What does it mean to be a Conservative? | Eastern North Carolina Now

Conservatism in the modern era

What does it mean to be a conservative?

  The answer is straightforward enough. Conservatives advocate free-market capitalism, limited government taxation and regulation, protection of persons and property from violence and fraud.

  From this simple starting point, things get fuzzier. Do we advocate free-market capitalism when it comes to drugs or an abrogated system? Who decides which drugs are legal and illegal and what the penalties are for these things? In our modern system, a giant bureaucracy, run by generations of unelected officials, make these decisions for us. Tylenol can be made in a highly regulated factory and sold over-the-counter, but Vicodin can only be sold by a licensed drug-dealer, a certified pharmacist, and then only with a certified doctor’s permission slip. Each certification is highly regulated by the State.

  Do we advocate free-market capitalism when it comes to inventions or do we advocate a system of patents and copyrights? Thomas Jefferson was opposed to patents and viewed them as a limitation of personal liberty. The big-government boys liked patents because they were government-granted monopolies. Are you in favor of the government granted monopolies or in favor of the Thomas Jefferson position of a patent-free society?

  When it comes to protecting people and property, the conservative position relies heavily on self-reliance. That’s why we tend to advocate in favor of gun ownership and are opposed to heavy gun regulation. The liberal position is to limit gun ownership with the belief that guns are made for the express purpose of harming others. What better way to protect individuals from harm than to limit the ways that the citizens have to harm one another, they ask? 

  In terms of protecting property from fraud, do we make the court system the protector of the credulous or do we advocate a buyer-beware system?

  This all leads to the most difficult aspect of conservatism. The philosophy of conservatism is straightforward enough, as stated above. But we are not starting with a brand new society. We are born into a world that has been bureaucratized for hundreds of years. Conservatism is always on the defensive against the liberals in its own time, but it is also starting from behind the curve. There is nothing conservative about income taxes or the monstrous bureaucracies that exist to regulate, restrict, and hinder all aspects of citizen’s lives.

  Conservative values must guide conservative actions. Conservatism cannot mean the conservation of the status quo. It cannot mean actively fighting the current push towards liberalism. It is not enough to oppose a further slide into socialism, liberalism, and leftism. A conservative must become an active dismantler of the machinery of socialist government. A conservative must not only reduce taxation, but reduce bureaucracy, regulation, and the welfare state. 

  Washingtonian: I invite your criticism.