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The Modern Conservative

Do You Agree?

"The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy: that is the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness."
-- John Kenneth Galbraith

Conservative Modern The

I don't agree with this statement at all.

The words "conservative" and "conservatism" have changed their meaning greatly over the last few decades.

At one time, probably before about 1968, conservatives were mostly concerned with maintaining what they saw as a good way of life. Maintain the status quo, as it worked. There were problems with life in general, but it was generally good, at least for most people.

However, since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it has been easy to see that conservatives in the US are generally more concerned with traditional morality issues. Starting with the Civil Rights Act, Republicans in the US, generally considered conservative, have sponsored and implemented major civil rights reforms, fought for a moral standard of judgement in societal matters, and sought to expand liberty throughout the world.

Since they ARE conservative by modern standards, their opponents frequently use an argument that they are trying to take the nation back to the 50's, or to impose a theocracy on the nation. This is because many conservatives are intensely religious, and that has a very strong influence on their (our) opinions, policies, and choices. Therefore, social conservatives strongly oppose abortion, because of the belief that a fetus is a life, and deserves to have the chance to live, not be killed before birth. We generally support the death penalty, because we hold people responsible for their actions, and when the actions are especially horrific, we expect the people to pay the ultimate price. We also tend to oppose changes that greatly affect the structure of the family, such as "gay marriage".

Some (many) are willing to use the government to "force" people to behave certain ways. So, they support strong action against all sorts of drug offenders. They also support laws to severely punish other forms of behaviour that may harm society.

Fiscal conservatives focus on the financial aspects of government. For example, fiscal conservatives may push for a more balanced budget, less government spending, strict oversight of government programs, and lower taxes.

Most conservatives in the US generally follow the ideas the Barry Goldwater explained in his 1964 campaign for president. That is, that government is not efficient or good at doing things, that less government is better, and that the government should stay out of the private lives of people.

During the 1970s and 1980s, I know that the conservative movement was very vocal about reducing the size, scope, and power of government in the US. Ronald Reagan was a particularly good proponent of these ideas, and he showed the people of the US that it was possible to hold such positions and still be concerned about people.

Unfortunately, the Left (liberals) in the US were most strongly influenced by the anti-war, anti-Vietnam protestors of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and turned completely against the general values and positions of the conservatives. Where conservatives generally feel that government causes problems, liberals now feel that government is the solution to all problems. Most conservatives want to fight for smaller government programs, liberals want more powerful programs.

I think that one of the main reasons that so many people seem to agree with the statement that started this topic is that conservatives think that taxation is generally too high, that government shouldn't have the right to forcibly take peoples' money and redistribute it to other people and programs. Liberals appear to think that taxation is way too low in the US, and hate the thought of common people managing their own money. So, when conservatives support lower taxes, and oppose big government programs, liberals claim that this is because of selfishness, not principle.

Then, when it comes to some other issues, such as defense, conservatives generally favor a strong military, that is capable and willing to be proactive. We tend to want military action, when needed, to be powerful, well-planned, and decisive. We want military action to be used for the protection of our country, not for the police actions decided by other countries. Liberals seem to want our military forces to be used as "meals on wheels" programs, or police forces. They want us to turn over the decision making about what is best for our country and ourselves to extra-national bodies, as well as other nations. So, when a liberal president (Clinton) accepted a NATO move to get involved in Kosovo, the liberals celebrated this action, while the conservatives couldn't see that we had any business being there. Yet, when the US military went into Iraq (and Afghanistan), the liberals screamed that it was all about "selfishness", to protect the oil supplies, and to enrich "Halliburton" (standing for big business interests). Conservatives generally look at our involvement in those countries as really being important parts of the war on terror.

Conservatives really believe that individual liberty is important. John F. Kennedy spoke about how the US would stand for liberty, would pay any price to promote it. However, his successors have given up on this idea. They have become the cheering section for many oppressors, including China, Vietnam, and North Korea. They celebrate the financial bondage and moral license that permeates Europe (especially western Europe). Since conservatives promote personal responsibility and moral restraint, as well as individual fiscal liberty, they are again considered "selfish" for claiming that socialist ideas are not good.

Well, that should be enough of a rant. There are both good and bad people and ideas on both sides of the discussion. Personally, I take the fiscal and social conservative views, with a huge dash of libertarian ideals. I believe in personaly liberty and personal responsibility. I believe that there is no problem so great that government involvement can't (and most likely won't) make it worse. I believe that a strong, intelligent, technological military is the best guarantor of national security.

The Modern Conservative History & Civil Business Politics

I disagree with the statement and more or less agree with Nighthawk on the matter, but being a socially conservative libertarian I guess it would be that way..

In fact I would say that statement would be true if the word conservative were replaced with socialist.
Galbraith is a well-known liberal and despiser of freedom (ironic, that liberal are always so illiberal).

Some of Galbraith's views can be found in this article, should readers be interested (it's been updated to 2004):

Toward A Socialist America
https://www.usiap.org/Viewpoints/Zgen/Towar...istAmerica.html


Dubhdara.

Conservative Modern The

What's it mean to be conservative?

Ken in Philadelphia called into the program today to ask Glenn the definition of a conservative. Glenn said he would answer so long as Ken didn't have an agenda. Ken did have an agenda ---but Glenn gave him the answer anyway.
Ref. https://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/9949/