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To: Dominic Harr
WHoa. I am looking for the 100% hypothetical completely conservative position on the issues. Just trying to define the End member in the Conservative spectrum, all other positions being more liberal.

I'm not doing this to exclude anyone, just trying to define 100%.

I am a geologist. In describing a sedimentary rock, pure quartz sandstone, for instance, is rare. Pure shale (100% clay minerals) is not as common as rocks which are somewhere in between.

Most rocks of these types fall somewhere in between, as most political viewpoints fall somewhere between Liberal and Conservative. (Yes there are others, but I am trying to describe the concept after working 14 hours, so bear with me, please).

Although a rock which is 49% clay minerals and 51% sand is still a sandstone, it is not the end member in the series.

Similarly, someone who is more conservative than liberal can still be defined as a conservative, even though their views as a whole are more liberal than the person who (hypothetically, anyway) is 100% conservative in their outlook.

What I am trying to do,and inviting others to participate in, is define the pure end member: 100% Conservative.

From there we can go off on all sorts of tangents describing the varying degrees and types of conservatism, but first, it would be nice to define the maximum.

Again, I am not doing this to exclude anyone, just get a better bearing on where we all stand.

484 posted on 03/08/2007 10:40:58 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: Smokin' Joe
Again, I am not doing this to exclude anyone, just get a better bearing on where we all stand.

I think I understand -- and I'd still say that abortion can't be defined.

It depends on what you mean by 'conservative'. One group believes that means "the conservative use of federal power". We believe in the 'component architecture' of the constitution, allowing states to make their own rules, as componenets of a system.

Another group means 'socially conservative', they want federal rules like the defense of marriage act and a federal law making abortion illegal.

One group believes in a system, a process. The other believes in a set of fixed positions. We agree on certain things, and we had a coalition to fight for those, while we agreed to not take action on the things we do not have agreement on.

493 posted on 03/08/2007 10:49:22 AM PST by Dominic Harr (Conservative: The "ant", to a liberal's "grasshopper".)
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