Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (169019)	6/8/2006 11:54:13 AM
From: TimF	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793725

Conservatism (like liberalism) is a very vague concept that has different meanings. Political conservatism in America has elements of wanting to "to preserve the Republic as established in the 18th- century" or some other period, in terms of constitutional principles and a less intrusive state, but that doesn't make it backward looking. It allows for or even desires many things to be very different than they where in the 18th century and it tends to support capitalism. Certainly the title of the article is correct, conservatism is not capitalism. Even the most capitalist and/or libertarian friendly aspects and factions of conservatism is not the same as capitalism. But conservatism is not something opposed to capitalism either, some aspects/factions of it are very friendly to capitalism, others don't impact on or care about capitalism much one way or the other. Even if many conservatives have made peace with a government as interventionist as ours is; a majority of all the major factions that could be placed under the umbrella of conservatism oppose any great additional replacement of the free market with centralized planning and massive intervention. The conservative, by resorting to political means, actually attempts to convert the majority to his cause. He can do this only by trying to compromise the very principles he holds dear. The conservative, by political means, gradually becomes indistinguishable from his collectivist opponent. He seeks the same state authority that the collectivist does. At best a gross overgeneralization. The conservative has a party line as rigid and as disciplinarian as any other political dogmatist. He tolerates no individualism in his political goals. Nonsense. Moreover, conservatives worship tradition. Worship is too strong of term for the vast majority of conservatives. Respects the past maybe. Really more like respects certain good aspects of the past, and respects the lessons learned from past mistakes. In the case of the American conservative movement those good parts of the past include a large degree of free market capitalism. The final point to be emphasized is that capitalism is not a political concept Good point. While advocating and advancing capitalism is political (you have to fight off the socialist and other statist through the political process), capitalism itself isn't a political idea. Conservatism is a political idea(or really a complex jumble of ideas).