Conservatism--Luke

What is conservatism? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, conservatism is “ a political philosophy based on tradition and social stability, stressing established institutions, and preferring gradual development to abrupt change; specifically :such a philosophy calling for lower taxes, limited government regulation of business and investing, a strong national defense, and individual financial responsibility for personal needs (such as retirement income or health-care coverage),” While this definition is somewhat true, several Americans do not totally believe this to be correct.

The true meaning of conservatism is based upon each individual person. Many people hold both conservative and liberal values which overall causes the definition to waver. In the mind of most Americans, the common everyday conservative is usually an insidious white male who is out to steal most everyone’s money, when in reality, it is in most cases a middle class worker that is trying to reach the top of the economic food chain but is held back by government regulations. As for the topic of taxes, many right-wingers want to lower the cost of taxes because they believe that they have a right to the money that they have legally earned. The U.S. government is currently spending far greater amounts of money than what they have received from citizens due to taxes which happens to explain the enormous amount of debt the U.S. has gotten itself into.

Many conservatives believe that lowering the cost of taxes will lower the amount of government spending which in turn, lowers the national debt.

Also, several conservatists believe that the U.S. government should intervene less when it comes to the regulations of all American businesses. With less regulations, thousands of Americans across the nation would be allowed to work more hours which would allow them to make more money overall. A study by the Swedish Agency for Growth Policy Analysis found that government regulations prevent businesses from growing and exploiting new markets. They also found that the regulations prevent companies from advancing themselves technologically and also high compliance costs for both the companies and the government. If there were simply less government regulations on the economy, conservatives believe the public would be far happier.

With both of these points in mind, it is important to remember that “conservatism” differs according to each individual person. While one person may believe in lowering taxes and a stronger national defense, another may believe in higher taxes along with a stronger national defense. This are two different political ideas, yet they still fall under the name of “conservatism.” The difference in political views within the band of any ideology, liberalism or conservatism, occurs all across the nation simply because when it comes to politics, especially American politics, many are vague and inconclusive. This causes fluctuation in the definition in either political viewpoint. In reality, for one to define the word conservatism, there would be dozens of different definitions. The answer to to the age old question of the definition of conservatism is ambiguous.