-Ronald Reagan
-Ronald Reagan
I appreciate the supplying of these comments by Reagan. They are interesting. I will tell you that it becomes hard for me personally to make direct connections between Liberalism, Libertarianism, and Conservatism, as it relates to the players at our nation's founding.
For one thing, this being a British Colony, the status quo would be the British government and it's players. Our perceptions would hing on whether we were symapthetic to the British or to the break-away colonists our Founding Fathers.
I would see our Founding Fathers as Conservatives to a new cause. The Crown saw them as traitors to the Crown.
I do see Libertarian leanings in our Founders. I see Conservative leanings in them as well, loyalists to a new nation, and trying to instill freedoms for the first citizens of the United States.
Today's Liberal would in my mind be the traitors to the new nation. There again, I'm sure the British saw this in the exact reverse.
I tend to try to keep these definitions in the present. It avoids having to deal with drifts in beliefs. Even then I do make some allowances for the fact that I might not be taking as much into consideration as I should be. It should also be noted that in the early part of the 20th Century, Liberalism wasn't a dirty word. Going back 150 years prior to assess who was a liberal and who wasn't, thus becomes even more problematic.
If by addressing Conservatism, we are actually addressing the Republican party of today, I agree that it has drifted far into the Liberal or Leftist direction. I do not think of Conservatism this way. I have stopped thinking of the Republican Party in terms of Conservatism. The party just doesn't make this possible any longer, for me.
As for Conservatism, I do believe it is more willing to buy into foreign entanglements than the Libertarian movement is, but (at least IMO) it has become so based on the realities of a shrinking world. I don't see this like I see the British at the zenith of their globalist ventures. Today foreign entanglements can spread half-way around the world in a matter of days. If we're talking a direct military exchange, we could be talking minutes or hours. In the days of the British Empire, it would take months for this.
Some nation or another, perhaps even a movement like Fundamentalist followers of Islam will implement hegemonic efforts around the world. The United States tries to limit the effectiveness of this, by having our diplomats and military members spread out across the planet. I know this disturbs some people. I used to feel that way myself. Today I realize that if we pull back, someone will fill the void. We simply cannot pull back to our own soil, and try to avoid any foreign entanglements.
I do agree that there are some shared beliefs between Conservatism and Libertarianism. As for the Liberals or Leftists, they pretty much stand alone, but I have come to believe that when it comes to the military, the Left and the Libertarians come fairly close to a unified vision. Perhaps someone can make a case causing a level of clarification on that, but it has been very disconcerting for me to see some of the things the Left and the Libertarians believe. Things like the 09/11 Trutherism amazes me. Wanting to take a paring knife to the military is another shared belief between them, IMO.
I see the Left as a direct threat to this nation. Obama is a great example of why. I don't view the Libertarians to be as much a threat, but when it comes to tenets concerning the military, I'll admit to being in a place where I could quite easily be convinced.
These are my thoughts on the subject. Take care.