What is the appeal of conservatism to the masses?

Question

Liberalism or Progressivism would seem to offer more benefits to the general public, so why the current popularity of conservatism?

Answer 1

I am copying another answerer here, whose name I have forgotten. Very well written.

Why are the masses drawn to conservatism?

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BECAUSE THEY ARE A SPECIAL PEOPLE

You supported bush, but in time, you will come to
realize how he targeted you for deception.

You were specially picked because of the attributes
you possess: fear, ignorance, arrogance, belligerence,
bigotry, and low self-esteem. Bush's political
strategists calculated that the people most easily
misled and controlled are the ones who fit your
profile, so they crafted their propaganda just for
you.

He got your support by making you feel better about
your personal flaws. He told you to wave the flag
because your bigotry is nothing be ashamed of, and to
thump the bible because your ignorance is a virtue.
You should cherish your hatefulness and
small-mindedness as they are family values. You are
not society's rejects, but rather, you are higher on
the ladder than certain other people. Right-wing radio
points them out so that you know who to hate to feel
better about yourself.

He feeds you crap about "imminent threat",
"patriotism", "spreading freedom", and "flowers and
candy". He's only tossing you a bone because he knows
he's going to be asking you for a hefty sacrifice
soon. He repeats meaningless, mind-numbing platitudes
like "Freedom is not free!" and "We're fighting them
there so we don't have to fight them here!" You fell
for it.

By now, it should be apparent that the invasion of
Iraq was a shameless oil grab. We're there because the
rich, powerful, and greedy of this country, people who
you have nothing to do with, want to control that part
of the world's oil resources for decades to come, and
they're using your tax dollars and your children's
blood to do it. Over a hundred thousand people,
American and Iraqi, are dead because of it, and the
depleted uranium left behind will ensure that tens of
thousands more die afterwards. You call that
liberation? Not even that many people died when Saddam
Hussein tried to grab Kuwait's oil fields years ago.

Yes, you are a special people, cons. You do not
possess patriotism, a love of America, or any of those
high-minded ideals as you would like to believe. You
possess the qualities that allowed bush to hijack your
free will to do his bidding. You were used, and he did
it by playing to the personal shortcomings that most
people try to hide. Like Samuel L. Jackson's character
at the end of the movie Unbreakable, you become aware,
only after the fact, of the disgraceful role that you
were destined to play. You will come to realize that
you are history's bad guy. Like the McCarthyites or
the brownshirts, you will serve both as a symbol of
shame and a warning to future generations. You truly
are a special people.GOD HELP US ALL,AND AMERICA.
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Answer 2

Well you see that is a hard question to answer. If people actually were smart enough to examine all of the issues, and form their own opinion based on real evidence, conservatism wouldn't exist. It's that people are too lazy to get all the facts, they let others decide for them. For instance church leaders or FOX TV hosts, what-ever. There is so much mis-information out there that it sometimes becomes hard to find the truth. For example conservative have been putting out the myth that liberals are soft on national defense, yet it was liberals who won all the major conflicts in the last 70 years, and conservatives who bungled Vietnam, and Korea. The lone exception is Bush Sr. and the first war for Oil. Bush Jr did nothing on 9/11 but read to school children for a dumb photo opp while we were being attacked, how is that stong on defense? Another great example is how the conservatives claim that liberals are weak in handleing the economy, yet the best two economic presidents are FDR and Clinton, but who would know through all the rhetoric!

Answer 3

True conservatism has several strong arguments in its favor. First, institutions, etc., that have already existed for a long time without significant problems have the "if it ain't broke" thing going for them: they have demonstrated their workability and should not be too hastily abandoned. Second, new innovations often seem perfect answers to short-term problems, but the long-term consequences are often problematic and impossible to predict; this suggests that a society should be cautious in its innovations. Finally, some people are just more comfortable in a more traditional lifestyle, even if it seems out-of-touch with broader knowledge and experience.

I would point out that, in these strange times, the term "conservative" has ceased to have clear meaning. After all, a conservative party is not who you would expect to find trying to change the Constitution every election year, or arguing that the President's power is beyond any check of the Congress or the courts, or trying to override state legislation with federal regulations, or amassing gigantic national debts. Today's radical Republicans have little to do with the real meaning of conservatism; those liberals who wish to conserve the Bill of Rights have been made more conservative by our times than they might yet fully understand.

