[St. Clair Slim]

I've heard the name. Is he a good conservative?

[hchutch]

Personally, I don't think of him as a good conservative. I think his foriegn policy is unrealistic at best (sorry, but two oceans did not protect us in 1941, they will certainly not protect us now), and I think he's trying to take the easy way out with protectionist policies.

[Festa]

Its hard to classify what type of conservative you are....but I will try and list the groups as best as I can (please correct me if you see somethign that is wrong)

1) Libertarian-reason magazine, Cato institute, Larry Elder, Neal Boortz...these people are the mainstream libertarians: anti-big government, pro choice, anti war on Iraq, open borders (although they don't toss dirty words like "neocon" and the like around

2) Paleo-Libertarian....Lew Rockwell, Thomas Dilorenzo (authoer of The Real Lincoln). These people are extreme libertarians, against privitazation of social securty, school vouchers (they consider these policies selling out), etc. They are typical for the libertarian movement up until abortion (Rockwell is pro-life) and also they are isolationist which most libertarians do not believe in...(they are not against free trade, just against any sort of intervention)

3) Paleo Conservatives-same as above but they are stricter on the social issues and are isolationist because they are against free trade

4)NeoConservatives....these guys are basically reformed leftists....Irvin Kristol, etc. The Weekly Standard best exemplifies these views. These people are former marxists who are reformed. Most, though not all, are Jewish. They are big on the military....too much in my opinion

4) Libertarian leaning conservatives-I consider myself one of these. SOME, though not all, work for the National Review (Stephen Moore, Rich Lowry, Romesh Pammuru (sic)) Basically we are pro-life, want a good strong miltary, believe that the military should not be used to police the world but that when are country is attacked like it was on 9/11 we have to lay the smackdown. I am a big school voucher and social security privitization supporter. We hate welfare not because of its good nature, but because it doesnt work. Taxes are way to high. We either support a strict flat tax or a sales tax (to replace the income tax). Government regulation is too extreme and does not harness the power of the markets. (although, I am taking an environmental economics class with a fairly respectable free marketer who believes in certain types of environmental regulation b/c of property rights problems...yada yada...I am not going to get into it but he does make some good points.)....
I guess we are the conservatives who hate strict ideology....


I am sure there are more groups or people would like to define these differently. But I am just throwing these out there for you.