What are the necessary attributes and/or beliefs that make one a “conservative?”

Note: This is not limited to conservatives of any particular country.

Discuss the nature of conservativism.

I am a fiscal conservative. I believe the the Constitution is one of the greatest works that has been written in the history of mankind.

I believe in the Consitution as it was written. I believe in person freedom and liberty, as well as all of the responsibilites that go along with it.

I am also a social liberal because of my love of freedom. People should be free to do as they wish as long as they are harming no one in the process.

If we actually paid attention the the Constitution and respected it and did at it said, we would be a lot better off.

(I see very few conservatives in our government.... regardless as to whom is in power. Remember... the Constitution is just a "God damn piece of paper")

Do all conservatives everywhere believe that the Constitution (I assume you refer here to the United States Constitution) is "one of the greatest works that has been written in the history of mankind?" If not, then can you name a common denominator with non-American conservatives?


We are not talking of American Conservatives but conservatism in general. Do all conservatives believe in freedom and liberty?

Here's one..... You have to love, or at least appreciate the accomplishments of the New York Yankees. People that bash the Yanks year after year complain that their salary is too big. They "buy championships" and they should share revenue with teams that can't afford salaries like the Yankees can.
Well, they play in New York City. They have built in the largest audience, the highest advertising revenue, the largest attendance at games and they have invested in players that more often than not, make them successful.

Think about how you feel in this instance. The Yankees are "capitalism" in action Other teams have set up shop in places with smaller markets, have chosen to put inferior players on the field, and thus have doomed themselves to usually being at the bottom of the heap.
Sure. Occasionally a team with a smart scouting staff will pick some players that can make a team with a meager payroll successful, but the success is always short lived. The best players, once they have fulfilled their obligations will head for teams that will pay them higher salaries.

Looks like those that are in charge of the baseball team would do a better job at running NY that the politicians there.

It seems that the part of the OP where I state that this not limited to any particular country has been missed.

You appear to be putting forward capitalism as "conservative" belief or ideal. Do the conservatives in, for example, North Korea, Iran, France, Denmark and Egypt share that belief or ideal?

Seeing I do not live in North Korea, Iran, France, Denmark and Egypt, I can not make that judgment. With my post, I was trying to stir the pot a bit and get people to resort to the old argument that the Yankees should pay money to the league to be redistributed to teams that can't afford large payrolls.

Doesn't that make you a social libertarian?

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Why, what's wrong with the way NY is being run? Bloomberg just got elected for a third term as mayor, which would seem to suggest that the residents are happy with the way things are running.

"spread the wealth"

Don't you love this backwards ass society?

We have people bitching about equality 24-7 and the only solution they can come up with for "equality" is to oppress others.

In other words, you should pay more then the other guy in taxes because it not fair he should pay when you have more.

Thats totally fucked up.

Its even better that only a few people on this board actually see this. It proves a lot about how fucked in the head people are.

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Yeah... from what I understand people are flocking to NY because of their low taxes and crime.

Good call

Classic Liberalism meant small government, maximum freedom for individuals. Virtually all libertarians today are the remnants of that tradition. Many, if not most American conservatives share many of those qualities.

What unites American conservatives is the yearning for smaller, less intrusive government. What separates conservatives are social issues, such as gay marriage, yet we unite around gun rights. Americans are more socially conservative than Europeans, therefore, most European conservatives are strictly fiscal conservatives.

Looking at our founders from today's perspective, I'd say Washington was a Conservative, Jefferson a Libertarian, and Adams a Liberal.

I used to frequent a Scottish political board, and the differences between American Conservatives and European Conservatives is pretty extraordinary. With the possible exception of the Thatcherites who would fit into the GOP quite well. Most European Conservatives are appalled at the idea of gun rights for citizens.

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Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. ---P. J. O'Rourke

I don't think there is a universal conservative code. It depends a lot on culture. I think, in western societies, that conservatism is relatively close to being the same. But I also think that conservatism in the middle east is different from that or in Asia or, perhaps, in Africa. It's also hard to know what that means to everyone around the world as most don't know much more than a few factoids about other countries. I think the question needs to be a little more specific to be answered.

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A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.
- George Bernard Shaw

Have you ever even been there? Do you really have any idea about how it's run? The crime rate there has been on the decline for 15 years, and the taxes are comparable to any large city.

Yes you can make that judgement by observing the behavior of said countries. If North Korea is not a capitalist country and its leadership is considered conservative, then capitialism must be ruled out as a necessary attribute of being conservative.

This means we need to answer two questions about North Korea:

1. Is it a capitalist country?
2. Is the leadership considered conservative?




We are trying to get at the core of what it means to be conservative, anywhere.