What is a conservative?
My goal with She's Right - the show and the blog - is to offer a conservative perspective on the issues. When I say conservative, it means something to me that could be very different from what it means to you. I am working on some writings that explain what a conservative is to me and what it does not mean.
What does conservative mean to you? What do you think conservatives believe? How do they view the roll of government?
The best way to correct misconceptions is to first understand what misconceptions exist.
8 comments:
Thanks for getting the brain cells going here....Being a liberal, my perception of a conservative is one who believes in the concept of Social Darwinism, and believes the government should not assist those who are less fortunate than they are. Another perception I have is that conservatives favor the rich, and will do everything they can to keep those in the lower class from reaching the level of financial security which the higher class has already achieved. Yet another one, and again, this is just perception, is conservatives are more interested in helping those in other countries than our own people.
Mind you, this is the short list as I could bore people, but this is a great discussion point. It is funny, I am very liberal, but at the same time am a moderate. I am for the death penalty, and thought Edward Cashman should have been removed from the bench for his light sentence of Mark Hulett.
I know I am a member of the media, and am supposed to remain neutral, but removing that identity, this is what I as a human being believe. When I freelance for the Vermont Times, this may effect what I write about as it is something I do not have to do. As a reporter for the radio stations, I remain neutral, or for that matter try to be. It is a very fine line we walk being in this business.
Again, this is a great topic. Let's not allow this to turn into a war, but a way to educate ourselves.
Fells
I am a conservative - and I am against "big government." (and to the contributor above - no, I'm not rich. I'm a poor college student).
I also believe that sometimes liberals are as closed minded as they accuse the other side of being.
Regarding conservatism, I think of it two ways. First, someone who's economically conservative, I would consider to be for lower taxes, smaller government and more free-market. However, someone who's socially conservative, I would consider to be more for government influence over our personal lives. I would expect them to be more for government policy that would regulate how we live and what we do to meet some sort of ideal of how people ought to live or behave.
Bottom-line:
Economically-conservative = small government, free market, low taxes.
Socially-conservative = big government, less personal freedoms.
This is just what I have observed from people I know who would consider themselves conservative either economically or socially or both.
Jeremy Ryan
www.jeremyryan.org
Even though I'm solidly "liberal" on Hardy's test, I consider myself more of a "preservative" than anything else. I want to preserve the constitution. What does "conservative" mean? It should mean "preservative" (like me) but it doesn't seem to nowadays.
Sometimes, when I hear people picking on the GOP, I remind them that Lincoln was a Republican. That just goes to show you how much the party has changed (or aspects of it at least).
A popular political science method of teaching about the schools of political thought uses quadrants. I prefer a method which shows a long line - On the farthest right there is the libertarian category, then the conservatives, the moderates, liberals, and on the far left, communism. I believe that these idea sare best expressed as a spectrum - and that the closer one moves to the left of the line, the bigger the government.
I also think that everyone has the same goals (health, safety, housing, education, security) but that the differences in political philosophy depend on which an individual values more: freedom or order. With the spectrum model, freedom is on the right side of the line, order to the left - hence, conservatives favor a higher degree of freedom and less biggovernment (order).
I like the way you put it, tirade25. Unfortunately, someone needs to remind the Republicans that they are supposed to favor less government.
Charity (AKA She's Right)
Haik, you are right that conservative should mean “preservative,” as in preserving the constitution, like you said. Most conservatives are upset with the national GOP. It is going to be painful to watch, but they will probably lose big this year because they have let their conservative base down by becoming big government like the Democrats.
For a brief history of traditionalist conservatism in post-WWII America visit my blog at vtpaleocon.blogspot.com.
Now, back to the topic at hand. Hardy always seemed to me to be a true liberal (not the social democratic variety that is labeled liberal in America today). A lot of the confusion with the term "conservative" is that in the U.S. true liberals are called conservatives and true social democrats are called liberals. I would venture forth to say that the original conservatives were the Loyalists who fled the colonies and then later the embattled Federalists who were similar to Burkean Whigs.
In Europe a liberal is in favor of freedom, free trade, and parliamentary democracy. In Europe a conservative favors the Church, the monarchy, and the aristocracy (different from a plutocracy, which is what we have in this country). In Europe a social democrat is like Bernard Sanders, all wrapped around the axle about "rights" and egalitarianism and the evil machinations of capitalists and free traders. Most real conservatives (in the European sense) distrust commerce, but you wouldn't see them at a WTO or NAFTA protest rally no matter how much they disapproved of the organization. It just isn't done.
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