How Many Flavors Of Conservative Are There?

There are now several threads on ATS regarding a take-over of the website by conservatives or right-wingers. I would really like to get opinions on what constitutes a “conservative”. I see a lot of “You’re not a REAL conservative” posts, so obviously it’s very subjective. Many call me a conservative because I believe in the following:
• Lightly regulated “free markets”.
• Small federal government.
• The tenth amendment of the Constitution.
• Personal responsibility.
• No legal recognition of “group rights”, only personal liberty.
But I am also:
• Anti-corporatist
• Completely agnostic.
• A strong believer in education and intellect over blind patriotism.
Am I a conservative? I’m definitely not a GOP conservative! Sarah Palin wants an unfettered free market but a regulated human body and an infusion of religion into the public sphere. Is that conservative?
A great problem I see with America’s “populist” conservatives through history is that they swayed large followings with “off-the-shelf” patriotism and anger against the “other” without actually having much (or any) agenda of their own. There were several decades in American history when both left and right agreed on the problems but had different methods to fix them. Now, left and right don’t even agree on the problems. Moreover, right and right don’t even agree on the problems.

How Many Flavors Of Conservative Are There?

as many flavours as there are conservatives. forget the culture wars, there are no "conservatives" and no "liberals", there are only people and their ever changing opinions.

reply to post by Office 4256


You are a secular liberal conservative. A neocon as the saying goes. Of course, the word neocon has been mutilated into meaning a Bush-like person. In actuality yes, Bush ran as a neocon, but his administration was fascistic and was not neocon

But yea, you're a neocon. congrats!

[edit on 18-8-2009 by Gorman91]

reply to post by Gorman91

Well, that makes sense from one perspective - I was a Trotskyist in college thirty-five years ago, as were the "original" neocons. The thought of being lumped in with Bush makes me want to puke, but I don't think W fits into any category, except perhaps the "state hospital patient" category.