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You son of a .
right on.
oh... and..... the rammies.
You son of a .
The way I see conservatism is this basic concept. You keep in place what is proven to work. Changes are done carefully, and with facts, not emotion.
There is no absolute definition because that is conservative changes with the known world's recent history.
What I say is my belief from observation and education. I will outline it first, then se what my trusty 1906 dictionary says:
The parties have changed more to democrats as being authoritarian (opposite of libertarian) and the republicans as loving liberty with personal responsibility. That too is changing. Republicans are starting to fall into the "Me-Me-Me" trap that ensnares liberals.
Conservatives tend to be republicans rather than democrats because the authoritarian elitism of democrats want to take all changes to everyone. Republican values stem from, "the republic," or states rights, which doesn't make sense because Lincoln was of the first of republicans and was at war with the south after they exercised their states rights. Anyway, the idea is that each state is free to make their own policies. The best will be recognized and copied by other states. The worse will be discarded in favor of better means, copying what other states have done.
Conservatism is more a relative value rather than an absolute. McCain is conservative compared to his liberal friends! He is liberal compared to me. I see him as a moderate, just like president Bush.
In general, conservative values include limited spending and only what is necessary.
In general, conservatives believe in no long term social programs. The exception here is for the disabled. Being conservative isn't to be heartless, rather having a heart and knowing that people need to fend for themselves, and too many will not when it is handed to them.
Socially, most conservatives believe in using social stigmas and forcing people to be responsible for their actions. The social stigmas play an important roll as a deterrent. Liberal policies of making everything acceptable is evil in the eyes of conservatives because it promotes lack of responsibility, and actually is against the tenant in the preamble that states "promote the general welfare." This anti-stigma approach opposes this idea. The general welfare is harmed by such liberal policies in the view of conservatives.
I could go on, and the term differs by subject matter. Now for the dictionary view:
I think for the most part this says most of it. It doesn't mean to me, any thing established, but what is deemed good and established. Note that the word "disposition" does not mean outright opposed. It's just that that is the reaction with no good reason to do otherwise.Conservatism, n.
The practice of preserving what is established; disposition to oppose change or innovation.
Conservative, a.
1) Preservation; having power to preserve in a safe or entire state, or from loss, waste, or injury.
2) Respecting old ins utions, methods, customs, and the like; adhering to what is old or established; not given to change merely for the sake of change; said of persons and their principles.
3) In a political sense, having a tendency to uphold and preserve entire existing ins utions, both civil and ecclesiastical; opposed to radical changes or innovations in church or state.
Conservative, n.
1) A person or thing tending to preserve from ruin or injury; a conserver.
2) One who aims to preserve from innovation or radical change; one who wishes to maintain an ins ution, or form of government, in its present state.
The Republican Party is not now, never was and never will be a conservative party. It is what it has always been – a representative of the rich and of big business.
That is why I refer to the Republicans as the Roman Senate and the Democrats as the Cannon-Johnson gang.
It might have become a conservative party in 1964, when Barry Goldwater was nominated as the presidential candidate. The Rockefeller wing of the party, to which the Bush family has always been a part, conducted the most vicious character assassination campaign against Goldwater in modern political history. The liberal Rockefellerites preferred a crook from Texas to a conservative.
The Rockefeller wing never lost control of the party again, co-opting Nixon, Ford and even Ronald Reagan, who was forced to take George Bush as his vice president. The Bush people, within two years, ran off nearly all of the original Reagan supporters.
There was a famous quote by James Baker, the first Bush's hatchet man. He was quoted as saying: "Who else are the conservatives going to vote for?"
Well, Mr. Baker discovered that the conservatives had three choices in 1992. They could stay at home, they could vote for Ross Perot, or they could vote for Bill Clinton. I hope he thought of that while he watched Clinton's inauguration.
The hard truth is that if you are a genuine political conservative, you don't have a party. The Democrats are practically socialists (at least they honest about it); the Republicans are closer to corporate fascists. Neither one offers conservatives anything but rhetoric.
But let's define our terms, because it is my belief that not many people today are really conservative. Political conservatism has nothing to do with such social issues as abortion or gay marriage. Those are moral and philosophical issues that properly belong to the state legislatures.
A true conservative recognizes that the Cons ution is a binding contract that should be interpreted literally. A Cons ution that means anything a judge says it means; means nothing.
A true conservative is fiscally responsible. Laying debt and interest payments on posterity are neither conservative nor liberal. It is just obscenely irresponsible.
A true conservative believes in noninterference in the affairs of other countries. Regime change is a policy favored by fascists or communists, but it has nothing to do with American conservatism. Americans have the right to govern only one country, their own. Americans have an obligation to defend only one country, their own.
A true conservative believes in a free economy and that beyond protecting the public from force and fraud, the government should not interfere in private affairs.
There are a lot of other things that define a genuine conservative, but suffice it to say that the Republican Party, with its imperialistic foreign policy, its disdain for the Cons ution and the rule of law, its fiscal irresponsibility and its erosion of personal liberty, is not by any stretch of the imagination a conservative party.
It wouldn't be a bad idea for people to sit down with a pencil and paper and list what they actually believe. Clarifying their own political philosophy might make them less susceptible to the demagoguery and political propaganda that characterize our present age.
When the white men that created our Cons ution laid the burden of self-government on us, they didn't do any favors for the ignorant and lazy-minded. Tom Jefferson observed that those who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was and never will be.
I too agree with most of what Spawn says. However, the following is a bit inaccurate:
Yes, they do represent business, but because they protect the concept of capitalism over socialism and communism, which the left clearly embraces.It is what it has always been – a representative of the rich and of big business.
When you talk of representing the rich and big business because of their power and wealth, both parties do that. There are individuals of both sides who can be and are bought. Move-on even brags about owning the democrats.
'socialism and communism, which the left clearly embraces."
simply and clearly a lie.
Really, how do you figure that? Both canadiates that
are "left" running for the Democratic party are so far
left that they could be called communist and you wouldn't be
really wrong.
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