Conservative with a small "c"

Yoder777

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Conservative with a small 'c' is anyone who leans right without endorsing an official conservative party.

Uprising of the Small-c conservatives
Posted by Vladimir (Profile)
Sunday, October 24th at 10:27PM EDT

It’s a blatant “tell”. The Big Lie, that the current anti-statist uprising is composed of extremist ideologues, is a media favorite, but they hammer it knowing full well the opposite is true. Their message is designed to frighten and discourage the average voter from joining the uprising. In reality, the movement largely comprised of “small-c conservatives”, and their large numbers and sudden vocal activism scare the bejeezus out of the Ruling Class.

By nature, small-c conservatives color within the lines. They are hard-wired to play by the rules. They show up at work on time and do an honest day’s work. They go to church. They pay their taxes. They pay their mortgages. They keep their kids in school. They save for their own retirement - they’ve always suspected that Social Security wasn’t reliable, so they’d better take care of themselves.

On the other hand, Capital-C Conservatives have always been vocal political activists. They may be Movement Conservatives, Fiscal Conservatives, Social Conservatives or NeoConservatives, but in every case there is a fairly well developed philosophy or ideology that defines and motivates them.

Small-c conservatives are conservative, first and foremost, by temperament. In the past, they were largely discomfited by the conflict of our two party system. Their main political involvement, voting, was not a revolutionary act, but a civic duty. The more radical elements might have gone so far as to put up a yard sign or donate $25 to a candidate of either party.

The philosophy of the small-c conservative is pretty simple:

Fair is fair.
A deal is a deal.
I’ve worked hard, and I deserve what I’ve earned.
America, while not perfect, is a great country.
The American Dream worked for me and is a promise I want to keep alive for future generations.
The current regime in Washington threatens all that.

But small-c conservatives are nobody’s fools. They see that a staggering chunk of tax dollars and public debt bailed out people who gamed the system (or tried): well-connected investment bankers and recipients of NINJA loans. General Motors, onetime symbol of the best of Industrial America, was taken by force from its owners and handed to the UAW, who were largely responsible for its poor fiscal health in the first place. Small-c folks know that “pass the bill so you can find out what’s in it” is a Congressional mindset that endangers our freedom. They know instinctively that “income redistribution” ultimately can’t be about distributing from the top 1% to the other 99%; the plan is to rob producers and savers and reward everyone else until we’re all equally poor.
Uprising of the Small-c conservatives | RedState

Small-'c' conservatives often stand by their principles, even when Republicans violate them, while big-'C' Conservatives are more likely to engage in apologetics for Republican politicians.

This is a Facebook pages for fans of small-'c' conservatism:
Small-c conservative | Facebook
 

Yoder777

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It's pretty simple if you are a republican you aren't a conservative of the "small government and economic conservative" stripes, you're a conservative of the "I call myself conservative because I feel like it" stripe.

While big 'C' is more ideological, small 'c' is more pragmatic. I prefer less taxes and limiting abortion, yet I am not a hardcore ideologue.
 
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KIYX

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While big 'C' is more ideological, small 'c' is more pragmatic. I prefer less taxes and limiting abortion, yet I am not a hardcore ideologue.

I find little that the big C folks claim to believe in what they actually do.
 
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brindisi

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Definitely small c conservative by this standard, but I not sure the distinction between big C and small c is really meangingly

I've remained registerd as Republican for no particular reason except maybe from inertia, but am by no means uncritically supportive of the party. In fact have been very critical of the party for a lot of years.
 
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KIYX

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Definitely small c conservative by this standard, but I not sure the distinction between big C and small c is really meangingly

I've remained registerd as Republican for no particular reason except maybe from inertia, but am by no means uncritically supportive of the party. In fact have been very critical of the party for a lot of years.

The best way to tell the difference between the Big C and the small c folks is their selective outrage.

Conservatives were outraged when the government overstepped it's bounds with all the spending the last president did. We were called liberals for daring to point out that the president wasn't a fiscal conservative.

The Big C folks only care about fiscal conservativism as long as they can use it as a stick to beat the democrats with.

