What is Conservative?

In contemporary  news media, it seems there is a huge divide. This divide may or may not be an illusion. It sometimes reminds me of Star Wars and the dark/light side of the force. Both sides have strong, almost impenetrable arguments for the rightness of their cause. The Jedi are selfless and protect the galaxy while sacrificing their own pleasure and comfort. The Sith are aggressive and passionate and gain great power for themselves alone. A major problem in contemporary politics is dividing people into "Sith" and "Jedi" and not learning and understanding why someone believes something.

There are many dichotomies in 21st century politics and its reporting. The biggest one is the dichotomy between conservatives and liberals. Statements are made everywhere about this division. Fox News is conservative; MSNBC is liberal. Republicans are conservatives; Democrats are liberals. Drudge Report is conservative; Huffington Post is liberal. Then, the division becomes almost like hyperbole. So-called liberals call so-called conservatives "backwards", "fundamentalists", and "fascists". On the other hand, so-called conservatives call so-called liberals "socialists", "communists", and "politically correct." Reporting news of current events often gets lost in these epithets. My goal is as objectively as is humanly possible to define conservatism and liberalism and show how their meanings have changed throughout. Positive and negative criticism is accepted.

What is a conservative? Dictionary.com, one of the five fountains of knowledge (along with Google, Wikipedia, Bing, and Spark Notes) defines conservative as "disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions etc., and to limit change". This is why many "conservatives" are against new taxes and are big fans of the Constitution and Founding Fathers. A second definition is "cautiously moderate or purposefully low." This seems to be an apolitical definition, having to do with estimating costs or placing bets. The final definition is "traditional in style and manner; avoiding showiness or novelty." This definition could be applied to politics like supporting "family values", but in my opinion, it mostly applies to personal things, like fashion choices. For example, someone who wears a turtleneck instead of a V-neck.

So, you now know what conservatism is, but where did it come from? Some argue that Plato was an early conservative.(See this helpful blog) He hated democracy and thought it would lead to mob rule. Plato also thought that society should be ruled by "guardians" who received the best in training and education and protected the people from chaos, like a doctor protects his patients from disease The guardians will make sure the people revere the city's gods and protect them from "new" poetry and music. Plato's respect for religion is shared by some modern conservatives like possible GOP presidential nominee Michelle Bachmann, who won the endorsement of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and is supported by some Evangelical Christians. However, many modern conservatives would be appalled at Plato's idea of a big government to protect the people.

An important, early conservative thinker was Edmund Burke, who is also seen as an early classic liberal. He was a Whig member of the House of Commons and supported the colonists in the American Revolution, wanting them to choose their own taxes. He saw a common kinship in the the freedoms of England and the colonies, calling both countries "the sanctuary of liberty." However, Burke was against the French Revolution, saying that it was based on ideas alone unlike the earlier Glorious Revolution of 1688 which "was made to preserve our antient indisputable laws and liberties." Burke didn't believe in the divine right of kings, but he did want to hold onto English traditions like the Magna Charta and was wary of the Enlightenment.

But what did Karl Marx, who some call the father of communism, say about Burke? In a footnote to Das Kapital, he calls Burke, " the sycophant who in the pay of the English oligarchy played the romantic laudator temporis acti (praiser of acts for time) against the French Revolution just as, in the pay of the North American troubles, he had played the liberal against the  English oligarchy- was an all out vulgar bourgeois."

The English oligarchy that Marx speaks of is the Tory dominated British Parliament of the 1770s that would not allow the colonies to tax themselves and have self-representation in Parliament. Burke was a classic liberal in this since and believed that states had the right of revolution, if they had proper reasons. The French Revolution, in his opinion, was not a valid revolution because it was based mainly on Enlightenment ideals and not on what the people needed. Marx considered Burke " a vulgar bourgeois" because he only believed in revolution for the middle class, not the workers which made up the core of Marx's political philosophy.

In conclusion, Edmund Burke was a mixture of classic liberalism and conservatism. He was liberal because he supported the American Revolution and conservative because he wanted to preserve the traditional Protestant values and political structures, like the House of Lords and Commons and was suspicious of the "new" thinking of the Enlightenment and the more radical and violent French Revolution. Burke is an example that people are complex and can't be pigeon-holed into conservative and liberal molds.

Who would Plato and Edmund Burke vote for 2012? Do you consider yourself a conservative? Why or why not?