Title: Traditional Conservative Beliefs – RedState
Headings: Traditional Conservative Beliefs
Traditional Conservative Beliefs
Content: Thus unlike all of today’s various shades of liberalism – progressivism, statism, socialism, fascism, Nazism, Marxism, communism, etc. – traditional conservatism is not an ideology but a way of life, and of thinking about life. And it is the biggest political tent of all because unlike every one of those other “isms,” it does not demand its followers adhere to any strict code of thought, speech or action. Traditional conservatism does have parameters, of course, encompassing all of what President Ronald Reagan once described as the three-legged stool of true conservatism: strong free-market economic policies, strong defense and strong social values. And as with liberalism, there are variations. Some are minor while others are significant. Many who consider them selves conservative embrace only one or two of those “legs.” We believe the stool cannot stand without all three. The group referred to as neo-conservatives, for example, agree with traditionals on the need for a strong national defense, but that is where the similarities end.