A Conservative knows:
—the US Constitution means exactly what it says. The Constitution isn’t “living and breathing” and it is a charter of “negative liberties”, meaning that Constitution does not limit what the individual can do, it limits what government may do to the individual and states.
—freedom without individual liberty is impossible.
All Americans have the rights laid out by the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Nothing less is needed. Nothing more is needed. Government didn’t grant us these rights, our Creator endowed them upon us. A Conservative also knows that since our rights come from our Creator, they can’t be taken away by man.
—The United States is a sovereign country that has the right to act as it sees fit on the world stage. A Conservative doesn’t believe that the United States has the responsibility to be the world’s policeman, but it reserves the right to defend itself from foreign enemies in any way it chooses. A Conservative believes that the United States may ally itself with any other nation and must live up to its treaties. A Conservative also believes that foreign nationals should have no say in American foreign policy.
the US economy must be free of the shackles of excessive government for two main reasons. The first reason is govenrment can only harm the national economy and the second reason is excessive government leads to crony capitalism, which is the anathema of the free market the Founders envisioned.
—human life begins at conception. There is no Constitutional right to murder the unborn.
The Founders did not intend for the First Amendment to limit religion. The First Amendment was written to protect religion from the intrigues of government.
—the United States was founded as a Judeo-Christian nation with Judeo-Christian values. It wasn’t founded as a secular nation by any stretch of the imagination.
—illegal aliens are criminals and should be treated as such.
—that all attempts to legitimize the homosexual lifestyle are poorly designed social experiments at best and fascist powergrabs at worst.
—the redistribution of wealth is wrong on many fronts. The government should have no say in who has what in legally gained property or wealth.
—the Second Amendment is in place not only to protect one’s self from criminals, but also to protect the individual from tyranny, from either invasion or the govenment.
—the government should be slashed back to its Constitutional limits. Too much of the bloated federal bureaucracy is unaffected by elections and is blatantly unconstitutional.
I agree.
Well thought out and concise definition, I agree with you on all but one point.
“The United States is a sovereign country that has the right to act as it sees fit on the world stage”. I believe that we have the right to defend ourselves at any time and with any means, but I don’t think we have the right to interject ourselves in other nations affairs unless there is a direct threat to our nation ie. Libya.
I can disagree with govt policy without dissing our troops.
I served and have nothing but the utmost respect for those who are serving now. That said we are at this time an imperialist nation.
Thank you for your definition.
stand tall
Interesting. As a foreigner and a conservative with libertarian leanings, I find myself in agreement with all of that list (although I would add caveats to about half of them, I suspect mostly for clarification reasons - my terms of reference are not the same :) )