Conservatives are Classical Liberals
The masses don't get holistic conservative thought. They get little slivers of it, distorted, looking like a funhouse mirror. It'll be some quotes from Limbaugh taken out of context, a Pat Robertson quote, or a picture of a redneck holding a beer with "Bomb Saddam" on this dirty sleeveless t-shirt while standing in front of a mobile home with junk cars in the yard. Conservative thought is boxed up and marked for you by mainstream media, Hollywood, and academia as "Right Wing Fascist Inside" or "Dragons be in these parts lad."
Who's correct? If the truth to you is not the truth to me then they both are correct and wrong. Right? Confused? If the ideas of the “Right” (conservatives) and the “Left” (liberals) are simply a change of season, a swing of the pendulum, just an opinion, and in the long run, they are interchangeable, meaningless really. Well. I don't think that way.
And here’s why…
I believe a moral code that helps one understand and distinguish between good and evil, right and wrong, and truth and falsehood is essential to civilization. I believe in interdependence born of independence, not dependence. I reject the tribal, the collective, and the so-called “common good”. In short, I believe in principles and wisdom. Wisdom is the knowledge of things that don't change. The far Left-wing ideology parading as 'progressive' demonstrates that principles don't matter (they are a provincial construct) unless your 'principle' is; there are no principles (no truth). That is destructive.
I believe what is considered Right wing nowadays is actually the fulcrum, the balance, the center, and is in no way the Jingoistic Wing. Right-wing is actually a misnomer. The liberals have gone off the deep end, they are so far from their grounding that they’ve become promoters of socialism which is not what a true classic liberal is, and they have left behind the American spirit.
I think wisdom and principles are integrated by a core philosophy - a thought system to process ideas. I believe correct ideas are as indispensable as water, food, sun, and rain. From the foundations of the earth, the beginning of time, whether you are a creationist or evolutionist, that which is fit tends to survive and reproduce. And only those who are fit/prosperous can help those in need. We must pass along the best ideas as we do the best folklore. All ideas are not equal by virtue of their existence.
Looking back at history, we see that civilizations excelled and then died off. We are on the crest of the wave called the Enlightenment. A wave, an idea, that brought Europe out of the dark ages. We, the USA, harnessed that wave and improved on it. In our time we clearly see the “survival of the fittest” and fit - most prosperous, most powerful - being the USA. Why? I say the USA got here on what is now labeled (in this epoch) conservative philosophy, which is in reality classical liberalism.
Is conservatism dying? No, but it is suffering. One of the things conservatism suffers from in pop culture is the name, it's just not very sexy. I mean come on! Wouldn't you rather be called “progressive”? We could chortle; clear our throats, adjust our reading spectacles with dignity, and be sexy. What we need to understand is that conservatism - as an influential philosophy - is dying. And it's our own fault because we don't want to appear as radicals because the Left has already succeeded in brainwashing the masses and marched through the institutions. So now pop culture and half of society sincerely believe we're narrow-minded radicals anyway when indeed the opposite is true. To them, we carry pitchforks, have missing teeth, and believe in Jim Crow laws.
Conservatism is dying because we are responsible for its health and we are starving a fit animal to death when it is the elephant in the Serengeti Plain of ideas. The hermaphrodite-looking hyenas are running the cultural landscape.
Conservatism is dying because we haven't properly defined it or promoted it. In a world where Image is everything, we look like a bunch of idiots - not because we are, but, because the overwhelming odds have us improperly characterized as toothless Hill Billies. I have seen this in my own life. When liberals/Lefties read entries on my old blog they’d be shocked when I write a poem or an inspirational piece.
How can someone as right-wing as you like good music?
- comment from a liberal on my old blog.
They don't expect it. They've stereotyped us. They'd like to whittle away my conservatism. They believe it’s a blot on my otherwise goodness. They believe my good taste is a mistake, as a broken clock is correct twice a day. They don't want to admit that the depth of my heart and soul expressed comes from my well of beliefs that are considered conservative, or old-fashioned.
What does conservative really mean these days? To be accurate 'conservative' in the real modern sense no longer looks like the classic conservative. Classic conservative is often synonymous with “old fashion” or “outdated”. Of my conservative friends, I don’t know any that are outdated and old-fashioned. Yet, we cannot deny what those who don't know us think about us - they think we're old-fashioned and outdated. Conservatives indeed are not purely conservative in the classical sense.
What are we conserving? I believe we are conserving what Abraham Lincoln called the last best hope; which is progress.
Modern conservative philosophy properly understood and then applied is the fulcrum for true progress. Call it “the good,” call it “progress” call it “liberal” ...a rose is a rose by any other name. We are classical liberals, my friends. The philosophy that embodies our movement is the thought system that catapulted the world into a 5000-year leap! The so-called 'progressives' use that label, that shell to cover their Leftist nut. Leftists are not liberal. The liberals who have embraced Leftist ideas are utterly clueless. But the Leftists who cloaked themselves in liberalism are wolves in sheep’s clothing. Calling a modern Leftist a liberal is an oxymoron. Was Moa a liberal? Was Lenin a liberal? Is Castro a liberal? Was Pol Pot a liberal? Was Che Guevara a liberal? No. They were Leftists. But, you see so-called “liberals” wearing Che t-shirts. And, an honest look at the infamous five above, you will find so-called "liberals" have more in common with them than the founding fathers.
Calling a modern conservative a classical liberal is a proper identification. Calling a modern liberal a slave to a failed and dangerous ideology is the proper identification.