Friday, October 28, 2011

True Conservatives

I detest the label “true conservative” because not many “true conservatives” fit the Reagan definition.

“If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals — if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is.” – Ronald Reagan Reason Magazine July 1975
Most of the “true conservatives” favor a different brand of meddling than the liberals. But what they have in common is that they favor government intervention to “solve” the social problems they care about. Forgetting the one truism about government. It doesn’t solve problems. It perpetuates them in order to keep the cash flowing.

And yet when I bring up the libertarian idea (sensible on foreign policy differentiates them from Libertarians) I get nothing but derision from “true conservatives”. Just ask a “true conservative” about the Constitutional justification for Drug Prohibition and watch what happens. Oh. They may concede on the Constitution part. But that does not make them want to abolish the DEA despite Drug Prohibition’s Progressive origins. You would think that the Constitution and Progressive origins would be enough to change a lot of “true conservative’s” minds. You would be wrong.

I look forward to the day when “true conservatives” become truly conservative.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

1 comment:

Will Brown said...

It is a rare individual it seems, who is prepared to face down his fears to conform to his principles. Too many of us are willing to surrender freedom to keep some other from exercising same. Is it fair to say that fear kills freedom?