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Thursday, June 30, 2005
What's in a name?
Ended up on skippy the bush kangaroo's little place through the vagaries of link-jumping across the blogosphere and saw a bit I just had to quote:
I typically call myself a small-l libertarian, because it's probably the best fit out there for me, but it ain't perfect. What is, however, is skippy's characterization of truly conservative. Conserving the budget, the environment, and values. He even got the order right in my case. Skippy's pretty firmly left, but the blog, from what I've read today, is rather thoughtful, and capable of incisive comments like the above that any conservative would be proud to make.
Truly conservative is a damned good way to describe myself. I just wish it were in common usage. I'm in a no man's land i'd bet was shared by a large proportion, if not a majority, of fiscal conservatives. I'm not quite socially liberal enough to be a Libertarian but I'm a bit too socially liberal to be a good republican. And although I have a bible, I ain't Christian. Which, since 2000 has meant that I'm automatically ineligible for party membership anyway.
There've been a lot of terms thrown out there to describe us: conservative, libertarian, minarchist, right-leaning, whatever. And i'm tired of having to pick a label depending on the situation. If I'm defending a republican policy I agree with, i'm conservative, to show a union between me and the republicans. If I'm attacking a republican policy I become a libertarian. If i'm yelling at liberals, i'm typically denounced as a yahoo who can't think straight. Screw it. I'm a conservative. And I'm adopting Skippy's definition.
Who says we're incapable of listening to the other side? Skippy, my heartfelt thanks for putting succinctly into words what I couldn't manage in 3000 or more.
"while trying madly to reach a million hits for our third blogiversary (yes! talkleft coined that phrase!) we stumbled upon a truly conservative blog called cynical nation .
now, by "truly" conservative, we don't mean way more conservative than lgf (that would be nigh impossible). no, we mean "conservative" in the literal, old school definition of the term: wanting to conserve (budget, environment, values); a real-life libertarian, not a wannabe who likes shouting for the sake of shouting."
I typically call myself a small-l libertarian, because it's probably the best fit out there for me, but it ain't perfect. What is, however, is skippy's characterization of truly conservative. Conserving the budget, the environment, and values. He even got the order right in my case. Skippy's pretty firmly left, but the blog, from what I've read today, is rather thoughtful, and capable of incisive comments like the above that any conservative would be proud to make.
Truly conservative is a damned good way to describe myself. I just wish it were in common usage. I'm in a no man's land i'd bet was shared by a large proportion, if not a majority, of fiscal conservatives. I'm not quite socially liberal enough to be a Libertarian but I'm a bit too socially liberal to be a good republican. And although I have a bible, I ain't Christian. Which, since 2000 has meant that I'm automatically ineligible for party membership anyway.
There've been a lot of terms thrown out there to describe us: conservative, libertarian, minarchist, right-leaning, whatever. And i'm tired of having to pick a label depending on the situation. If I'm defending a republican policy I agree with, i'm conservative, to show a union between me and the republicans. If I'm attacking a republican policy I become a libertarian. If i'm yelling at liberals, i'm typically denounced as a yahoo who can't think straight. Screw it. I'm a conservative. And I'm adopting Skippy's definition.
Who says we're incapable of listening to the other side? Skippy, my heartfelt thanks for putting succinctly into words what I couldn't manage in 3000 or more.
