DiscoGary wrote:
Monkeys typing wrote:
Intellectual integrity might seem an impossible goal, but it might come to you if you were to practice it once in a while.
One of us is right, the other wrong. The way we break the tie is that we try both ways and then find out what works and what fails.
All the tests have been done. Everything has been tried. This is what works:
1. Free market capitalism.
2. Government that protect the rights of the individual, as opposed to granting favors to various groups or putting the good of the "State" over the good of the individual.
3. Representative forms of government where those in power answer to the people.
4. Constitutional government where those in power are constrained by a rule book, so that a simple majority can not oppress the minority.
5. Limited government where government can not buy votes by giving away other people's money.
6. Decentralized power. The closer the government is to the people, the tighter the feedback loop, the better the outcome.
It just so happens that the US is based on all 6 of those, so the things that I think are important, those that have worked throughout history ... are the law of the land.
Any deviation from that makes things worse. Liberalism attacks 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6.
That seems simplistic and, dare I say, dogmatic, but supposing we were to agree on your criteria how would you score conservatism in principal and in current practice against this list?