On the Conservative Methodology

The Founding of the United States brought to fruition many beautiful ideas about liberty and self rule.

The American Conservative movement came about last century as an effort to defend these ideals of liberty against the onslaught of radical progressivism.

When the Conservative movement concentrates on the beautiful ideas of the nation's founding, the conservative movement shines.

Unfortunately, pundits (left, right and center) have a tendency of confusing the method to conserve liberty with liberty itself.

Conservatism is a partisan method people have been using to defend the ideals of the American Experiment in Self Rule.

Conservatism is not the set of ideals themselves. It is a methodology used to defend the ideals of the founders.

NOTE: When one separates the ideals of the founders from conservatism, one is left with an extremely ugly and oppressive ideology.

Yesterday I mentioned the plight of Ruby Jessop who was forced to marry her cousin at age 16. As a child bride, she bred babies for a conservative group as if she were cattle. She has 6 in 10 years. I applaud her liberators and deplore the fundamentalists that forced her into a negative situation.

The conservative methodology when applied to preserving the principles of the American Founders is a great thing. The methodology itself is not.

The intelligentsia on the left understands the difference between method and ideals and is skilled at manipulating conflicts to bring out the worst of conservatism.

If people want to succeed at restoring the ideals of the US Founders, the advocates of liberty must be aware of the weaknesses of conservative methodology and avoid the mistake of confusing "conservatism" a method to preserve liberty and the ideals of the founders.

For over fifty years, people have tried to preserve liberty with conservatism. Clearly, this methodology is not working.

My radical suggestion is that, perhaps, the best way of preserving liberty is for people to discuss how liberty solves problems. For five years, I've been wanting to have an informal meeting with people wanting to preserve liberty about free market health care reform.

In five years of actively contacting every conservative group within 700 miles of Salt Lake City, I have not found a single person willing to discuss this issue. In most cases it appears that the groups are unwilling to discuss free market health care reform because my ideals of self-ownership do not fit within the group's concept of "conservative."

I find this fact that conservatives simply will not talk about the most important issue of our generation to be very troubling.

Preserving the US experiment in self rule is far too important an issue to loose on the gamble that the conservative methodology will preserve freedom. All of the evidence seems to indicate that the conservative methodology systematically loses.