What does "conservative" mean

[BillyDkid]

I know that many of us think of ourselves as conservatives - in the sense that we want to conserve the values on which this country was founded. But the word has come to mean many things to different people. To many "conservative" means authoritarian and intollerent of desent and different lifestyle choices. Nowadays I think of conservative as being more of a mentality than a political philosophy which is why I consider myself a libertarian which is expressly about the values of liberty and limited government. The fact that there can be such a thing as a "big government conservative" indicates the essential meaninglessness of the term. Conservative generally means favoring the status quo - which couldn't really be less true of most of us. We want things changed and we want them changed in a particular way - towards reigning in goverment and getting it out of our lives. I also think people get confused about the meaning of the expression "the rule of law". They confuse it with "law and order". What it really means, IMHO, is government by law instead of by men and having the government constrained by the law. In our case the law is the Constitution and the government has increasingly seen fit simply to ignore and disregard these laws which all government officials swear an oath to uphold. To me that is treason from a government official. These are just thoughts. Take em or leave em. my best, bdk

[brandon]

Yea I agree. The world "liberal" has gone down the same path. Can you believe that at one point in time "liberal" and "conservative" were both respectable political ideologies? Now they both essentially mean the same thing. More government.

They stole both the words. If they control the language, they control us. Damn you, george orwell.

[Truth Warrior]

Speaking of:

"We shall get nowhere until we start by recognizing that political behavior is largely non-rational, that the world is suffering from some kind of mental disease which must be diagnosed before it can be cured. " -- George Orwell

[brandon]

Speaking of:

"We shall get nowhere until we start by recognizing that political behavior is largely non-rational, that the world is suffering from some kind of mental disease which must be diagnosed before it can be cured. " -- George Orwell

What george orwell didnt realize is that there is no cure. The solution is to eliminate "political behavior" (yes, i am an anarchist).

[Truth Warrior]

What george orwell didnt realize is that there is no cure. The solution is to eliminate "political behavior" (yes, i am an anarchist).

No problem here. :D

Thanks!

[WilliamC]

The only thing worth conserving is the Constitution and it's role as the supreme law of the United States.

But I agree that Conservative no longer equals Constitutionalist, but it should.

[BillyDkid]

What george orwell didnt realize is that there is no cure. The solution is to eliminate "political behavior" (yes, i am an anarchist).
I am too, I guess, although it is such a loaded word. I can't help but think of those old biblical movies like when Charleton Heston played Moses. He wanders off into the mountains to get the word from the big guy and the people, left to their own devices and without the over-riding authority of their leader all turn into raving maniacs - raping and pillaging and going berzerk. I'm afraid that constitutes most people's notion of humanity - that left to our own devices and without our masters and bosses we turn into animals driven only by our basest and least humane instincts - which I think is total bull. On top of this, if people are so God-awful, I think that is even more reason not to give them authority over each other. I think the truth is that the vast majority of us are humane and believe in fair play and are compassionate and loving and if anything, the "moral authority" of government tends to lead to all the awfulness of mankind - wars and genocide and the rest. You know, if mankind weren't naturally more or less inclined to cooperate and to take care of each other we would have gone extinct long ago.

[Truth Warrior]

"The Illegality, Immorality, and Violence of All Political Action"
http://users.aol.com/xeqtr1/voluntaryist/vopa.html

[Cinnaboo]

I say this all the time, but a free and intelligent two-party system cannot exist if the party platforms consist of both social and 'role of government' bulletins. As long as the system is set up so that third parties are inviable, people will be herded to whichever party by moral outrage over the most divisive topics. Our adrenal glands are too large and our televisions too prevalent.

So it's not just the lack of diversity of opinion between the candidates we should be concerned about. Social issues cloud people's judgment, driving intelligent people of measured detachment into political apathy, and that in turn causes the political conversation of society to degenerate into scandal -- anything to keep people from leaving the room during commercial.

The language of liberal and conservative, now more concisely summarized as red and blue, has been hijacked by the two parties. Do not label yourself, and boycott such frivolous political language.

[IRO-bot]

Remember as well that Liberal, (what they call a classic liberal) is basically what Libertarian came from.

[ToryNotion]

I suppose if we are going to talk about a conservative political ideology we'd have to define what we want to conserve. I recommend Russel Kirk's excellent 'The Conservative Mind'. The first edition was published in 1953. Kirk writes a lot about what he calls 'permanent things' which usually implies some sort of belief in a Life that transcends this present one. I think a lot of conservatism consists of defending these 'permanent things' against radical calls for change and reform (usually for the sake of attaining political power or for changes sake itself).

[ddgallion]

To me, I would define the term conservative as a term that describes a philosophy in which one of the prime objectives is to protect and preserve that which is best in society and extend its influence into the future. It is obvious that this would allow many people to be described as having a conservative philosophy when they may not have even thought of themselves in those terms.

I believe many people who believe they are conservative are not actually conservative. and vice versa. The term does not denote the limit the actual value of what is being preserved, not if it is actually something of great value to others.

I am conservative in the sense that I wish to preserve what is best about our government and reform the rest. I want to preserve the Constitution and the rights it enshrines.

Unfortunately it has to often come to mean someone who simply wishes to preserve a philosophy that restricts liberty and controls individuals, in an effort to maintain or restore a way of life that is in fact an anathema to many Americans.