I'm a lefty on the political spectrum. I have read a lot of the old stuff, both liberal and conservative. Going back to the French Revolution, and forward towards the creation of Conservatism, I read what Burke wrote about it and the American Revolution. It seems to me that although the conservatives did have a few good points, I just can't find it within myself to agree with them.
It just really goes back to that whole, "those without property have no place in politics" bit. It really tends to turn one off from a point of view.
Although Metternich's principles at the Congress of Vienna have been lauded for "restoring Europe," they also set back natural progressive social reform several generations. The "Great Powers" completely ignored the liberal trends introduced in the Revolution. None of the gains would be implemented and all that was built would be sacrificed to the sacred cow of "Order."
Although Europe had peace until about 1914, the Congress' reactionary tendencies muffled any real debate about it on the Continent. This is what happens when reactionary conservatives are left to run the show. The Revolution didn't die, they just buried it for a while.
But why am I even talking about this? What does it have to do with anything? Well, I'm a big fan of the idea of progress. Conservatives, then and now, believe in the restoration of a past that never was. The "Good Ol' Days!" as they usually say. In fact, Conservatism as an ideology is founded upon the idea that all that was good is in the past, dead and gone.
The founding principles of Conservatism, written by Burke, admit to no real plan to help society. They have no real ideas of their own, only reactions to the ideas of others. They reject abstract reason as a way to govern. They believe in a government that is at once paternalist and filicidal at the same time.
Throughout most of history, conservatives have been wrong. That's really the only criticism I have. It's just that you guys are incorrect, I'm sorry. Conservatives originally opposed popular sovereignty, democracy, the popular vote, the end of the slave trade, women and black suffrage, and so on. It's this belief that somehow, everything new is bad and everything old is good. We should go back to the way our father's did things because...that's the way they did them (regardless of whether or not our father's had good jobs, health care, social security, etc.).
It's this glorification of the past that I don't understand. I get Traditionalism, wanting to have things you cherish. I get that. I even get why you'd be interested in the past. Heck, I LOVE history. But you have to learn from it, grow from it. Conservatives hold the line against rational progress.
That's not to say that conservatives are the only ones who are at times overzealous. I don't really think I need to mention the Bolsheviks. But looking from the past the foundations of conservativsm, let's look at its' present.
The current most widely-known American conservatives are probably George Bush, Karl Rove, Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly. You have these guys going on TV daily, on only one television network (guess), and spewing hateful garbage about the progressive cause. They advocate torture of prisoners, military action against Iran & Iraq, capital punishment, banning abortion, slashing funding for schools (because they are "controlled by unions!"), escalation of the war on drugs, banning of research on stem cells, outlawing gay marriage, and on and on. I don't believe in any of it.
When laid out bare for all to see, the core values and views of conservatism just make me ill. That's who I am, that's what I think, and so there's your explanation.
All that being said, I love to talk to conservatives. I love them as people, I think they deserve the best in life just like everyone else. I will treat you respectfully as long as you do the same.
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