<\/p>\n
Reid says:<\/p>\n
(He's still thinking about what to say here...)<\/p>\n
Barry says:<\/p>\n
\u201cConservative\u201d means, placing a high value on political and economic freedom, constitutional democracy, local government, independence, and property rights, versus the opposites of those things, which are: coercion, dictatorship, big federal government, dependency, and theft.\u00a0 It also means, taking a serious interest in history, specifically in learning all possible lessons from the past, in order to make new mistakes instead of repeating the same old ones. \u201cProletariat\u201d means, common, ordinary people like Joe Sixpack, as opposed to aristocratic elites. The conjunction of the two terms seems important now, because of the widespread and stubborn belief in the old Marxist hypotheses that the aristocracy is naturally conservative and the proletariat naturally liberal.\u00a0 Consider, for example, the liberal and aristocratic Thomas Franks, writing in his book \u201cWhat\u2019s the Matter with Kansas?\u201d He says that if Joe Sixpack from Wichita votes Republican, Joe is necessarily voting irrationally and \u201cagainst his own interests\u201d. I don\u2019t see it that way. In my view, Joe is smarter than Franks thinks he is, and he understands his own interests better than Franks does. Joe might rationally vote for either a Democrat or a Republican, depending on how the candidates\u2019 platforms relate to his own values about freedom, independence, property rights, etc., which have every bit as much importance to him as they do to his rich neighbors. Maybe more. Thus, when Franks says that he doesn\u2019t understand how Joe could rationally vote for a conservative politician, I think the best available response is to say, \u201cYou\u2019re right: you don\u2019t understand that. But we\u2019d be happy to explain it to you, if you\u2019re interested.\u201d Hence this blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Reid says: (He's still thinking about what to say here...) Barry says: \u201cConservative\u201d means, placing a high value on political and economic freedom, constitutional democracy, local government, independence, and property rights, versus the opposites of those things, which are: coercion, dictatorship, big federal government, dependency, and theft.\u00a0 It also means, taking a serious interest ...continue reading