In my experience, liberals define their beliefs in terms of what they want or hope for, while self-identified conservatives are always against something — taxes, business regulations, entitlements. What does that say about the two creeds?
I’ve never met a Conservative I didn’t like…:
I’ve never met a Conservative I didn’t like…
…possibly because I’ve never met a Conservative.I’ve met lots of people who call themselves Conservatives. Some of them are Right Wing reactionaries and authoritarians with none of the respect for tradition, fiscal responsibilitity, suspicion of strong, centralized Government, and belief in civil discourse that characterize true Conservatives. Wanting to burn down the world to make it over new, even if that Brave New World will have no Liberals living in it, is not a Conservative attitude.
These “Conservatives” are Radical Reactionaries. They sometimes like to call themselves Revolutionaries, but they are revolutionary in the way the Luddites were revolutionary or the supporters of the Pretender Bonnie Prince Charlie were revolutionary. They want to go backwards. They are in revolt against the contemporary world, and not every revolt isn’t a revolution.
This opener is in response to this post. Both worth a read.