Small-C Conservatism

For years, you, the faithful CDN readers have  known that I have made it a point to capitalize the word Conservative.  I have done this because it is not just an adjective.  It is a proper noun.  It is an identity, it is why it is an identity.

I actually started this post as a comment on a post at RedState, but their comment system didn’t think I had been a member long enough.  I wanted to share my thoughts and since I write for 3 Conservative web sites, I guess I wasn’t lacking for a place to put my opinion out there.

RedState, in this post, makes the point that there are two major types of Conservatives: big and small-c.  Those that study, assert, espouse the ideology and those that believe without digging into the deep stuff.

It’s a blatant “tell”. The Big Lie, that the current anti-statist uprising is composed of extremist ideologues, is a media favorite, but they hammer it knowing full well the opposite is true. Their message is designed to frighten and discourage the average voter from joining the uprising. In reality, the movement largely comprised of “small-c conservatives”, and their large numbers and sudden vocal activism scare the bejeezus out of the Ruling Class.

It is a great point that Vladamir (the post Author) makes and here’s what I had tried to post as a comment.

This is an article that hits me dead-center. For years, I have been writing and purposefully capitalizing the C every time I use the term on blog posts and articles. I try to explain that it is more than an identity, it is what gives us that identity.

When I first saw this post hit my feed reader I had many differing thoughts about what it was and whether or not I wanted to get beat-up for being a big C’er, but I took the bait.

This post is dead-on. I am a big C (not the other C-word). I have read Weaver, Kirk, Hayek, et al. I love the whole ideology and understand why I want less of pretty much everything from the government. I also understand that not everyone wants to trudge through those books, get to the foundation and be a Conservative philosopher so I write many, many .. many articles for the small c’s so that we might all achieve the true American end together.

We all want the same thing – the best for our families: real opportunity, freedom to do those things that we best identify with (religion, speech, hunting, etc).

We cannot be snobbish about the ideology. We cannot exclude those that don’t really like Richard Weaver’s style or have time to read Toqueville’s hefty wordage. We should not exclude anyone because of errant comments, or mistakes in their younger days. We have to take Conservatives and conservatives for their values and all work together to protect those values, our way of life, and the future our children so much deserve,

God Bless America. God Bless Conservatives and conservatives.

Great post.