What is Conservatism?

[DBTrek]

Separation of powers
Freedom of the press
Freedom of religion
Right to bear arms
Right to plead the 5th
Right to trial by jury
Capitalism . . . etc, etc.

All the things that have been in place since the founding of the nation until now.
Derp.

[TheReal_ND]

Better yet, let's just call it something else. Something like, "things nobody will vote for but I swear to g-d I'm not a racist I'm losing on principle with dignity."

[Ex-California]

Separation of powers
Freedom of the press
Freedom of religion
Right to bear arms
Right to plead the 5th
Right to trial by jury
Capitalism . . . etc, etc.

All the things that have been in place since the founding of the nation until now.
Derp.

But we have a large portion of the population trying to take these away every day

[DBTrek]

True.
Yet thus far they're being conserved.

But I made the mistake of thinking that ND actually wanted answers when he started this thread. Now that I realize it's just another one of his purple-drank inspired tantrums I'll mosey on out of here and let the idiots have their parade.

[TheReal_ND]

Another thing, listicles. Can we get a new set of listicles?

• We are for conserving Americans and our way of life

Any more conservative positions we can add to this dying corpse of a movement?

[de officiis]

I think at its core it just means having a healthy skepticism of the notion that change is always for the better.

[TheReal_ND]

I like that definition. I've honestly felt that way for a while. The only problem with that is slipping into reactionaryism. I believe that's why conservatives generally suck at politics. They don't drive a narrative anywhere. Ron Paul kind of did I guess, but other than him, who is? The Tea Party?

[Speaker to Animals]

It's just a word. People use it to make a base political faction seem to have some philosophical basis when it really does not.

From my perspective, conservatives are the radicals too.

[TheReal_ND]

That's the issue I was attempting to raise. It doesn't mean a fucking thing. Nothing has been conserved. Not one thing.

Also, I like wiki's entry on neo-conservatism. I believe that is a great summation of anything labeled conservative in the modern form of the pejorative.

[Speaker to Animals]

Intellectually, you might want to start with Edmund Burke. He was the intellectual "founder", I guess, of conservatism. His book on the French Revolution was interesting.

He recognized that the "Left" is a kind of social cancer. But I don't think he realized his own part in it. Step one is realizing what the left actually is. Step two is going back to the Enlightenment and realizing what that was too. So-called conservatives are the radicals and the "left" is the consequence of their ideology.

I realize that the alt-right and others are trying to recapture the term "Right", but I also think adopting that entire paradigm is a mistake.