What does CONSERVATIVE mean today?

Question

It wasn't too long ago that conservative meant that you were a staunch supporter of the US Constitution. But today conservatives, like John McCain prove everyday that they haven't even read the US Constitution. You read Article 1 section 8 and tell me how John McCain could claim that it is "unConstitutional" for the legislature to make rules affecting the "Government and Regulation of land and naval forces"? What does it mean to claim to be conservative, yet claim that when the legislature does exactly what the Constitution says that they should do, their actions are "unConstitutional"?

http://www.usconstitution.net/const.html#A1Sec8
The United States Constitution - The U.S. Constitution Online - USConstitution.net

http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2007-09-20T063356Z_01_N14234192_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-USA1.xml&pageNumber=1&imageid=&cap=&sz=13&WTModLoc=NewsArt-C1-ArticlePage1
Senate Republicans block Iraq bill | Top News | Reuters.com

Mark I'm old enough to remember conservatives like Barry Goldwater. I guarantee you that Barry Goldwater would have thrown politics out of the way to get at John McCain for saying this. He would have taken John McCain to task and ruined his slight chance to receive the Republican nomination. Those were the days when conservatives put the Constitution above all else.

Jeff, It's your right to "believe" anything you want, but you have to understand that without our Constitution we are not the USA. Without the Constitution we are all lost sheep without a shepherd. We have a Republican Presidential candidate who just proved that he doesn't know what the Constitution says and everyone is giving him a pass? This is nuts!

Answer 1

For me it is this simple

Conservative (US political definition which in my opinion is the oppisite of the dictionary definiion maning that per the dictionary I would call myself a liberal. Per politics I am a solid Copnservative)

1. The governement the governs least governs best.

2. The Federal governments PRIMARY responsibility is for the common defense.

3. I believe Taxes are too high and should be cut.

4. I believe the 2nd ammendment is how I guarantee that I get to keep ALL of my other rights. You erode the 2nd ammendmant and all other rights will suffer.

5. I believe social programs should be limited in scope. NO ONE for ANY reason should be ALLOWED to remain on govt social programs for more than a SET period of time.

6. I believe socialisms destroys people. It breaks down the human animal, removes pride and purpose from the lives it is suposed to help leaving empty shells.

Answer 2

It seems to me that you have a valid point about McCain. And I have been wondering whether or not conservatives still have any respect for reading the Constitution with a sense of discipline (rather than with a sense of "result-oriented" ideology) ever since the horrible Bush v. Gore decision.

However, if you are liberal (and I know it would be too presumptuous of me to assume that you are), then I've got to say that liberals have not been very good about reading the Constitution with discipline for the last 50 years, either. I recall that the Warren Court era started a trend of reading the Equal Protection Clause in ways that it had never been read before -- totally unprecedented and totally irresponsible interpretations of that clause -- and that trend has been continuing ever since. The worst, unprecedented, and irresponsible interpretations of the Equal Protection Clause have been perpatrated by liberal and "moderate" members of the Supreme Court and by many, many liberal law school professors.

So yes, by all means, criticize Sen. McCain for not interpreting Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution correctly. But also be prepared for the rebuttal that liberals don't interpret other parts of the Constitution right either.

And, BTW, since you are talking about the definition of conservative and how conservatives interpret the Constitution, here is my favorite definitions of the words liberal and conservative. These appeared in a book called "The Federal Courts, Politics, and the Rule of Law," by John C. Hughes (published 1995):

"In the contemporary political context, those who fear conformity have tended to describe themselves as liberal and have tended to applaud judicial 'protection' of human rights. Those who fear diversity have tended to call themselves conservatives and have been appalled by judicial 'usurpation' of the majority's discretion to form the kind of community it finds most conducive to its own happiness. The former tends to approve of the expansive theories of constitutional interpretation, while the latter tends to prefer the restrained theories of judicial review. These alignments are neither perfect nor inevitable, but the debate has surely been shrill."

Answer 3

Conservative nonetheless skill the comparable ingredient, the subject is that somewhat some people are being called Conservative who are not. Conservatives have faith that: A. own Freedom is greater significant than equality of result. B. The States would desire to steer the individuals and the federal government would desire to steer the States. C. the federal government would desire to be small in scope (i.e. The shape). D. the federal government would desire to basically positioned money into protection tension, Intelligence, Communications, Transportation, and disaster relief.

Answer 4

Is everyone noticing how often requests for basic political definitions keep appearing? I believe this is because we have come about as far as we can in the political discussion without a more precise understanding of these basic terms. The word "conservative" today and always means someone who is trying to conserve something. The term has entirely different meanings depending on what is being conserved. I assume that since this is in a political context you are referring to "political" conservative as opposed to "fiscal" or "environmental" conservative. Political conservatives are by definition people who are trying to conserve the political status quo. But how many people do you know who would admit to this as a political objective? Not many, I think. Political conservatives of necessity must therefore be as deceptive as possible in their mission statements and even in their basic political vocabulary. Many political conservatives will for example try to mislead you into believing that their movement has something to do with fiscal conservatism although political conservatives have proven themselves to be the biggest fiscal liberals of all with their own spending programs. Another major difficulty for them is that history is a continual march to the left and as a result conservatives are constantly losing political fights. The only practical way of avoiding responsibilty for their past is to keep vague and confusing mission statements. This has enabled conservatives to lie about their bitter opposition to the civil rights movement of the 1960`s, for example, and to claim that it was really they who were supporting it. Some conservatives have gone so far as to claim that liberalism, socialism, nazism, marxism and all the other isms except theirs have the same meaning, leaving their conservatism as the last reservoir of all good. I believe we have come about as far as we can in the political discussion with these separate vocabularies. Political conservatism has to be properly defined and exposed for what it is-- the basic enemy of human progress which is allowing two per cent to inherit most global wealth while one in five human deaths are from starvation and one in three humans are suffering from anemia and half the planets` population in trying to get by on less than $2.15 a day. Defending this political status quo is indefensable.

Answer 5

"Liberal" and "conservative" are relative terms. They are relative to the current political climate. "Conservative" means that one's ideals are more aligned with former attitudes or administrations. For instance many conservatives are nostalgic for the "good ol' days." "Liberals" on the other hand are progressive. They want to change the government in ways that diverge from tradition.

The other issue is that "conservative" and "liberal" have become labels without meaning. The media use these terms in ambiguous ways. For instance President Bush has proven to be decidedly liberal on many issues, yet the media insist on potraying him as a conservative just because he is a Republican.

Answer 6

to alot of liberal bascially anyone who doesn't agree with them is a neo-conservative.

I'm in the middle and the fact that liberals have gone so far left, and apparently haven't realized it yet, they think anyone who doesn't agree with them has gone so far right. I'm still in the middle I vote for both parties, I'm not against gay marriage and I'm a republican, so how am I considered a conservative when I'm in the middle.

Answer 7

Money, they want to be buried with.