Conservatives

 

Life Begins at Forty

Conservative or sporty, it's not until you're forty
That you learn the how and why and the what and when
In the twenties and the thirties you want your love in large amounts
But after you reach forty, it's the quality that counts

Can we take back the word conservative.

I am well past forty, but I don’t think I am the opposite of sporty. Nothing should ever be defined by being an opposite. Saying that conservatives own the libs, tries to say that everyone who is not a liberal must be a conservative. I am not sure that is the case. Both Liberals and old time Conservatives believe in government. It used to be that Conservatives also believed in limited government, because the sovereign in the US Constitution is the People, but the government must be composed of individuals, People, might be well intention, but the road to you-know-where is paved with good intentions. Conservatives also believe in Lord Acton’s maxim that “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  For both reasons, conservatives believe that government should be limited, so as to best avoid well intentioned but misguided actions, and because the less power the government has, the less corrupt it is likely to be.

But being in favor of limited government does NOT mean being in favor of no government. Especially when those in favor of no government really mean that they only support themselves and are in favor of government when the government agrees with them, or they control the government. It is the difference between geometric and exponential behavior. Approaching zero, but never getting to zero is exponential behavior. Eventually reaching zero is geometric behavior. Conservatives have been deceived into thinking that since they believe in limited government they are the allies of those who believe in no government. It is possible to support mercy, show tolerance, and support pluralism without favoring no government. Conservatives used to have a cautious regard for the impact on the future, “First, do no harm”, not no consideration of the future, “Après nous, la deluge.”  There is a difference between cautious action and no action. A conservative used to jokingly be called a liberal who got old, moved to the suburbs, and took out a mortgage. In reality conservatives can be any age. An election contest between conservatives and liberals should be about representing all of the people, not winning against liberals so that you can rule the people.