Conservatism is dependent upon and impossible without a civil society. Civil society implies maximum liberty without encroaching on neighbors' liberty to create and maintain a system of ordered liberty through the administration of the rule of law. The rule of law implies adherence to principle over personality, to the rule of law rather than to the rule of men. The administration of the rule of law finds its legitimacy in adherence to the constitutional mandate.
To the degree that a government departs from its constitutional mandate, to the degree that the application of law departs from its constitutional mandate, someone's liberty is inevitably impaired.
Conservatism accepts that man is a fallen creature who seeks to advantage himself at the expense of his fellows and as a result men will seek to advantage themselves over others through government power. It is the inevitable tendency of governments to grow and seek increasing dominance over the affairs of men leading to tyranny.
Conservatism adheres to a Constitution designed to prevent the consolidation of power over the liberty of men in government by creating a federal system with checks and balances and separation of powers. It is not designed to depend on the virtue of man or a single man to protect our liberties and advance our civil society, rather, both conservatives and our Constitution put their faith in the principles which hopefully create and preserve a civil society free from the ambitions of any man, no matter how charismatic and no matter how besotted his followers.
Conservatism is a political philosophy which is timeless as well as absolutely indispensable to the freedom and prosperity of is all. Conservatism is not to be discarded because charlatans who claim the label have betrayed us. Conservatism is not to be discarded because charismatic figures advance positions which are inconsistent with its principles. If our liberty, our civil society, our rule law, our very Constitution itself have been betrayed, the solution is not to turn to the man on horseback but to return to the principles which have made the American experiment the noblest political achievement of mankind.
So far we have discarded many people to advance the March of one candidate. We attempted to destroy the career of Megan Kelly for quoting the candidate's own words back at him. We belittled virtually every other candidate in the race for their size, their looks, their energy and in many cases we traduced these candidates in the face of reason, history and the real facts. We have sought to attack the undeniable conservatism of observers like Thomas Sowell, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh when they tried to advance conservative principles which might frustrate the chances of one specific candidate. We were told that virtually everyone who did not fall in line had sold-out, was never conservative, was an agent of the GOP establishment. Every day it seemed we had to add one more name to the list of those who must be wrong in order for Donald Trump to be right.
Donald Trump is our candidate, he is to be supported, but our principles are not to be discarded.
Now we are being told, even to some degree on this very thread, that we must discard conservatism itself and devote ourselves to the candidacy of one man. Not only are we to discard conservatism but we are told that conservatism is the source of our problems, we are told that conservatives are the evil ones, we are told that our answers are all to be found in the rule of man, one man.
Hail Caesar! Hail Napoleon! Hail Benito! Hail…!
