What Is A True Conservative And Why Don't They Ever Get Elected President

https://www.theatlantic.com/politic...ean-when-they-say-theyre-conservative/252099/

I remember when Bush got elected and how we were told that he is a "true conservative" -- then after 8 years of Bush, we were told that he was never really a "true conservative"

From the article:
"Roughly two-fifths of Americans call themselves "conservative." What do they mean by the word? It depends. And during a Republican primary, that can be problematic. Every candidate is vying to be the standard-bearer for conservatism, and exploiting the fact that its meaning is variable"

When McCain ran for office, he wasn't considered a "true conservative" but his running mate Sarah Palin was not only considered a "true conservative" -- but she was destined to be the greatest political figure since Ronald Reagan -- it took McCain dying for most republicans to remember Sarah Palin still existed.

When Mitt Romney ran for office, we were told that he wasn't exactly a "true conservative" -- but since he was a businessman, he would be a great president -- but now, outside of Mormons in Utah, not many people are willing to admit they were huge Romney supporters.

So I ask, since for the past 40 years, the GOP hasn't ever nominated what they would proudly admit is a "true conservative" -- is Trump now that "true conservative" -- or will republicans years from now also opine about how Trump wasn't really a "true conservative"

 

What is a true democrat? Is it Bernie, Maxine or Biden? What is true socialism? Is it the socialism of the Labour Party of the UK or the socialism of N Korea?
Here in Canada there was a huge difference between the Conservative Prime Minister Mulroney and the Conservative Prime Minister Harper. They were both conservatives but on opposite ends.
So has there ever been a real American, of course, one maybe socialist and one conservative but they are both true Americans.

 

A progressive is someone who believes in promoting and pushing for the policies that produces the best outcomes for the greatest amount of people and realizing that the "free market" has no obligation or desire to address all of the issues US citizens face.

Medicare and Social Security are the 2 most successful and popular government programs in US History -- so to me, the type of ideology that is behind making people like these "true conservatives" hold up signs like this -- that is progressiveness

 

That's the definition you give. I would give another definition "progressivism : behahiour which is about erasing the past of your own nation to try to create a new nation, progress is worshiped itself, the change they call progress is considered good itself, change isn't considered as a tool for progressive, but an aim itself. The rest of the people should bow to their vision of progress, otherwise they're considered to be fascist".

 

So what we know is that there has never been a progressive democrat in the Oval office? I mean All the democrat presidents realized to one degree or another the need for the free market and to one degree or another, the free market's benefit to your nation.

 

The problem here is that each person who associates themselves with a label like conservative or liberal does so by his own definition of the term, and that always covers a lot of territory.

I am, by my own definition, a conservative. I don't think of this as a political position- it is primarily a life philosophy, chosen because it is what works, and because it is parallel to what I see nature embeds in virtually all living things as a life-guide. It is caution in choosing your actions and path. It is visionary, meaning it looks to the future as much or more than the immediate, and prepares for that future. It means you take care of yourself; you do not become a burden on others by choice. It means you accept full responsibility for yourself- for what you say, what you think, what you feel, what you do and what you believe. It means you are responsible for the consequences of your own actions. It means you are not responsible for any of those things for anyone other than yourself, nor do you have a right to dictate them to others. It also means that nobody has the right to dictate theirs to you. It means you measure yourself by your own expectations and standards, not by what others think or say. It means you and you alone control your value, your self-respect, your character, and thereby your life, and you do not hold others responsible for your failure to do that job well.

Obviously, the political conservative is compromised on many of those points; I consider that their weakness. We always wind up settling for a compromise; as a group there is no other choice. Individually, there always is.

Most people are unwilling to accept responsibility on this level; however it is where the source of power over your own life is found. Within that is the ability to find what everybody seeks- happiness, love and success, as each of us define them.

 

So progressives are against the free market? Or are progressives against an unregulated free market? Big difference.

And since you say there has never been a progressive president -- can we stop calling Obama a progressive? --- or as conservatives would rather put it - a radical leftist social muslim Kenyan anticolonial terrorist racist

 

Reagan was a conservative and he won in two landslide elections.

 

If there were ANY TRUE CONSERVATIVES in congress we would not have congressional office budgets approaching ten MILLION per year for almost every member.

 

Lots of conservatives had doubts about Reagan even after he won in 1980. Within a couple of years conservative activist Richard Viguerie was calling on Reagan to not run for reelection in 1984 and let a "young conservative" have the nomination.

 

Reagan was a true conservative. A conservative believes in limited central government, individual sovereignty and liberty and constitutional republicanism. Trump might be one, but the jury i still out.

 

Technically speaking, a 'true Conservative' merely maintains the status quo... and nobody wants that.

Realistically speaking, a 'true Conservative' would uphold the authority of public office to the literal and precise extent that it is allowed by the Constitution, and nothing more. But that would make government very small and comparably uninfluential, and the corporations that use the govt as a means of enforcing their monopolies are quite resistant to that notion.

Rand Paul is probably the closest thing we have to a 'true Conservative,' and he (and the few like him) won't become president because he doesn't want it bad enough. We're pretty much limited to electing those who really want the power of office... and IMO there is no one who wants power that is a 'true Conservative.'

 

There is no reason you can't be a radical leftist social Muslim Kenyan anticolonial terrorist racist and not also be a progressive. You gave YOUR definition of 'progressive' but then again, not everyone agrees with you.

 

redundancy alert.

 

I'm not sure most Americans care much about Canadian politicians.

 

Reagan was a "true" conservative. A true conservative mainly believes and supports the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution as written. From the latter comes the key principle of republicanism (small r) which says, briefly, the federal government is limited in scope to basically what a central government must do in a collection of republics, and limited in authority. Separation of powers is an essential ingredient, as is a steadfast belief and support of individual liberty. The premise is a strong central government always leads to tyranny and, unlike state and local governments (which also can become tyrannical), is damn near impossible to overcome.
Progressivism demands the opposite: an authoritative central government and, since the collective, not individuals, is the key, puts its limits on individual liberty.

This is reply #2.