1. Conservatives maintain a healthy skepticism of the competence, sincerity and usefulness for government as it becomes further removed from the people. Historically the state has more often been a source of corruption and oppression than virtue and benevolence. Hence a federal government with narrowly defined and specific powers (which can be expanded or curtailed through constitutional amendment) is ideal to conservatives.
2. Conservatives bear in mind that government, being by its implicit nature a tool of coercion, is a body deserved of circumspection as well as veneration. Government should be regarded as an unfortunate necessity; it is not to be too much loved.
3. Contrary to popular belief, conservatives are tolerant of others and less dogmatic than liberals. Conservatives understand that political and ethical homogeneity is neither practical nor desirable and recognize that federalism (not judicial fiat) is the appropriate mode to address diversities in custom, religion, culture and taste. Uniformity is not essential and should not be compulsory, especially when addressing volatile social or religious issues.
4. Conservatives love equality more than liberals do. They maintain, however, that the idea of equality has changed. Conservatives believe that equality means that the law applies equally to all people. Today equality tends to mean equality of outcome. When we hear “inequality,” we understand that this means not inequality before law but that some people have more material wealth than others. Conservatives neither applaud nor condemn these disparities in wealth, believing they are a natural product of a free society.
5. Conservatives tend to favor liberty over equality. This is not attributable to some vestigial hostility to equality, but rather to doubts as to the (notably federal) government’s ability and prerogative to correct such disproportions.
6. Conservatives are pragmatic. They tend to be cynical of social and economic engineering proposals that allege to vastly improve the populace or human condition. Conservatives reject the Marxist notion that we are defined by material and remain in a perpetual struggle between “the haves” (bourgeoisie) and “have nots” (proletariat).
7. Conservatives tend to learn from the past, appreciate the present and are skeptical of the notion that history is, by definition, progressive. Change is not anathema to conservatives, but it certainly is something to be wary of. Conservatives believe that the ideas, establishments and customs of those who came before them should not be precipitously abandoned for newer models simply because they are fashionable.
8. Conservatives tend to believe that humans are inherently imperfect and flawed but will do fine if left alone. (Liberals tend to believe that man is inherently good but needs constant supervision and correction.) They are highly skeptical to the notion of the perfection of man or the human condition. Because government is an apparatus driven by these beings, conservatives believe the state will possess many of the same defects.
9. Conservatives possess a powerful and wary respect of culture. They do not reject multiculturalism; they simply understand that ethnic, racial, religious and cultural diversity creates challenges that we must recognize.
10. Conservatives tend to embrace private competition and choice over government solutions to problems, believing that people acting in self-interest will apply resources to problems most efficiently and effectively. Harnessing the human proclivity to enhance one’s own condition is, in the mind of conservatives, a more effective method of problem-solving than top-down control systems. In essence conservatives trust markets (free choice of contracts between human beings) more than bureaucracy.
