One of the great questions asked by Bill Nye in his debate against Ken Ham, and unanswered by Mr. Ham, was this: Can your model be used to predict that which you do not already know?
Nye gave an example of how evolutionary science has done precisely that: The disappearance of the 24th chromosome from our primate ancestors. Evolution predicted that the most likely explanation was that somewhere along the line, two smaller chromosomes fused into one. And guess what--later research confirmed that this is exactly what happened. By using science, by using reason, we were able to make predictions using incomplete information that were later confirmed.
IMO, one of the greatest tests of any philosophy or belief is not whether it can accurately make sense of the past or the present. Those may be important, but the real test is whether it can predict future outcomes with reasonable accuracy. If we apply this test to American conservatism, we see how miserably it has failed the test almost every time.
Conservatism predicted that Obamacare would destroy the economy. It has not.
Conservatism predicted that Saddam was harboring stashes of WMDs. He was not.
Conservatism predicted that Iraqis would greet American invaders with open arms. In the long run, they did not.
Conservatism predicted that gays would destroy the sanctity of marriage. They did not.
Conservatism predicted that cutting taxes for the rich would help out everyone. It did not.
Conservatism predicted that Communists were everywhere and threatened to cause the imminent destruction of America. They were not.
Conservatism predicted that the passage of Civil Rights would unleash an evil upon this nation as never seen before or since. It did not.
Now I already hear the conservatives whining in response, "But what about when the liberals did _?" No, no, no. They need to reread the above list. Tell you what, if that's too much to ask of them, just have them reread the first word in each line. I specifically said conservatISM, NOT conservatives. Of course there are so-called liberals who get it very, very wrong. See, the beauty of unfettered liberalism is that, like the scientific method (which apparently is a liberal thing nowadays), it tries to weed out that which does not work and keep that which does. Conservatism, by contrast, simply exists to maintain systems of privilege and power for a lucky few. If it were truly open to improvement, then by definition it would cease to BE conservative.
So when I hear conservatives--and their partners in crime, the libertarians--claim that "Obama is gonna take our guns" or "Obama is gonna bankrupt America" or anything of that nature, you will have to excuse me when I remain deeply, deeply skeptical. I have arrived at the point now where I place more faith in a flip of a coin than conservative ideologies.