Short answer ... at one time it had some principles; fiscal restraint, personal responsibility, strong defense. Since Burke it's gone through more redefinitions than a word for odor.
Now? I regard it as a synonym for cruelty. Period.
Short answer ... at one time it had some principles; fiscal restraint, personal responsibility, strong defense. Since Burke it's gone through more redefinitions than a word for odor.
Now? I regard it as a synonym for cruelty. Period.
I understand a distaste for the evangelical right, but I consider them to be a subset of conservatism. Perhaps what I think, as previously stated as the foundation of conservatism is outside of the mainstream definition associated with Burke. They have a loud voice, just as the burn it down illiberals have.
There are as you note many varieites of "conservatism".
Personally, while I spent most of my life as a progressive liberal (now more independent), I can find many items of value within what I call "philosophical conservatism". "Know the reason a fence was built before tearing it down", or "there are no solutions, only tradeoffs" as a couple of succinct expressions of some facets I agree with.
I do not resonate with many social conservatives, who are more defined as a competing tribe in a war of culture and politics, than as a coherent philosophy.
Short answer ... at one time it had some principles; fiscal restraint, personal responsibility, strong defense. Since Burke it's gone through more redefinitions than a word for odor.
Now? I regard it as a synonym for cruelty. Period.
Burke?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke
I understand a distaste for the evangelical right, but I consider them to be a subset of conservatism. Perhaps what I think, as previously stated as the foundation of conservatism is outside of the mainstream definition associated with Burke. They have a loud voice, just as the burn it down illiberals have.
There are as you note many varieites of "conservatism".
Personally, while I spent most of my life as a progressive liberal (now more independent), I can find many items of value within what I call "philosophical conservatism". "Know the reason a fence was built before tearing it down", or "there are no solutions, only tradeoffs" as a couple of succinct expressions of some facets I agree with.
I do not resonate with many social conservatives, who are more defined as a competing tribe in a war of culture and politics, than as a coherent philosophy.
It's sad that people do often are voting against someone/something rather than an inspired for.