Portal:Conservatism

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Introduction

Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology, which seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in which it appears. In Western culture, depending on the particular nation, conservatives seek to promote a range of institutions, such as the nuclear family, organized religion, the military, the nation-state, property rights, rule of law, aristocracy, and monarchy. Conservatives tend to favour institutions and practices that enhance social order and historical continuity.

Edmund Burke, an 18th-century Anglo-Irish statesman who opposed the French Revolution but supported the American Revolution, is credited as one of the forefathers of conservative thought in the 1790s along with Savoyard statesman Joseph de Maistre. The first established use of the term in a political context originated in 1818 with François-René de Chateaubriand during the period of Bourbon Restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution and establish social order.

Conservatism has varied considerably as it has adapted itself to existing traditions and national cultures. Thus, conservatives from different parts of the world, each upholding their respective traditions, may disagree on a wide range of issues. Historically associated with right-wing politics, the term has been used to describe a wide range of views. Conservatism may be either libertarian or authoritarian, populist or elitist, progressive or reactionary, moderate or extreme. (Full article...)

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Alan Lee Keyes (born 1950) is an American conservative political activist, author, former diplomat, and perennial candidate for public office. A doctoral graduate of Harvard University, Keyes began his diplomatic career in 1979 at the United States consulate in Mumbai, India, and the United States embassy in Zimbabwe. President Ronald Reagan appointed Keyes as Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council and Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations; in his capacities as a UN ambassador, among Keyes's accomplishments was contributing to the Mexico City Policy. He ran for President of the United States in 1996, 2000, and 2008, and was a Republican nominee for the United States Senate in 1988, 1992, and 2004. Keyes served in the U.S. Foreign Service, was appointed Ambassador to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations under President Ronald Reagan, and served as Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs from 1985 to 1987. Keyes also hosted a radio talk show, and a television commentary show on the MSNBC cable network.

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It only takes 20 years for a liberal to become a conservative without changing a single idea.

— Robert Anton Wilson, The Illuminati Papers (1980)

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Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), by Edmund Burke, is one of the best-known intellectual attacks against the (then-infant) French Revolution. In the twentieth century, it much influenced conservative and classical liberal intellectuals, who recast Burke's Whig arguments as a critique of Communism and Socialist revolutionary programmes.

Edmund Burke served in the British House of Commons, representing the Whig party, in close alliance with liberal politician Lord Rockingham. In Burke's political career, he vigorously defended constitutional limitation of the Crown's authority, denounced the religious persecution of Catholics in his native Ireland, voiced the grievances of Britain's American colonies, supported the American Revolution, and vigorously pursued impeachment of Warren Hastings, the governor-general of Bengal, for corruption and abuse of power.

In 1789, soon after the fall of the Bastille, the French aristocrat Charles-Jean-François Depont asked his impressions of the Revolution; Burke replied with two letters. The longer, second letter became Reflections on the Revolution in France, published in 1790.

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Did you know...

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  ... that Romanian scholar Nicolae Iorga (pictured) constructed a conservative vision of world history, contrasting Max Weber's Protestant Ethic?

• ... that in 1952, after giving the Checkers speech, Richard Nixon dictated a telegram resigning as Dwight D. Eisenhower's running mate, but his campaign manager Murray Chotiner ripped it up unsent?

• ... that Helen Grant became the first black female candidate to be elected as a Conservative member of Parliament?

Selected anniversaries in May

May 4th

• 1979 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

May 7th

• 1940 – the Norway Debate in the British House of Commons begins, and leads to the replacement of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain with Winston Churchill three days later.

May 24th

• 1988 – Section 28 is enacted in Great Britain with the effect of prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality by local authorities.

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