# How Would You Describe Such A Conservative? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 11, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549 "2015-01-11T16:57:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/21 "2015-01-12T00:46:52Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’d call him a National Security Conservative. They used to be more common back during the Cold War. And they were in favor of legalizing drugs and SSM? I like what **mbh** said, above. Why is it necessary to label him? ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/22 "2015-01-12T01:16:02Z")
Wouldn’t there be some contradiction in believing both in the equality of gay marriage _and_ in the need to bring God back into the classroom? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/23 "2015-01-12T01:17:43Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > And they were in favor of legalizing drugs and SSM? I like what **mbh** said, above. Why is it necessary to label him? No, most National Security Conservatives weren’t calling for drug legalization or gay rights. But the OP was asking what kind of conservative such a person would be so I was identifying what sub-group of the conservative movement he was in. Two people might both call themselves Fiscal Conservatives because they have identical views on economic issues. But one of them wants to see mandatory prayer in schools and the other one is a staunch atheist. Does that mean that one of them has to stop calling himself a Fiscal Conservative because they disagree on non-economic issues? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2015, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/24 "2015-01-12T01:18:07Z")
> [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](#): > > Secular neocon, reminds me of William Knowland and Barry Goldwater (not sure how the latter would have stood on civil liberty issues like NSA however) in the past and a good chunk of modern conservative intelligentsia currently-ie people like Niall Ferguson. I don’t know, the part that threw me is him wanting god back in the classroom. I’ve known conservatives who are tough on national defense but socially liberal. This guy sounds like that except he sounds contradictory on being a social liberal or concerned with social morals. On one hand he wants god back in the classroom, on the other he is indifferent to other cultural wars. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/25 "2015-01-13T02:01:32Z")
Self-serving. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/26 "2015-01-13T02:23:19Z")
If you don’t fit a dichotomous mold you’re self-serving? ROFL, kids these days. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/27 "2015-01-13T02:42:33Z")
He sounds like the kind of “all over the map” guy who nevertheless votes straight Republican in every election. I know a lot of guys like this. They say they’re fine with legal pot and SSM, but they’d never vote for the sort of legislators who would enact those things if they could instead vote for some anti-welfare pol who promises lower taxes. Full disclosure, I’m much the same way in the opposite direction. I’m conservative on a lot of economic issues, but as long as Republicans nominate anti-science, anti-science homophobic bigots, I’m going to vote Democratic every time. ---
**Author:** ![Octarine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/22d042/32.png) [@Octarine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octarine)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/28 "2015-01-13T02:52:12Z")
> [@Stringbean](#): > > If you don’t fit a dichotomous mold you’re self-serving? > > ROFL, kids these days. Well, in the sense that his outlook seems to be “Everyone should be free to do what they want . . . as long as I personally approve!” Hence legalizing gay marriage and pot, but not allowing secular schools. While I’m not sure if it’s _worse_ than traditional hard-right religious conservatism, it makes even less sense. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/29 "2015-01-13T18:48:22Z")
I think I may have overstated my point when I said he wants to “bring God back into public schools.” My friend would like to see kids forced to recite The Pledge, to include the words “Under God” every day, like they did in the Good Old Days of the Eisenhower administration, but only in the sense of inculcating in kids the notion that the US was, and is, a culturally Christian nation. He supports prayers before graduation and such, not necessarily full-on religious indoctrination (although to be fair, the line can be a thin one indeed). ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/30 "2015-01-13T19:20:27Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > Well, in the sense that his outlook seems to be “Everyone should be free to do what they want . . . as long as I personally approve!” This sounds like “as long as I personally approve” to you? > [@HeyHomie](#): > > He absolutely, positively, does not give one flying shit about what happens in the privacy of your own home. Legalize pot? Fuck that, legalize _all_ drugs and get the police into policing actual crimes. Gay marriage? Whose business is it if Teh Gays want to be as miserable as the rest of us! Obscenity on TV? The TV has an “Off” button, learn to use it! Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![FuriousGeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecae2f/32.png) [@FuriousGeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FuriousGeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2015, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/31 "2015-01-13T19:35:54Z")
> [@Octarine](#): > > Well, in the sense that his outlook seems to be “Everyone should be free to do what they want . . . as long as I personally approve!” This seems to me to be a class of people called “everyone”. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/32 "2015-01-14T17:15:18Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Why is it necessary to label him? I think the human brain is always trying to interpret the input it receives into “patterns” it can recognize and categorize, in order to quickly make generalized decisions about them in a broad sense. Danger/No Danger. Food/Not food. Mate/Not mate. Clan/Not Clan. Obviously there are limitations when trying to use broad brush labels, especially on an individual. Broad brush labels can lead to sloppy analysis, as well as open ourselves to abuse by propaganda. I have seen these labels being used as justification to not having to debate a whole subset of humanity. Obama’s a “socialist”. (With the underlying assumption being that socialism is “bad”.) Conservative’s are “racists”. ---
**Author:** ![Taber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ac91a4/32.png) [@Taber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taber)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/33 "2015-01-14T18:33:33Z")
I’d call him a libertarian if I had to choose one label. Libertarians view defense as a valid use of government power. Most of them currently think we spend way too much on it, but thinking we spend too little on it wouldn’t be heresy. The God in schools probably is libertarian heresy, but having one out of line position doesn’t disqualify political labels, or no one could identify as anything. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/34 "2015-01-14T18:39:22Z")
_More power to the police and the NSA_ doesn’t exactly ring libertarian, either. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/35 "2015-01-14T20:46:12Z")
He’s a libertine/plutocrat. (_I’m okay with the people who have the gold making the rules, as I either am or expect to one day be one of those people_ is the plutocrat part, and _as long as I can indulge my own appetites as I please_ is the libertine part.) ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/36 "2015-01-14T21:13:25Z")
I’d say he’s a cross between a libertarian and a fascist. He recognizes people’s rights to do what they want, but only within their own homes. For the lives we lead in public, he’s fascist to the core. You will be Christian and you will give perpetual glory to anything in uniform and if you ain’t one of us you deserve whatever you get. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549/37 "2015-01-15T06:29:31Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > Is there a term that would describe such a Conservative? Is this the textbook definition of a Neocon? Socially liberal militarist? I don’t know, but they’re pretty common in my part of Missouri. ETA: Oh, I forgot about the “Get God back in our schools” part. Um, authoritarian. **kaylasdad99** and **BobLibDem** are probably not that far off. ETA 2: I agree with “National Security conservative.” Thanks, Nemo! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-you-describe-such-a-conservative/709549.md?page=1)