Am I Conservative?

As a young so-called “conservative” I have often wondered why I bear that name. I’m called or labeled a conservative because I believe in limited government, laissez faire capitalism, a strong military, free trade, and states rights among other things, but are these the things that make me conservative? Well I first must establish where this word comes from. The word conservative comes from the Latin come servare, or to preserve. Webster’s Dictionary backs up the Latin when it list the traditional definition as, “tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions”, but is this what this really what defines my point of view? I don’t consider myself one who wants to keep the status quo in America, nor do most Americans. Sure there are certain institutions of American government I wish to preserve, but this desire to preserve doesn’t define my political ideology or what I want from our elected officials. What do I want to conserve as a “conservative”? Do I want to conserve a government that regulates everything from how much water your toilet can use to how much wheat you can grow? Do I want to conserve a government that is heavily involved in the economy? Do I want to conserve a government that’s main concern isn’t the defense of this nation? Do I want to conserve a government that puts heavy tariffs on trade? Do I want to conserve a government that tramples on states rights? I, along with most conservatives, would say no to all those questions, but I’m still branded as a conservative standing in the door of progress. Well I contend that the battle between conservatives and liberals, even though I dispute that term also, was waged long before I was born, in the 1960s, and sorry to say the liberals won. In that decade America, whether we knew it or not, decided that the government had the solutions to our problems, and the federal government intruded into areas where no one thought that they would have years before. Today, conservatives call for something much different then what we have today, even though many Republican lawmakers don’t listen. I hear calls from Senator Obama and Clinton for change, but they aren’t advocating change, if you look at their actual policy proposals and not their empty speeches they are advocating more of the same. The Democratic Party candidates are calling for more government intrusion, more taxes, more spending, more regulation more, more, more. So why are conservatives labeled the way they are? Well that is pretty complicated but I’ll give it a shot. Although conservatism traces its roots back to 18^th century British statesman Edmund Burke, and his pivotal work “Reflections on the Revolution in France” in which he spoke against nice sounding new theories of government uprooting tried and tested tradition, it really stems as a reaction to the New Deal Liberalism of the 1930s and 1940s. This is where the problem began, Conservatism started as a reactionary movement to stop government expansion under the Roosevelt Administration. This battle continued with Kennedy’s “New Frontier” and Johnson’s “Great Society”. Now liberals have been calling conservatives “reactionary” in a derogatory sense for years, and they were right to call conservatives that even if the reaction was a correct one. This tendency for conservatives to sit back and wait for liberals to propose something ridiculous, which happens often, and then react to it has been a major flaw with modern conservatives. It is hard, especially for young people, to get excited about of movement that is defined by what they are against instead of what they are for. There are exceptions to this reactionary streak but they are still just exceptions and not the rule. Conservatives and the Republican Party need to become the agents of real change, not just nice sounding words about change, but really propose of revolution in government from one that fails at practically everything to one that really works for people. I’ll probably talk more about what I think conservatives should be proposing later, but the real point I’m trying to make is that if conservatives keep on only making objections and just attacking liberals as “crazy socialists” they will lose elections. They need to make bold policy statements and develop fresh ideas on how to deal with everything our failing education system to global warming. Wow I just criticized conservatives and I liked it, that’s a change. Well that’s it…..