[Steve Schulin]

I'm delighted to see what I've come to understand as "America's Principles" summarized very well in this post. And I'm all for conserving those principles. But I recall being taught as a schoolboy in the 1960s that the term "conservative" has an important meaning -- describing a presumption against change. Here's the pretty simple continuum of different perspectives on the desirability of change:

* Reactionary - wants major change back to how things were at some prior point

* Conservative - averse to change

* Liberal - very open to change

* Radical - wants major changes away from how things are and in a direction quite different than the reactionary wants

I want major changes. Some reactionary, some radical. I think we'd have been much better off as a nation if Jefferson's longest criticism of the King (re the imposition of slavery) had not been deleted from Declaration of Independence, and if the Constitution had not codified slavery.

[EternalVigilance]

Salient points, my friend.

[EternalVigilance]

I guess when I hear the term conservative I primarily think of it as representing the conservation of the original moral principles upon which the country was founded and built.

If those principles are still in play, they need to be maintained.

If they’ve been neglected, they need to be brought back into play, pronto.