What Being a US Conservative Means

Critically thinking about what are the core Conservative principles

I was a bit startled last week when a competent, well-connected US Conservative wrote me. He said: “I have thought for a long time that the term ‘Conservative’ is a dumb label for my beliefs, and far from what some others believe about us. Here is an article in the Wall Street Journal, that agrees.”

I then perused that commentary and found that it made silly statements such as:

“Prevailing political mythology holds that the Democratic Party’s policies are ‘progressive’—meaning they promote change toward greater justice—while the Republican Party’s are ‘conservative’—meaning they try to slow or arrest this progressive change…”

This malarky was followed by more such nonsense. The only accurate word in that quote is “myth.” As I’ve written before (e.g., here), the Left has put great emphasis on redefining normal terms to better advance their agenda. This is a fine example, where the Left is portrayed as virtuous and progressive, while the Right is damned as anti-justice and regressive, etc. What BS!

The reality is that the Left’s message is to primarily look at current and historical events through a lens of oppression, bias and victimhood. This fosters an entitlement mentality and more dependence on Big Government. These indeed are things that Conservatives would like to slow or arrest! But what do Conservative stand FOR?

IMO, a soundbite that defines US Conservatives is: they are mostly citizens who believe in God (e.g., Judeo-Christian standards), and who ascribe to the principles set forth in our Declaration of Independence and Constitution.

Compare that to the Left’s typical belief in no-god relativism, and their conviction that the Constitution is an archaic document written mostly by self-serving white men.

So what is a good, more-detailed description of what US Conservatives stand for? Maybe you have something better, but I found this to be an articulate, informative start at an explanation: Seven Core Principles of Conservatism. These are:

1 - Individual Freedom

2 - Limited Government

3 - The Rule of Law

4 - Peace Through Strength

5 - Fiscal Responsibility

6 - Free Markets

7 - Human Dignity

After doing some critical thinking, maybe you’d like to add additional principles, or to modify some of those definitions. A digest of some additions that come to me are:

8 - Our technical policies should be based on real Science, not political science.

9 - Conservatives advocate equal opportunity, not equal results.

10-Election integrity means easy to vote, hard to cheat, with verifiable results.

11-Our education system should prioritize teaching the ability to do, and instill the interest in, critical thinking.

12-Conservative’s value system is God-centered, not subjective relativism.

This list is a prime example of what should be discussed — and agreed on — when major US Conservative organizations periodically get together (one or more times a year). At this point I’m not aware of any such principles that US Conservative organizations have mutually and formally agreed on and adopted — so it’s no surprise that the public would not be clear about what Conservatives stand for.

That surprising omission would leave the field open to Conservative opponents to fill that void with nonsense like what is in the above WSJ article.

All this is consistent with the four key steps that US Conservative organizations need to quickly implement, if they want to start catching up to their Left counterparts. In fact, defining the fundamental principles of US Conservative organizations should be listed as a fifth key step that needs to be taken.

Otherwise, Conservatives will be relegated to perpetually bemoaning the “surprising” results of future elections with a serious of woulda, coulda, shoulda’s…

{Feel free to add your constructive insights below…}

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Here are other materials by this scientist that you might find interesting:

WiseEnergy.org: discusses the science (or lack thereof) behind our energy options.

C19Science.info: covers the lack of genuine science behind our COVID-19 policies.

Election-Integrity.info: multiple major reports on the election integrity issue.

Media Balance Newsletter: a free, twice-a-month newsletter that covers what the mainstream media does not, on issues from: COVID to climate, elections to education, renewables to religion, etc. Here are the Newsletter’s 2022 Archives. Send me an email to get your free copy. When emailing me, please make sure to include your full name, and the state where you live. (Of course, you can cancel the Media Balance Newsletter at any time - but why would you?)

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