What is Conservatism?

Newly added to my seminar is a series of slides helping candidates define their land of milk honey better. It's the aspect of campaigns, I've discovered, that troubles new candidates more than the rest of the preparation for the campaign.

I break it down into principles first, then the choice of policy destinations, and finally tactics.

Principle: No one should lose the home they own to the government.
Destination: Work to eliminate property taxes.
Tactics: Spending reductions across the board, give any surplus back to the people, etc.

You'll know a candidate first by whether they have a land of milk and honey, then by whether they've created an attractive destination, then by whether they have policies they work to implement that can get us to the land of milk and honey, and finally by how aggressively they act to pursue it and lead us there.

Most of the establishment incumbents only have a land of milk and honey as dictated to them by donors or leadership - which is to say they don't have one.

Fewer yet craft such policies. Fewer still try to implement such policies, no matter how much cry for it that they hear from their constituents in their district.

Far and away, "conservative principles" are fodder for marketing material and not for serious pursuit of policy. This is why the GOP looks to soon lose the midterms.

I did a search on the web for conservative principles and found a pretty good list. Here it is:

• Individual Freedom
• Limited Government
• The Rule of Law
• Peace through Strength
• Fiscal Responsibility
• Free Markets
• Human Dignity

What policy destinations can come from that? Perhaps this:

• Return our God-given Rights to us
• Lots of repeal
• Return to equality for all in our legal system (where those elected and the rich don't get favored treatment)
• Champion self-defense
• Stop and cut spending
• Cut subsidies / regulation
• Promote individuals and not groups

You might get pretty excited.

And now imagine that they actually acted aggressively to achieve those for us.

We'd be pretty happy with that elected official. Right?

If only we saw those principles from those in power, who acted with authority to lead us to such a visionary land of milk and honey. In Austin, in DC. If only we had such leadership.

It might surprise you who wrote that list of principles. Go ahead. Click the link and find out.

Then you'll understand why things like this are mostly marketing and not serious pursuit of policy.

When those in power fail to act and fail to lead, we have to replace them. Our families require that we respond to the urgency of these times when those we elect don't.

1 Comment

Roy Getting (Jun 1, 2025 5:02 PM):

I wish the author of the original would push harder. If he did, we would be doing much better today. Excellent article!!