What does it mean to be "Conservative" anyways? I mean, we throw this word around, but I don't know what it really means anymore, and I don't think it means the same thing to any of us.
The dictionary definition of the word "Conservative" means things like
- marked by moderation or caution
- marked by ...traditional norms of taste, elegance, style, or manners [or values, morals, ethics etc]
- tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions [ie opposed to change ]
I don't see how any of this applies to how people use the word today.
- Romney wants to "Change" Washington (so he's not supportive of existing political thoughts or philosophy]. And it sounds a lot like the entire democratic platform of "change". Especially Obama's.
- Huckabee wants to eliminate the IRS (so he's not wanting to maintain existing institutions).
- If I don't want to change the existing income tax system with a radical sales tax idea.. How is that NOT conservative.
- If I don’t want to change the existing presence of millions of illegal immigrants too quickly or too harshly, and have it have lots of unforeseen consequences, how is that NOT conservative? Going slow and step by step and starting at securing the boarder seems MORE conservative to me.
- If I don't want to cut taxes in time of WAR because I know we wars always cost more than we estimate, how is that NOT conservative?
And you can't just say it's the OPPOSITE of "Liberal". On a world-wide political scale, ALL American politics are very liberal. And I'm proud of it.
- Freedom of speech and press
- Freedom of religion
- Rule of law
- Separation of powers/checks and balances/Independent Judiciary (which sometimes goes too far)
- The Right and Freedom to vote in fair elections.
- A History of smooth transitions of power.
- Some sort of separation between religious and secular powers and authority. (although we argue the degree)
2 comments:
I believe that conservative has come to mean being in favor of a lack of government oversight (or interference, depending on your point of view), as opposed to being in favor of incremental change. Its true that on the World stage, America is very liberal. However in this view, America is also ridiculously wealthy, healthy, well-educated and safe. A more fair comparison is with other industrialized, First-world nations. In this view we are actually conservative, or rather libertarian. For example, most of our public infrastructure is created and maintained by private companies, rather than by state run institutions. We have a relatively small welfare system compared to most of Europe, and I don't mean small in terms of dollars, but rather in terms of how much it affects our day to day life. We have very few laws restricting free speech, but many laws restricting drugs. We have no established state religion, very little funding for the arts, and, while we do have a progressive income tax system, we are more lax on taxing investment returns.
But all of this is relative, of course.
just stumbled onto this.... i wish i could help get this question asked on every news program all day every day. people say "conservative" and they are proud of it. they throw the word around not knowing what it means! when someone says they are conservative, i ask: "so you don't want to change anything?" and they say "oh of course i want to change things" then i say "ok you're part liberal you ignorant f**k!"
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