Are American Conservatives Liberal?
by Eric Szuter “Tradition!” cries the father of the young woman in “Fiddler on the Roof.” This is a one-word explanation to his daughter – the reason why he cannot give his blessing to a marriage proposal she received from a non-Jewish young man. Tradition! And that’s that! If we try to remain intellectually honest, we must admit that the universal aspect of the conservative position, regardless of the culture, is simply tradition. Conservatives have a yearning for the long-established values of the culture in which they live. For example, we have all heard or read of the “conservative hardliners” in Russia and China. These are people who yearn for the cultural values associated with totalitarian communism, a political system which, thankfully, is quickly receding into yesterday. American conservatives yearn for the past values of the founding fathers; they are constantly hearkening back to the “Declaration of Independence,” “The Federalist Papers,” The “Bill of Rights,” and “The Const
