P.S. I doubt Dan Riehl would be a "true conservative" as measured by the graph. He's not a big defense kinda guy, but nevertheless touts himself as an ideological gatekeeper.
Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education - from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
Friday, February 4, 2011
True Conservatives
I'm trippin' on this graphic, from Melissa Clouthier, "Should Libertarians Be Banned From CPAC?" (via Memeorandum). It's not developed from Melissa's discussion, but can we say the tea party represents "true conservatism" if large numbers of tea partiers are closer to the libertarian position on defense? I'm neocon, and firmly is the defense and social conservatives circles, but I'm also a tea partier and would like to see more fiscal restraint in government, although that circle's less defining of my ideological identity. Anyway, folks'll have to read Melissa's post to see if she'd boot libertarians from CPAC. (And folks should check Midnight Blue's CPAC updates, while I'm thinking about it.)
P.S. I doubt Dan Riehl would be a "true conservative" as measured by the graph. He's not a big defense kinda guy, but nevertheless touts himself as an ideological gatekeeper.
P.S. I doubt Dan Riehl would be a "true conservative" as measured by the graph. He's not a big defense kinda guy, but nevertheless touts himself as an ideological gatekeeper.
Libertarians--the upper case L: are an intellectual movement with no actual social basis outside of bookish theory and hence is pure ideology. While the neo and paleo contrast shows a cultural shift as demonstrated by actual American character. Mr. Ron Paul and others are of a paradigm that starts of paleoconservatism and ends infringed upon by Libertarians. Using the upper-case spelling demonstrates the ideology and not just the party of Libertarianism. While libertarian (lower-case) is the antithesis of authoritarian.
ReplyDeleteIf small government isn't mandatory, what in earth does conservative mean? Can a socialist who is socially conservative and hawkish be a conservative? Surely the one thing that united conservatives from the 1950s on was their opposition to communism and big government.
ReplyDeleteI'd ask a different question: can big government Republicans be part of CPAC?