What Is A Conservative?
Yesterday the question was asked what is a conservative and what is a liberal.
I do not claim to speak for all conservatives and I won’t even attempt to speak for liberals because I have never been a liberal by my definition, which may be wrong. I’ll leave that definition to Ayschlay or Guss to give us.
I have stated I believe I’m more of a moderate than a conservative and maybe that’s because my politics have evolved over the years.
I remember working for the failing Reagan campaign in NC in 1976, and I was running with the big crowd then. Former US Attorney, the mayor of our city etc. Anyone who was anyone in the local Republican party I knew on a first-name basis because they liked a statement I made at the Republican caucus.
I was young then and when I asked what a conservative was I was met with “Do you believe this? Do you believe that?” When I agreed with all the positions I was told then I was a conservative.
I believe in limited government. I would very much like to see term limits put on our legislators as they seem particularly wont to get too big for their breeches lately and run roughshod over all of us.
I believe judges should interpret the Constitution as written and the laws as written and not make new law out of whole cloth. An example would be the so-called “right to privacy” in Roe v Wade.
I believe if the Constitution is silent on an issue it should revert to the states to decide individually what their laws will be and not have foreign law decide what will be the law of the land.
I believe lower taxes help our economy and don’t hurt it. Tax receipts are higher when the tax rate is low because the small business owner (the largest group of employers in the country) can keep more people working. Since small business owners usually pay the personal income tax rate, if the taxes go up he either has to raise his prices and lose customers or lay someone off to keep his prices where they are. Either way someone loses a job.
I believe it should be mandated by a Constitutional amendment that we have a balanced budget.
I believe we have the right and the responsibility to raise our children as we see fit as long as we are not abusing them physically or emotionally.
I believe if our schools have to teach kids about Islam, Hinduism etc. they should also be able to touch on Christianity without trying to convert anyone. That should be up to the family.
I believe in a strong and well-equipped military that can fight two wars at a time if necessary to protect our freedoms.
Those are my conservative beliefs and it may not be a comprehensive list.
On my liberal side I am very strongly in favor of assistance to those who really can’t work or get help from rich relatives.
People who are mentally or physically incapable of caring for themselves by getting a job should be provided for by our tax dollars since LBJs Great Society, for all intents and purposes, did away with family and charity assistance for these people.
For parents who don’t have the skills to work I believe we should support them until they have gotten training and had time to find a job and then let them off the rolls after a reasonable time even if they haven’t found work.
If we were to take able-bodied people off the welfare rolls and keep only those who are actually disabled, I think we should keep the same budget so we can give the truly needy more than a stipend to live on each month. Not enough for a new car every couple of years but enough so they aren’t trying to figure out where their next meal is coming from at the end of the month.
I believe these people should also be mandated to take classes that teach money management.
So, when all is said and done I’m a conservative on many things, but a liberal on caring for people. I guess that makes me a moderate, and judging by the ones on blogs who are calling themselves conservatives or liberals right now, I’m happy being a moderate.
Written by ~J~
Ayschlay Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 8:35 amVisit Ayschlay
Here’s a relevant story from yesterday’s NY Times on the political leanings of our fickle youth–giving bush 80% approval ratings rigth after 9/11 and then drifting far away.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/27/washington/27poll.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=all&oref=slogin
~J~ Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 8:39 amVisit ~J~
You did say “fickle youth.” Appropriate description. I read the article yesterday and I seem to remember they still support the war. Without reading it again, maybe you can confirm or not on that issue.
Ayschlay Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 9:03 amVisit Ayschlay
J, this is an interesting political biography–you’ve determined your place in the political landscape by your policy preferences and your take on leadership.
You’ve stayed away from the the common but unhelpful habit of saying that conservatives want small government and liberals like big government. Most everyone wants the government to do something, they just differ on what. So conservatives may want small government in the area of say, labor regulation, but big government in the area of sexual mores. Liberals may want big government in the area of environment, but small government in the area of security. In the recent debate over immigration, both want some sort of bigger government, either beefing up border interdiction and surveillance, or increasing the government capacity to facilitate immigration (guest worker, family reunification).
One standard way to distinguish liberals from conservatives in the U.S. is their hierarchy of values (standard in that its common in US government textbooks).
Liberals tend to push for equality, then liberty, over order (security) while conservatives tend to prefer order, then liberty, over equality.
It’s not that liberals dismiss order as a value, they just think equality is more important. Same goes for conservatives. They don’t oppose equality, they think order and liberty are more important. And please note that I said “tend.”
So think about the debate over wiretapping. Conservatives are more likely to side with the administration on this because order (our safety) matters more than liberty in this case. Or think about gay marriage. Liberals would tend to support gay marriage because equality and liberty matter more than order–in this case, tradition.
But these three values are a pretty rough way to categorize people’s political standings. For one thing, people have material interests, not just values. It’s no surprise that members of the military, folks in towns with military bases, and the managerial class in the defense sector, tend to be conservative because this profession is all about order. And they tend to vote Republican because they know which party butters their bread.
Same goes for public sector employees, like public school teachers. They tend to go Democratic because the Democrats are more likely to back public spending measures (apart from defense spending, even though it is an employment and subsidy program). They tend to be liberal because many public sector programs are supposed to work, at least a little, to provide more equality of economic opportunity.
Ayschlay Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 9:15 amVisit Ayschlay
They are more confident in the outcome of the war, which is a little from saying they support the war.
~J~ Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 9:45 amVisit ~J~
A-
You might find this funny, but my daughter is a public school teacher, doesn’t belong to a union, told me the other day she is probably more moderate politically than I am but she has never voted for a Democrat for president.
She absolutely hates the NCLB act because she says it doesn’t help. She has a master’s degree in reading and is a reading recovery teacher in middle school. That means she tries to get these kids up to grade level despite the fact they have been “passed on” every year without reading or comprehension skills.
I did qualify my statement by saying I don’t pretend to speak for all conservatives, and I certainly hope the stereotype of conservatives being uncaring is not painted with a wide brush.
Because I do have some liberal leanings in the social area as described I call myself a moderate.
Just as a matter of principle for me I think gay marriage is wrong but I have no desire to get into anyone’s sex life—especially theirs.
Big Mo Says:
June 28th, 2007 at 10:30 amVisit Big Mo
Ayschlay - your post #3 was brilliant. I’ve never quite thought about it that way before. Well done!
And you’ve identified one of the main reasons why I get so impatient with the political argument today. You don’t support the war, why, you must be a traitor terrorist-lover! You’re against affirmative action, why, you must be a racist and want to keep blacks down! You don’t support gay marriage, why, you must hate gays!
But you’ve pretty much nailed it: conservatives and liberals, as fellow Americans, have the same general values when it comes to liberty, equality, security, etc., but a much different ordering of priorities.