What is a Conservative?

The word conservative is used by many people, but few seem to have any real idea of what it means. The media uses the term very inconsistently. A frequent misperception is that conservative is synonymous with Republican -- not true at all. Despite the misuse of the word conservative, laying out a political spectrum that shows conservatives and liberals, which represents all political philosophies, and can be applied to any domestic issue and show consistent results is not hard. However, when you actually applied this to issues of the day some interesting results occur. Not the kind of results you'd get if you read the paper.

If you read or listen to the media, you'd have a hard time coming up with a definition of conservative that can be consistently applied. Perhaps the media subscribes to a political spectrum that has Communists and Socialists on the "Far Left" (a term never seen in the press any more) and Nazis and Fascists on the "Far Right." If this is true, then it also explains their confusion in trying to define the term conservative. Looking at a political spectrum that has a totalitarian form of government on the left and a totalitarian form of government on the right, where do you put someone like Congressman Ron Paul? Or libertarians in general? Or anarchists -- people who believe in no government whatsoever? You can't.

The only way I can take what I see in the media and come up with a definition of conservative that yields a consistent result every time it is applied is to assume the media defines a conservative position as any position with which they do not agree. If you are Pro-Life, you are a conservative. If you favor the Patriot Act, you are a conservative. If you oppose Gun Control, you are a conservative. Pick an issue, read the paper's editorial on the subject and dollars to doughnuts, I bet the position they oppose is the conservative point of view.

Another characteristic that is consistent in the media's use of the term "conservative" is that it usually coincides with the points of view of Republicans. To the media it seems that Republican is the same as conservative. If I have one criticism of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and other conservative talk show hosts it is that all too often they are guilty of taking the position that Republican = Conservative.

On the other side, I once listened to two authors interviewed on the National Public Radio show Fresh Air. The authors wrote a book about the Radical Conservativism that was running rampant in the US during this decade. They attributed it all to President Bush and the Republican Congress. One of the examples they cited of the Radical Conservative laws enacted was the Prescription Drug program for Seniors, which cost hundreds of billions of dollars and drove up the budget deficit.

To these authors it was a "radical" idea to give coverage for prescription drugs that are badly needed by senior citizens to maintain their health. And it was a conservative idea to pass a law to spend hundreds of billions of dollars without having the tax revenues to pay for it.

Now how do you reconcile that definition of "radical conservative" with Ronald Reagan's philosophy of getting government off our backs and out of our pockets? Does anyone suggest that Ronald Reagan was not a conservative? Wasn't that phrase -- getting government off our backs and out of our pockets -- the cornerstone of his philosophy of government? Comparing what those two authors defined as Radical Conservative with President Reagan's fundamental philosophy shows how badly the media has corrupted the definition of conservative.

The truth is President Reagan's favorite line is a great place to come up with a real, viable definition of the term "conservative." If a conservative is someone who believes in "Getting government off our backs and out of our pockets," that means a conservative is someone who believes in smaller government, less government intervention in our lives, and lower taxes. A liberal is someone who believes in just the opposite.

Now we have definitions and a political spectrum that can accommodate all political points of view. An anarchist is someone who believes in no government at all. Therefore, an anarchist belongs on the radical conservative or far right end of the spectrum. A socialist is someone who believes in complete government control of business, industry, and our lives. Therefore a socialist falls at the radical liberal or far left end of the spectrum. This definition can be applied issue by issue to domestic issues and you will see a consistent, predictable result each time. But consistent does not mean the results will meet your expectations -- quite the contrary, there will be some results that surprise you.

Let's start with some easy ones --

• Favoring government ownership of banks and auto companies is a liberal position. It means more government intervention. It should be noted that this policy was created by the Bush Administration.
• Supporting the Second Amendment and the right to bear arms is a conservative position. It means less government intervention into whether a person can buy and own firearms.

Now let's apply that definition to show some surprising results --

• Supporting the Patriot Act, which allows the Government to listen to phone calls, make searches without warrants, and generally more closely oversee our lives to combat terrorism -- gotta be defined as a liberal position - it gives the government significant rights to intrude into our lives (For the record, I supported this legislation)
• Favoring legalization of marijuana is a conservative position. Allowing individuals the right to choose whether to use marijuana takes government "off our backs." How many conservatives do you know who favor this? Almost every Libertarian would fall in that category.

As I said -- surprising results. Now I favored the Patriot Act. I thought that after the terrorist attack of 911, there was a very good reason to support the Patriot Act -- to protect the Country from future terrorist attacks.

So there you have it. The goal here was not to define the term conservative in such a way that every position I like is a "conservative" position. That would be as wrong as what the media does in defining conservative as a person supporting every position they don't like. The goal was to create an impartial definition that can be applied to any issue to produce consistent results.

You now have such a definition. You can use my definition, look at any piece of legislation or any issue and define which point of view is the conservative point of view. But keep in mind that the conservative position is not always the right position... well, actually if conservatives are on the right, then the conservative position is the "right" position but it is not always the correct position.

Until next time, be well....

Ken

p.s. I am not sure you can apply my definition to many foreign policy issues. Was attacking Al Quaeda in Afghanistan a policy of more or less government intervention in our lives? On Foreign Policy, I think you have to look at each policy on its face and try to determine whether you think it makes our country safer and there are no clear or consistent answers because circumstances change in such a way that what works today won't work tomorrow and vice versa.