In fact, the word is championed by Republicans. But as Ayn Rand put it…..
America was created by men who broke with all political traditions and who originated a system unprecedented in history, relying on nothing but the “unaided” power of their own intellect. But the “neo-conservatives” are now trying to tell us that America was the product of “faith in revealed truths” and of uncritical respect for the traditions of the past (!).
It is certainly irrational to use the “new” as a standard of value, to believe that an idea or a policy is good merely because it is new. But it is much more preposterously irrational to use the “old” as a standard of value, to claim that an idea or a policy is good merely because it is ancient. The “liberals” are constantly asserting that they represent the future, that they are “new,” “progressive,” “forward-looking,” etc. — and they denounce the “conservatives” as old-fashioned representatives of a dead past. The “conservatives” concede it, and thus help the “liberals” to propagate one of today’s most grotesque inversions: collectivism, the ancient, frozen, status society, is offered to us in the name of progress — while capitalism, the only free, dynamic, creative society ever devised, is defended in the name of stagnation.
Now after reading that try to apply conservatism to the most important target group: the young. Who in their right fucking mind calls themselves the Grand Old Party?! Why not then Grandpa’s Ornery Problems??
If you’re a young, undecided voter, are you gonna vote for this crinkly built on boring traditional family values???
Or this hip upstart who went on MTV of all places? And played sax too?
Ever wonder why Clinton was reelected?
Jeez, he won your primary. Surely the kids were cackling over that.
How about this nice chap who served?
Or this badass?!?!
Kicks and giggles aside, conservatives go bug-eyed over words like tradition and heritage. However, to that young person coming up and wanting to make their mark in the world, well those things don’t really resonate with them because frankly it’s a vocabulary for old people. You wouldn’t see descriptors like New Republican, Free Market Enterpriser, Pro-Capitalist, etc. No, it’s back to the old slog of I’m a conservative with the attached vagueness of …..who believes in The American Way.
Conservative is the vocabulary for the old on their last legs. There’s nothing in its pronunciation that brings excitement to our young because it’s guilty of being so gal darn steeped in the past. There’s no vision of a New Conservative because Republicans believe in the status quo on the language of conservatism. Compared to the future-sounding progressive, well conservative amounts to that old rocking chair about to crumble. Yet it continues to be used by Republicans as if it has meaning. Take a look at any definition of conservative and what you will always find is “the established,” “the old,” “what worked then, works now,” “preserving tradition.” But you’ll never find the words today, tomorrow, or future. It’s odd for a conservative word that claims to have done so much for human history that it cannot utter one word beyond yesterday.
My recommendation for any young Republicans out there would be to take the word, put it in a sealed bottle with weights, and drop the goddamn fossil in the lake.
Update: It has been mentioned by a few that because conservatives are about preserving and changing only if needed, that they’re fine with boring. This is incorrect. You have to make the traditional new & improved, but certainly not the language of boring. It’s sort of like watching home improvement shows. A house is still basically a box, but the design innovations make it exciting and fresh.
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The Right's Wrongs 