Answer 4

What benefits? Conservatism works, Liberalism/Progressivism doesn't.

Answer 5

I guess it depends on what your definition of "the general public" is.

I see the general public, the average American, as a working person with a modest, yet livable income. No four-bedroom home with a pool in a snooty neighborhood, but a nice home in a safe neighborhood. These people benefit most from conservatism because we believe in allowing people to keep what they earn and not stealing it to buy votes from non-producers.

Conservatives believe in keeping the government out of our lives as much as possible so that we can enjoy the freedoms that our country allows. Liberals believe in regulating everything including what words you are and are not allowed to use for fear of offending someone with your speech.

Conservatism is beneficial to people who work for a living - for people who actually contribute to society instead of leeching off of their fellow man. Conservatives believe in charity that helps people who help themselves, not charity like welfare that creates generation after generation of takers.

So, unless you see the general public as the slacker/taker, I don't understand how you can believe that liberalism is better for the average American.

Answer 6

The conservative movement is really a multi-pronged movement. The movement managers such as Karl Rove use different portions of it to appeal to different group. A lot of this started a long time ago when the late Sen. Strom Thurmond, in protest of forced integration and other civil rights issues moved from being a "Dixiecrat" (southern Democrat) to the Republican party in protest and took a lot of people with him. This did a lot to remap the country giving large portions of the South to the Republican party - Republican being synonymous with Conservative.

Additionally, in 1994, when the Republican party swept the elections and wrested both houses of Congress from the Democrat party, many southern Democrats jumped parties to remain in the majority. Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby is a prime example of this.

But the Conservative movement hasn't always been about religion and abortion. One of modern conservatism's founding fathers - Sen. Barry Goldwater from AZ - was more in favor of core conservative ideas such as lower taxes, supply side economics and limited government intervention in the public and in markets. These were also the Conservative tenets of President Reagan and former House Majority Leader Dick Armey. But the southern and midwestern influences that crept into the party have made abortion and other more polarizing issues (gay marriage for example) part of the Republica platform as well and therefore part of the, "Conservative Ideology."

If you visit the original Contract with America, you won't see a single reference to abortion or gay rights. Rather, the message that resonated in the 90s was related to reform and accountability in government. It was the Southern influence of Republican party strategists like Ralph Reed that injected more moralistic or theological-based ideas into Conservatism. And it's not to say some or many Republican politicians haven't always been against abortion. Rather, it's more that this and other issues were brought to bear publicly and given lip service by those officials as repayment to the evangelical organizations that helped usher the Republican party into power.

Getting back to my original point, the Republican party - the current standard bearer for Conservatism - peddles the moralistic message to select audiences in more religious parts of the country. It peddles the original lower tax tenets to more affluent voters or middle class voters who aspire to greater wealth and success. And finally, it has completely and totally owned the concept of national security post 9/11 as a blanket issue that cuts across different sociocultural lines. The 9/11 security issue has sort of backfired on them though with all the of the current problems in Iraq, Iran, N. Korea and Afghanistan and may end up costing them control of one or more houses of Congress and likely diminish Republican chances at winning the White House post George W. Bush.

Answer 7

Agreed (to a certain extent) but mainly sociologists will tell you that as the general public grows older, they tend to be come more and more socially conservative, and while that may not be the same thing as conservatism per se, I suppose there might be a correlation.

Answer 8

While leftism might 'seem' to offer more benefits, in the real world, they see what happens in leftist countries, and it isn't better. More government control, less freedom, more unemployment, higher taxes and moribund economies.

In fact, this rejection of 'progressivism' is an indicator that people aren't as stupid and helpless as leftists would have you believe.

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Ooh, cut and paste political 'thoughts'. The irony is delicious.

Answer 9

You question is akin to asking why some people attend Roman Catholic church services while other people attend Methodist (for example).

In YOUR opinion (which is neither right nor wrong), the liberal/progressive platform may have more to offer. In my opinion (which also is neither right nor wrong), it does not. That simply means we have a different point of view/perspctive on politics. This is also why the political pendulum swings back and forth.