What Is This Thing Called 'Conservative'?

Okay, it has come to my attention that people are throwing the word ‘conservative’ around with abandon lately. I hate when people start throwing words around with abandon, without any respect to what the word means at its heart, in its beginnings, and without any care as to what other people mean when they apply it in actual use. It’s too easy to be dishonest with words—they are often slippery things—and I respect the power of words so much it really rubs me the wrong way when the use of words is used to drive people into misconceptions about themselves.

We are told often that most Americans consider themselves ‘conservative.’ Now, what are we to presume that means? That they wholeheartedly subscribe to the Conservative Agenda as currently stated by the far-right-driven Republican Party? I think not. ‘Conservative’ has a more subtle meaning in the minds of the bulk of the American public. It means ‘not going overboard.’ It means ‘spending money where it counts for the good of ALL citizens.’ It means ‘thinking carefully before taking action.’ It means ‘deeply considering facts before applying policy.’ It does NOT mean ‘blindly following a particular set of ideological points.’ Nor does it mean ‘promoting religious principles through legislation.’ Nor does it mean, ‘ignoring the poor of our country as if they are inherently unworthy.’

If anyone out there has a different idea of what MOST Americans think they are saying when they state they are ‘conservative,’ I’d really like to hear it. I get the feeling Republicans think that this is the handle they have on the public, this ‘conservative’ thing. They think it automatically means THEIR brand of ‘conservatism.’ And they carry on as if they can drive the public into being on their side by simply wielding the word ‘conservative,’ as if that alone can create the voting fervor needed to push their policies through. And in fact, that has worked to some extent in the past decade. That ‘driving the public’ put George Bush into office, and gave him a Republican congress, and the okay to appoint ideological judges to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, this Republican brand of ‘conservatism’ has served the American public so badly that voters are wondering, themselves, what they mean by being ‘conservative.’

So Republicans just change the position of the goalposts. “Oh, it’s not THAT kind of conservative that we meant—that was just a mistake—a fluke of personnel—we meant this OTHER kind of conservative. The kind you really like—you know—like Reagan, for instance—he was nice—you liked him, right? Yeah, we meant to be THAT kind of conservative.”

I hear a manipulation in that rhetoric. And that suspicion of manipulation is upheld by Republicans’ complete unwillingness to change any of the points in their agenda. That tells me they’re using the classic ‘bait and switch’ tactic. Promise them one thing—give them another.

Or we hear the even worse: “We must be MORE conservative. We should conservative the heck out of everything, go full-out, whole-hog conservative. THAT’S what we meant to do. THAT will solve all our problems!”

That, too is a manipulation. It implies that their policies would work better if only they were done right. And of course, you must keep voting them into office to try to get it right. I don’t think so. The very last thing Americans want is doing something to an extreme, and the second to the last thing they want is trusting Republicans again.

Until Republicans learn to play fair with the public, the public will continue to hold them in contempt and with suspicion. The ball is entirely in their court. I am not terribly hopeful about it at the moment.

I believe America is stronger with two viable parties in its political debate. But the parties have to play fair—keep it real—and not use duplicitous methods to get into office and then run roughshod over the needs of the people. This is the first duty of government—to serve the public—without that, its purpose becomes diffuse and, more often than not, corrupt.

Let’s watch and see what Republicans do. It could be they will ‘evolve’ though they don’t believe in evolution. Maybe that evolution will occur in spite of their belief—as it does in the natural world. We’ll just have to see. In the meantime, their rhetoric is just so much background noise behind a president and a populace trying to solve real problems in the real world.