Many people who know me believe I am either conservative or Republican or Tea Party or some combination.
I am not any one of those. Pro-commerce is a position that stands alone and it is only a partial component of any one of the above categories.
The reason pro-commerce is an uncomfortable position for both conservatives and the Republican Party is that commerce is the fundamental source of modernity and change in our society. It is the reason we have a constant flux of new technology and the world of volatile modernity.
Commerce is the tentpole on which technology grows and thrives. Most importantly commerce is the tentpole that brings technological change, including medical and new health products, to the final consumer.
No matter how we look at the world around us in terms of our health, our daily lives and every detail of our daily lives, the changes that occur annually and decade by decade are the byproduct of commerce continually innovating, destroying the old and helping us welcome the new.
Commerce is the basis for modernity and innovation. The conservative plea to preserve old houses, traditional family and social norms as well as most traditional social values is actually at war with the innovative edge of commerce.
In a recent era we have seen the Internet change every commercial business. It would be very hard to argue that the old ways of brick-and-mortar and local businesses can somehow operate without the Internet and the massive upheaval it has wrought. The old ways, no matter how we look at it, have been disrupted by commerce.
As a lover of commerce I cannot be considered a conservative nor can I align myself with the conservative elements of the Republican Party. I certainly can't associate myself with the extraordinary anti-commerce of the Democrat-Union anti-trade pro-government-expansion Party. As for the Tea Party, to the extent that it grew out of hostility to the vicious manipulation of the Senate and the House by the Democratic Party to create a vast government run health bureaucracy, I am a fan. To the extent that it remains grass-roots, I am a fan. Beyond that I see no greater affiliation on my part.
Pro-commerce is a perspective that stands on its own. It is a champion of social diversity, meritocracy, technology and openness. When some political party encompasses even a small segment of these values I will be affiliated with that political movement.