The positions I advocate are genuinely Conservative positions, not conservative positions. The average American may well be a conservative, but not a Conservative– yet.

The difference is usually lost on most people, but I believe you understand the difference, despite the lack of acknowledgement in prior comments. I will point to the overlooked sections of the previous text.

[Little C] conservatism is a mutable, subjectively defined ideology when used in the context of popular culture. I will be using a bit more tried and rigid framework, borrowing heavily from Russel Kirk for the first principles of Conservatism.

Kirk’s principles echo those of Edmund Burke and other prominent intellectual Conservatives to differentiate their beliefs from any variant of liberal political philosophy, whether it what is loosely termed ‘market liberalism’ or classical liberalism, or God help us, Post-modern liberalism. To some extent, all politicians in the modern discourse speak in mixed terms, whether it be embracing free-market Capitalism or the advocation of state intervention in social levelling whilst still embracing an idea of the good life and the morally responsible state.

I will speak to and on conservative standpoints as they do dominate political culture and discourse in the United States. I will, however, represent a Conservative viewpoint.

Within the Republican Party exist real differences that threaten to sunder an unstable coalition of Conservatives, Free-Market liberals, and Libertarian thinkers. Political parties forget that they lack ideological uniformnity at their own hazard; one need look no further than the collapse of the modern Democratic coalition that dominated the US Congress for more than 50 years.

As to Point 5– Conservatives are the supporters of Institutionalism – Constitutions, Churches, Courts, the Rule of Law, the nuclear family– these are the structures that have sustained Western Civilization and made its ascendancy possible.

No less than the venerable Edmund Burke said it best when stating ‘People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.’ — the essence of Conservatism is a profound skepticism to newly revealed wisdom whether it be in terms of proposed social engineering or Keynesian economics– man learns little in the space of a generation that is worth knowing.

Conservatism in Foreign Policy is a case-by-case basis. There are circumstances where realpolitik will cast the advantages of a given position as an absolute necessity to guard the physical and moral well-being of a people. In other circumstances, moral linkages may dictate actions where they seem counter-intuitive to interests. The Conservative is, above all else, interested in that which works– those things that are proven by experience and time to be standards.

In the end every person is different, as are their arguments. Publius has been chosen to represent the “right” on this blog and I want to point out that he represents only one facet of the “right”.

Strictly from a philosophical standpoint modern liberalism is an extension of the Rationalist movement, which places greater emphasis on reason than emotion. The idea behind this being that only those subjects that can be rationally defined within the scope of our senses can be used to come to a rational decision. The epithet of “emotional Liberals” is an extension of the “Bleeding-Heart-Liberal”, which again finds its origin in slurs against the defense of protections for the poor.

Is this to say that Conservatives are the emotional side of the spectrum, no. Only that the idea of one side being more emotional (and therefore less capable) than the other is an ad hominem. But we will all have the opportunity to get into that one later on.

For instance, you do not really talk about foreign policy. Traditional Conservatism is usually ranges from isolationist to reserving involvement to direct threats against the country (thus the nomenclature of the Neo-Conservatives who advocate a more aggressive foreign policy for various reasons). I am curious where you sit on that subject.

I do not think that the “average” Conservative distills all political problems to religious ones and it seems to me that your views fall more in the realm of the Social Conservative camp of the GoP (at least in that area).

Point 5 is odd since it is often seen that Liberalism is the politics of emotion and Conservatism seen as the politics of reason (though I suspect that both sides feel that way).

I do agree with you that the majority of political discourse appears to be coming from the Conservative camp. I think this is more because of their majority standing and the coalition nature of the caucus that the GoP currently maintains. When you pitch a large tent to accomodate many views, you get a lot of ideas as well.