The Backlash @ backlash.com started as a small magazine — a 24‑page 'Zine called The Backlash! — to "expose and oppose anti‑male bigotry." Feminists, of course, condemned our efforts as "anti‑woman." But they were and are wrong.
We are not and have never been opposed to equal rights for women. Time and technology have changed the conditions in which we live, and as a Conservative I embrace the reality of those changes. What has not changed is us.
We have not changed, but carry within us the same traits and characteristics, and biological and emotional imperatives that our ancestors did. For a Conservative, this means that equal rights translates into equivalent rights plus opportunities that allow for exceptional individuals. In other words, neither encourage nor discourage a woman to be a jet fighter pilot, but if she measures up to objective standards based on the actual and realistic requirements of the job, don't get in her way.
Extremists on both sides reject this view, and so as defined by them we are the radical in the middle of the road striving to define what's reasonable in this often unreasonable world. Consequently, our focus changed; starting in about 1997, we began to bring more categories into the discussion, including Business issues, which are often Liberal; Disabilities issues, which, in the case of Asperger's Disorder, are magnified by Liberalism; Racial issues, which have been co‑opted by Liberals who understood that, From Africa to Asia to America, all the "minorities" of America come from very Conservative societies; issues affecting teens, because they are so vulnerable to political indoctrination; and Unions, because Liberals have done such an effective job of persuading the world that Conservatives are anti‑Labor.
As a man with Asperger's Disorder, I know from personal experience that Liberalism turns my condition into a disorder, while, in a Conservative society my "malady" would be considered valuable. As a member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, I know that, political affiliations aside, we are a Conservative people. And having been a member of several labor unions, including the Teamsters, Communications Workers of America, and the Washington Federation of State Employees, I know that, even if the Unions are Liberal, Labor is Conservative.
My personal motto is: "In the beginning was the Word, then came the Argument, and now it is time for the Conversation."
A little about me
A member of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, I was born in Seattle in 1953 and grew up in the working-class end of Normandy Park, a community made infamous by Mary Kay LaTourneau. I worked my way through college, paid all my own expenses, including tuition, and graduated from the University of Washington in 1981 with a BA in Business Administration.
After graduation, I was deeply involved in the King County Libertarian Party and for a period of several months during the transitional years in the 1980s when power in the party shifted from the "anarcho‑capitalists" (no government/pure free enterprise) to the "min‑archists" (limited government), my letters and essays were the only public voice of the party in King County.
I have published The Backlash! since 1993, I am a founding member of ConservativeAIR.com, and more information about my family can be found at my personal web site.
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Copyright © 2001‑2004 by Rod Van Mechelen all rights reserved.
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