See the "tea party" for examples.
 
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Yoder777

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The Big C folks only care about fiscal conservativism as long as they can use it as a stick to beat the democrats with.

I agree on this.

See the "tea party" for examples.

I disagree on this. There was protest against the bail outs while Bush was still president. In hindsight, the bail out of Wall Street may have been the right thing at the time, yet Obama then took it to an extreme that most conservatives are uncomfortable with.
 
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brindisi

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The best way to tell the difference between the Big C and the small c folks is their selective outrage.

Conservatives were outraged when the government overstepped it's bounds with all the spending the last president did. We were called liberals for daring to point out that the president wasn't a fiscal conservative.

The Big C folks only care about fiscal conservativism as long as they can use it as a stick to beat the democrats with.

See the "tea party" for examples.

I'm not convinced. Most of the conservative people in my sphere were critical of Republicans all through the Bush administration, growing increaslingly louder with time. The moniker of "Compassionate Conservativism" was a big red flag for us from the start.

My experience with the Tea Party folks is that they have been every bit as angry with Republicans as with Democrats. There hasn't been a rally I've attended where that wasn't made obvious. Particularly when local Republican officials tried to speak at and get out in front of the Tea Party. Finding a parade, trying to get in front and pretend that they leading it.
 
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Yoder777

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I honestly don't like to label myself as 'conservative,' because it makes one too associated with support of conservative politicians. Republicans are, at best, the lesser of two evils. Since libertarians support upholding Roe, they aren't much better.
 
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KIYX

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My experience with the Tea Party folks is that they have been every bit as angry with Republicans as with Democrats.
I keep hearing that, and I still wonder where they were for the 8 years of bush.


There hasn't been a rally I've attended where that wasn't made obvious.
I can understand that but to me it smacks of showing up late to the party.
 
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brindisi

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I keep hearing that, and I still wonder where they were for the 8 years of bush.

Living their lives and not particularly paying attention to politics. Not everyone want's to be a politics geek, they have kids to raise, careers to pay attention to, and friends to spend time with thinking about all kinds of things except politics and government. It takes time for those folks to pay attention to what's been happening, and then becoming angry and vocal for the first time.


I can understand that but to me it smacks of showing up late to the party.

Late or not, they're still welcome.
 
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keith99

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I'm not todays liberal. I come close to small c conservative, except for the line about going to church. To me that is far more the provence of the big C conservatives.

That and trying to define a whole list of things that one must support all of to belong is what ot me defines the 'Big C' conservatives.
 
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Yoder777

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Broadly speaking, a conservative is someone who wishes to preserve traditional morality along with the principles of the American Revolution. Since its founding, our nation has valued limited government and the transcendent moral law. A thinking person can cherish both without being a right-wing fanatic.

Most opponents of conservatism really oppose neoconservatism. A true conservatism that questions bureaucracy's ability to solve problems cannot be pro-war and pro-corporate, recognizing the bureaucracy inherent to nation-building and the corporate structure. Militant corporatism is not conservatism.

Militant corporatism is fascism:
“Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power” - Benito Mussolini

A person can value the sanctity of life without hating abortion doctors. A person can uphold the sanctity of marriage without hating gays. A person can want less taxes and less spending without hating welfare moms. What often passes for conservatism today is really just a hateful extremism.

As Eric Hoffer wrote, politics is often just the systematic organization of hatreds:
Passionate hatred can give meaning and purpose to an empty life. Thus people haunted by the purposelessness of their lives try to find a new content not only by dedicating themselves to a holy cause but also by nursing a fanatical grievance. A mass movement offers them unlimited opportunities for both. - Eric Hoffer, The True Believer
 
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A Is A

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I must call shenanigans on Yoder. A conservative stands for the personal liberties of all people. A Social Conservative is a religious whackadoodle who thinks a book written two thousand years ago in Greek and Aramaic should control the laws of the world.

And you are no one to speak of hateful extremism when you think the Crusades were a good thing and can't even get your Administrations correct when making an attack thread.
 
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