For the record, I see Trump as a danger to the nation, Rubio as utterly unready, and Cruz as morally impaired. If this means that I have to turn in my credentials as a conservative, then perhaps the definition of the word has changed.
The Pacific Bull Moose
The Center Must Hold
I’m in two minds about that. Conservatism is inherently reactionary: whatever is new is against the natural order; conservatism therefore reacts against whatsoever appears on the horizon. Liberalism is inherently risky: whatever is new is at least worth trying once; liberalism therefore promotes untested bad ideas at least as often as untested good ideas.
A healthy person, group, body politic, society therefore needs both, and most sane people would describe themselves — if pressed — as somewhere in the middle.
So I’m in two minds as to whether conservatism has changed, or if the world is simply stuck in a state of rapid change that’s so fast it has “broken” the reactionary instinct.
Happy to take argument on this — I’m thinking in public here…