The question needs to be “What do you consider conservative?”
I believe Conservative is:
1. Small government (in both size *AND* scope!)
2. strict Constitutionalist (of which, that includes policing our borders)
3. low taxes
4. smallest number of laws/rules/regulations needed
5. handling all issues at the lowest level necessary
6. pro-gun
7. anti-abortion
Now, under that view of conservativism, Perry’s very conservative. Not perfect... but really good. Obviously, he’s weak on immigration. The rest is pretty much dead-on.
Now, then... comparing the rest of the candidates in a whole-spectrum analysis, Romney’s not conservative, Bachmann’s pretty good, and Cain’s kinda middling.
Of course, under a different standard... you’ll get a different view.
Which means, as you don’t view Perry as conservative, you do have a different standard by which you judge.
1. Small government (in both size *AND* scope!)
2. strict Constitutionalist (of which, that includes policing our borders)
3. low taxes
4. smallest number of laws/rules/regulations needed
5. handling all issues at the lowest level necessary
6. pro-gun
7. anti-abortion
Now, under that view of conservativism, Perry’s very conservative. Not perfect... but really good. Obviously, he’s weak on immigration. The rest is pretty much dead-on.
I agree with your description of conservatism, but you and I differ as to how well Rick Perry represents those values. I personally see him as weak on most of them.
That said, I'm past debating with others about how they view him. If he suits you as a candidate, more power to you.
You noted that Conservative is:
1. Small government (in both size *AND* scope!)
2. strict Constitutionalist (of which, that includes policing our borders)
3. low taxes
4. smallest number of laws/rules/regulations needed
5. handling all issues at the lowest level necessary
6. pro-gun
7. anti-abortion
Now, under that view of conservativism, Perry...
1. Talks a lot about small government but increased both size *AND* scope of Texas government during his decade long tenure
2. Says its the feds job to police our borders. Opposed many state laws passed by states like AZ and NM that prevent illegal immigration
3. low taxes compared to many states, but raised taxes as Governor
4. issued a number of unnecessary laws/rules/regulations (most notably the Gardasil controversey)
5. talks a lot about “States Rights”. He and his supporters don’t seem very concerned about handling issues at the level of local government or leaving it up to individual citizens and ignore that part of the 10th amendment. In fact, some of them are even offended at proposals that would take power AWAY from the state government and handle it at a level closer to the people.
6. pro-gun
7. says abortion is a state issue, but finally agreed to sign a pledge that he would support a human life amendment, because he had to do this in order to win over social conservatives. Governed pro-life at the state level, but doesn’t seem to be terribly concerned with the issue.