What, to you, is conservatism?
Conservatism is the desire to look at the closest most efficient way to accomplish a task without overburdening productivity with the application of unnecessary additional meddling in attempts to achieve that simple goal.
Politically .. Conservatism looks towards the individual before it looks towards the government.
That look includes an emphasis on personal responsibility and responsibility towards others we share our community with.
In both cases
The core of the responsibility is on the person and not the government
It is our responsibility to assist those around us and avoid the desire to neglect our responsibilities or delegate them to the government.
Smaller government leads to more freedom
More freedom to succeed and more freedom to fail.
A conservative understands and accepts their responsibilities while believing the government should handle the job of ensuring our liberties, maintaining infrastructure and providing a national defense.
What are the bare minimum requirements for you to consider someone a conservative?
The ability to recognize a problem or a need
And the initiative to address that circumstance in the most beneficial and forthright manner.
The desire to achieve their best
Provide for themselves
Assist others when possible
And accept their responsibilities.
The ability to sift through mounds of political garbage
And listen to people complain about corruption in government when they were stupid enough to give the government power over them.
Do you believe today's Republicans are conservative on every issue? Do you believe today's Democrats are liberal on every issue?
Today's Republicans and Democrats are neither Conservative or Liberal
They are a bunch of politicians playing political games with other people's money and lives.
Do you believe the Founding Fathers were conservative, liberal, neither, or a mix of those three? Please explain.
The Founding Fathers were a mix of many ideologies and disagreed with each other at times.
Sometimes it was to the point that a knock-down drag out was of the order.
Still
They saw a need, informed themselves and established a government that they could all accept to a degree that the Constitution was written and ratified by the States.
By majority I would guess that they were more Liberal for the time they were in
But certainly not Socialist.
There are many things they identified as problems that they also agreed they could not receive enough support on to include in the Constitution.
They limited the Federal government with the understanding that people could be better represented and have more control over legislative matters at the State and Local levels.
If you examine measures that have received more traction towards what even Liberals profess to nowadays
It is at the State level where people are better represented.
It is also more often than not the Federal Government or Judiciary that impedes the will of the people.
