both sides of the spectrum.

I get along (politically speaking) with people who look at each politician individually and call them on their garbage equally, or people who just don't give a rats ass because the whole system is so "f-d" up anyway.

Generally speaking I get along with just about everyone. I save my political rants for impersonal message boards and people who I am already friends with.

How does the saying go from the Bible when Jesus said something like "You are so concerned with the splinter in someone else's eye that you don't pay attention to the plank sticking out of your own?"

That comes to mind when I hear people's one-sided politics, be they democrat or republican.

Calling cycling contrary to conservatism seems more of an American trend, in any case. See the leader of the British Conservative Party:

Eric, quoting Distributivists? I think I'm in love....

I agree with Alan that it's primarily in America that conservatism has lost touch with conservationism. Apparently the "crunchy conservative" movement is much stronger in England. France, too, where Jacques Ellul worked tirelessly for ecological causes.

As for another conservative with deep conservationist roots, read Mr. Wendell Berry.

Even though I don't consider Bush to be a real conservative... Nonetheless...

LOL...

Cameron's bike is shod in fenders and he uses it to go shopping and to work. Bush rode his bike around his ranch, biking for recreation rather than transportation. Although it's doubtful Obama will be able to bike anywhere public as president, either. But his administration's transportation policy made his opinion on whether bikes have a place on the road quite clear.

My family, who are quite religious and conservative has always been for conservation and buying local.

I'm not so hot on the religious aspects of the Distributists, but their ideas are spot on. taking personal responsibility to keep things local and support small business, own the tools of production etc... Sounds a lot like a nationalist workers movement without the negative baggage of socialism.

Bump.

I came across this and this today and thought they were appropriate for this discussion.

this is one of the most constructive discussions of political views i've seen in a while. bravo cyclists! maybe the act of cycling, rather than herding/driving helps us all think a little more clearly

I think the entire premise is a bit off...

Simply because a Liberal/Democrat embraces cycling/conservation, does not immediately define a Conservative/Republican as being wasteful and uncaring. Since one party decides to define themselves in such a way does not mean the other party necessarily identifies with the polar opposite.

I'm a conservative (not republican) but love cycling and recycling. In fact, as a Capitalist, I like how companies charge a premium for "green" and people willingly pay for it!

but what happens when companies greenwash and throw "green" on just about everything. they tried gutting organic standards a few years ago because they knew people would pay more as soon as that word was on there.

why should the rich be the only ones with access to higher nutrition foods free of chemicals, and cleaning products that don't cause cancer?

Just keep pushing more information to the people. The voice of the people changes laws and shapes the market. Somehow we in America are content to let leaders and media and corporate executives and marketeers put words in our mouths. In the end, though, they listen to *us*. The biking/organic/urban gardening/green movements are not the product of some central mastermind. They belong to us, regardless of our party affiliations. So yes, there is crazy injustice and waste out there, but we make the rules at the end of the day.

Resurrecting this again for the Front Porch Cyclist talks Autarchy.

I would like to suggest…that bicycles can play a significant role in [a front porch revival] by in effect serving as a kind of virtual extension of our individual front porches: as we cycle through our communities, we have an intimacy with them simply not possible when in our cars–and those neighborhoods through which we commute become, if not our own, then certainly something more than some streets with houses on them that automobile travel converts them into. Indeed, I have come to feel an emotional tie to that part of south Wichita I regularly ride through that, I feel certain, simply would not have occurred had I driven that same route. Yet, bicycles’ practicality and portability create that version of independence that arises not from mere mobility but from self-reliance in all its senses….Far from being merely a “lifestyle,” cycling is, in the deepest senses of the phrases, life-enhancing and life-affirming in ways no lifestyle ever could be.

I think that the cliched "liberal" and "conservative" tags do not work well for us here. In that paragraph, you might emphasize the "conservative" self-reliance of cycling, or the "liberal" sense of community involvement & connection with other citizens. I'm not so sure it's worth separating them.

But then, also, why is community involvement and connection with other citizens "liberal"? So-called "conservatives" often seem to fall into the trap of thinking that we all lived in self-contained family homesteads in some idealized past.

The French city of Toulouse had a really great slogan for their bike rental system when I was there in 2006: "Le Vélo: Le plus individuel des transports en commun." Meaning "The most individual form of public transportation".

Perhaps the bicycle is a good metaphor for how individual freedom is not antithetical to the common good.