Portal:Conservatism

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Introduction

Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology, which seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears. In Western culture, depending on the particular nation, conservatives seek to promote and preserve a range of institutions, such as the nuclear family, organised religion, the military, the nation-state, property rights, rule of law, aristocracy, and monarchy. Conservatives tend to favour institutions and practices that enhance social order and historical continuity.

Edmund Burke, an 18th-century Anglo-Irish statesman who opposed the French Revolution but supported the American Revolution, is credited as one of the forefathers of conservative thought in the 1790s along with Savoyard statesman Joseph de Maistre. The first established use of the term in a political context originated in 1818 with François-René de Chateaubriand during the period of Bourbon Restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution and establish social order.

Conservatism has varied considerably as it has adapted itself to existing traditions and national cultures. Thus, conservatives from different parts of the world, each upholding their respective traditions, may disagree on a wide range of issues. Historically associated with right-wing politics, the term has been used to describe a wide range of views. Conservatism may be either libertarian or authoritarian, populist or elitist, progressive or reactionary, moderate or extreme. (Full article...)

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Alan Lee Keyes (born 1950) is an American conservative political activist, author, former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office. A doctoral graduate of Harvard University, Keyes began his diplomatic career in 1979 at the United States consulate in Mumbai, India, and the United States embassy in Zimbabwe. President Ronald Reagan appointed Keyes as Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council and Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations; in his capacities as a UN ambassador, among Keyes's accomplishments was contributing to the Mexico City Policy. He ran for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008, and was a Republican nominee for the United States Senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004. Keyes served in the U.S. Foreign Service, was appointed Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations under President Ronald Reagan, and served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. Keyes also hosted a radio talk show, and a television commentary show on the MSNBC cable network.

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The real division is not between conservatives and revolutionaries but between authoritarians and libertarians.
— George Orwell, in a letter to Malcolm Muggeridge (4 December 1948)

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In the United States, the Republican Party emerged in 1854, growing out of a coalition of anti-slavery Whigs and Free Soil Democrats who mobilized in opposition to Stephen A. Douglas's January 1854 introduction of the Kansas–Nebraska Act into Congress, a bill which repealed the 1820 Missouri Compromise prohibition on slavery in territory north of the 36° 30′ latitude line, and so was denounced as an aggressive expansionist pro-slavery maneuver by free soil and anti-slavery Northerners.

Two small cities of the Yankee diaspora, Ripon, Wisconsin and Jackson, Michigan, claim to be the birthplace of the Republican Party (in other words, meetings held there were some of the first 1854 anti-Nebraska assemblies to call themselves "Republican"). Ripon held the first county convention on March 20, 1854. Jackson held the first statewide convention on July 6, 1854; it declared their new party opposed to the expansion of slavery into new territories and selected a state-wide slate of candidates.

Credit: Lecter

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Did you know...

... that Romanian scholar Nicolae Iorga (pictured) constructed a conservative vision of world history, contrasting Max Weber's Protestant Ethic?

...that before Chuck DeVore became a member of the California State Assembly, he wrote a book that was banned in the People's Republic of China?

... that during World War I, future Norwegian politician and railroad chairman Egil Werner Erichsen was hit by the Spanish flu, but did not spend one day in bed?