I'm a dumb liberal

[Andrew Fletcher]

Republicans are only conservatives when it suits the needs of the conservative movement.

[tomdemaine]

The Democrats are not liberals.

[Andrew Fletcher]

Nice.

[QuadsOverQuads]

[ QUOTE ]
1. Individual responsibility - this leads to the typical conservative views on crime and welfare

[/ QUOTE ]

As evidenced by the great character of men like Tom Delay.

[ QUOTE ]
2. A strong belief in absolute morality (usually this comes from religion) - see conservative views on abortion/drugs/gambling

[/ QUOTE ]

As evidenced by the willingness to defend torture.

[ QUOTE ]
3. Practicality over naive idealism - see conservative beliefs on economics/social engineering, etc.

[/ QUOTE ]

As evidenced by the invasion and occupation of Iraq.


q/q

[QuadsOverQuads]

The point being :

If you want to know what a "conservative" really believes in, look at what he ACTUALLY DOES.


q/q

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]

The point being :

If you want to know what a "conservative" really believes in, look at what he ACTUALLY DOES.


q/q

[/ QUOTE ]

.......George Orwell

.....1984

.....Animal Farm

....."double-speak"

....."double-think"

It's all right in our faces, if we choose to see it.

I have trouble defining my political views, anyone that knows me would say i'm definitely very right wing& conservative, but if I go into detail I would support a lot of "left wing" ideas. Which group do you think best supports these views (if it matters, I'm British btw):

Very liberal financial, and personal responsibility and freedom: low tax, low-to-no benefits, free markets, no free-loading.

Very liberal legally: no drugs restrictions, no consensual-sex restrictions, objective intelligent secular schooling and legal system.

Very conservative criminally: very harsh sentencing for people who break laws.

To summarize with an example, I think that if I have worked hard through school to get qualified and get a good job, I should be able to spend my money to buy anything, for example drugs. If on the other hand people break my laws, say stealing to feed a drug habit, then they should be put down. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Am I a conservative?

And why doesnt this party exist so I can vote for them? [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

I am surprised that liberal legal and liberal financial are rarely combined in a persons political opinions, it seems perfectly logical to me!

[lehighguy]

The value of responses will no doubt mirror the value of this post.

[vulturesrow]

Waxie,

IF you are up for some dense reading, you cant do any better than Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot.

[Andrew Fletcher]

yeah, I've already read Kirk's book. He's an interesting guy. I've also read a ton of Buckley's writings as well.

Some other good books:
-Conservative Intellectual Movement in American Since 1945 by George Nash
-Right-Wing Populism in America by Chip Berlet
-Before the Storm by Rick Berlstein
-The Politics of Rage by Dan Carter
-The Other Side of the Sixties by John A. Andrew.

The point of this post is that most self-identifying conservatives don't know anything about the historical legacy of their politics. In particular, they aren't aware of the isolationism and often pro-nazism before WWII, open racism during the 1960s, and other obvious intellectual origins of most right-wing ideas.