Conservatism: The American Conservative Movement

Traditional conservatives undoubtedly favour a pragmatic approach rather than stick to the core ideologies of conservatism. Burke

Conservatism can be summed up in ten key principles that Russell Kirk sums up in his work the “Essence of Conservatism.”

There exist similarities between both the federalists and the anti-federalists. Both felt that government was necessary because ‘men were not “angels”’ (Bryner, 1987). However, they disagreed on the size of government appropriate in a republic. The federalists wanted a large republic with a central government while the anti-federalists wanted a small republic with a state government. Both the federalists and anti-federalists were liberals and republicans. Republicanism refers to a political theory of government that advocates for the participation of the people for the common good of the community (Rawls, 1993). It focuses on the importance of virtue. Virtue is important because it encourages ‘personal restraint and willingness to contribute to the common good’ (Bryner, 1987, p. 2).

M. Merger explains that the key notions of the dominant American ideology are: individualism, equality of opportunity, meritocracy, work ethic and liberal

Halfway through the 18th century, the republican government began to establish new ideals that left a lasting impression on America. Using the momentum from the Enlightenment and the Great Awakening, the Founding Fathers established the ideals of liberty, unalienable rights, rejection of monarchy and inherited political power, and independence. These ideals were an integral part of America’s civic thought. The Enlightenment and the Great Awakening greatly influenced the republic ideals of America by emphasizing the importance of reason and virtue, stressing that religion, reason, and virtue can coexist, and changing the colonists’ views of politics, religion, and humanity.

Libertarians support the view that people have free will and so we are free to make moral decisions. For a Libertarian, the key evidence for this is the act of decision making in our daily lives. Hume states that “experience is what we see to be true”, each human being experiences the feeling of being free to make a decision. If experiencing any other action constitutes it to be true, then why not the same for free will? Libertarians argue that we have awareness of the choices we make; we can choose to do anything that we are capable of. Though we are influenced by our environment and experiences, ultimately we can make our own decisions, nothing is

The conservative movement has played a crucial role in American politics in the post war era. Ronald Story and Bruce Laurie indentify various elements of the American conservatism. These elements include challenging authoritarian governments and modernist culture, upholding tradition, Christian religion and the rule of law, defending western civilization, and supporting republicanism. American conservatism has been characterized by competing ideologies and tension throughout history. The Americans who are politically liberal and economically conservative favor free trade, minimal state intervention, low taxes, and a small government. On the other hand, conservatives hold the view that American traditional values are normally undermined by

The notion of American conservatism has been around roughly since the conception of The United States. Once refined in the U.S. Constitution in September of 1787, what had been left up to speculation was now set as guidelines for the flourishing country. There was always separation in beliefs between American’s, but the constitution truly outlined what America could build upon. This is where American conservatism really came into effect. Conservatism as defined by the Encyclopedia Britannica is “a political doctrine that emphasizes value of social tradition institutions and practices.” Simply meaning that this ideal represented America’s freedom - instilling that the country should always be run by ‘We The People’ as stated in the preamble to the Constitution. Once interpreted more as a preference as to how American’s could live their life, Conservatism has transformed into a distinct lifestyle at which many American’s follow today. With the notable growth of Conservatism it was only imminent that differing divisions of this practice would spark up. The differing ideologies, however, would only be separated by minimalistic technicalities. Although copious different interpretations do exist, many can be synthesized to the same ideas. Ronald P. Formisano’s The Tea Party: A Brief History underscores the significance of holding America to it’s standards set by the documents written by the Founding Fathers.

Although counterintuitive to today’s modern political arena, the Conservative vs progressive fight for dominance of the cultural hegemony enforced onto the citizens have swapped on the ideals supported. Historically the Conservative party was thought to be more progressive in regards to individual rights and the rejection of the power of the central state, whereas the parties that identified with the progressive movement were more idealistic and desired a stronger central state to help bring along a more egalitarian future. Conservative ideals involved wanting to promote the idea of the “common good”, respect for tradition, and often coinciding with Republicanism ideals.

For the second image, a crude and neutral example (reason why the colors black and white are used) of the map of the United States is shown. Within it, is the characteristic button of rewind, emphasizing in this way the most emblematic motto within the election campaign of the Republican party in the 2016 elections: "Make America Great Again."

United States Presidential Election is not directly elected by the voters, but electoral candidate votes. That is the reason why over half voters vote Hillary Clinton but Donald J. Trump became the 45th president of the United States. Massachusetts supported Democratic party in the presidential election 2016 with more than sixty percent approval rating without a doubt. In history from 1928 to 2016, Massachusetts has voted 19 times to democratic party and four times to Republic party. Why Massachusetts becomes a real deep-blue state in just shy of past two hundred years？There are three texts illustrate this phenomenon from historical factor and human factor.

Another important tenet of conservatism is a respect for the proliferating variety of human existence, as opposed to the uniformity aims of most radical systems. "Conviction that civilized society requires orders and classes" (Kirk 9). This is reflected in American conservatism belief that economic leveling in inherently wrong. In the belief that economic leveling is wrong, conservatives also believe strongly in protecting the rights of private property owners.

Liberal legal social movements pioneer the academic, legal, and social worlds when it comes to holding an institutional framework that is entitled to and enabled with the power to create progressive change. While the conservative school of thought has made strides towards the same goal, it is difficult due to a number of barriers, namely the association with the best being the present, or any many cases, the past. The traditional conservative ideology does not lend itself well to progressiveness, and conservative thinkers hold this fact close to their hearts. With this in mind, the nature of the conservative movement itself directs it in such a way that conservative thinkers consider their resentment when creating infrastructure and policy,

The philosophical basis of the neoconservative theory of the United States has two main sources, one in the twentieth century

After the revolutions of 1848, many European rulers were almost forced to look back on the traditional, conservative, ways of ruling. Rulers such as Bismarck, Alexander II, and Napoleon III came to realize that in order to maintain power, they would need to become flexible on long-held principles and embrace nationalism. These rulers’ policies were representatives of a new kind of conservatism. Conservatism’s chief source of strength, the rural peasantry, was declining in numbers relative to other social groups and was in any case too small to support an effective national party so they identified themselves with nationalist sentiments. With the decline of traditional conservatism hastened by growing industrialization and modernization, came