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| Source:Hoover Institution- author John Micheltwait. |
Source:The FreeState
“A half-century ago, the ideology of the American political establishment was liberal—the New Deal was still new and big government was getting bigger. Today, after a political revolution that began with Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, it may be argued that conservativism has become the dominant ideological force in American politics. But what does conservativism mean today? And if it is ascendant, how long can it remain so? Peter Robinson speaks with Clark S. Judge and John Micklethwait.”
From Hoover Institution
If you are going to use political labels, you need to use them correctly. I know I'm stubborn on this, but I hate hearing about how conservative someone is who bases if not their entire political ideology, on their fundamentalists views on religion and culture, as well as race and ethnicity and women's place in the world.
I hate hearing about how liberal someone is, who believes there's no such thing as high taxes, regardless of how high they are and that there's basically nothing that government can't do for people and that masculinity is dangerous, European-Americans are essentially bad people, etc.
What you get in this debate from the so-called Conservatives here, is that conservative is right and that liberal is left. That conservative represents America in America and liberal represents Britain and Europe in America ideologically. When the fact is, Conservatives and Liberals (at least in the classical, if not real sense) have a lot in common ideologically. They are both considered center-right in Europe and probably the rest of the developed world, at least outside of America.
I agree with Perter Robinson, John Micheltwait, and Clark Judge, that America is essentially a center-right country. But you need to know what center-right is:
Americans tend to believe in both personal and economic freedom, meaning property rights.
Americans tend to love the U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and all the individual rights that come with it, al those values being liberal values, like free speech, the right to self-defense, right to privacy, checks and balances, free press, property rights, federalism, equal rights, equal justice, etc.
The reason why I say that Liberals and Conservatives aren't left and right, but both center-right, because they believe in the same constitutional and ideological values, at least when you look at what liberal and conservative is in the classical sense, which is the real sense with me. Liberal vs Conservative, is not hippie versus redneck, but instead Liberals tend to believe in progress and Conservatives tend to be a lot more methodical, before they decide to move forward.
