Why are Republicans called Conservative?

Question

They Don't Conserve the Environment.
They Don't Conserve Natural Resources.
They Don't Conserve the Rights of Citizens and The Constitution.


Or is it because there so Good at Conserving there own Wealth?

I've heared a lot of people mention T.R. and Lincoln thats two from the past whats wrong with the current ones?

Answer 1

Well, you ask a good question.
Let's put this in the context of when and where the GOP got that name.
I'll give two Republican presidential examples.

Environment & natural resources:
Back in the days of Teddy Roosevelt - America's first true conservative - there was a move by this great president to preserve BIG sections of the American wilderness.
By the way, TR also won the Nobel Prize for brining peace to the Russo-Japanses war...can you honestly see President Bush winning any Nobel prize?

Citizens rights & the Constitution:
Former general Dwight Eisenhower was strong proponent of keeping the federal government OUT of people private lives.
He also created the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare.
He was also in favor of upholding the Constitution and whats more, he warned agaianst the military industrial complex.

My, my, my - how times have changed.
The party of less government intrustion now goes to such extreme lengths as to interfer with right-to-die issues (recall Terry Schiavo and how both the Congress and the President bullied their way into that issue).
The party of conservativeism now advocated drilling in the Artic Wildlife preserve, allws clear cutting of old growth forrest and does virtually nothing to circumvent the pollution of air and water resources.

And why?
Well, you touched on it - its all about money!

Answer 2

If it wasn't for the Republican Teddy Roosevelt many of America's most beautiful environments wouldn't have been conserved for you or I to play in today.

Natural resources are to be used, not conserved. What good would they be otherwise? We need only replenish those that we can and replace those that we can't.

And as far as the Constitution and the rights of citizens, that is precisely why we're called conservatives. It was republicans who fought for the end of slavery and democrats who killed their effort to make lynching a federal crime after the civil war. It is liberals who have little regard for the Constitution and other sources of American values. We Republicans try to conserve the republic that our founding fathers left us, while liberals fight tooth and nail to change us and our traditions with stupid issues like gay marriage.

And yes, most of us are pretty good at conserving our wealth, while the liberals irresistible obsession with taxing and spending does no ones wealth any good.

Answer 3

Conservatives have traditionally been for monetary duty and small authorities. lower than the present administration the nationwide debt has is uncontrolled and we've the dep. of position of start safe practices and a higher authorities. a better physically powerful question may be how can Republicans call themselves conservatives, anymore.

Answer 4

Way to generalize. Not all Republicans are "rich", many of them care about the environment just as much as the next Democrat, and about peoples' rights.
That stuff has nothing to do with whether one is Republican or Democrat. That would be like saying all liberals or Democrats are dodge-drafting homosexual satanists. We both know THAT'S not true.

Answer 5

And Conserving Power into a small base of operation

Answer 6

Easy, we conserve our tax dollars & yours. We do not fund every stupid liberal ideas plus abortions of everyone who was too lazy to use birth control.
We are conservative in our values, no girls on their knees in Oval Office.
We are conservative in the budget without making our soldiers live on food stamps, while building Teapot Museums - want to see it in NC.
We are conservative in allowing people to kill innocent victims in USA - we have death penalty for the murders.
We are conservative in economics.
We protect the Constitution instead of rewriting it to remove prayer, pledge of allienge, & right to defend our nation.
We may not protect our enviorment at the expense of our citizens but I have not seen any shortage of animals in my area.
Your rights of citizens may take my right away from me.

Answer 7

Good point , they are very liberal with their name calling to anybody that feels different and very conservative on giving any of their money to help Earth and our fellow Americans. I guess maybe the name should be changed to hypocrites.

Answer 8

The term means "the conservation of past values". So, they cling to the political norms of yesteryear and don't readily accept change.

Answer 9

Good question.

It's like asking when, exactly, did 'liberal' become a bad word? If you look it up in the dictionary, you'll see it's a very positive thing to be liberal.

Answer 10

Haha, I like that. Totally agree with you.