What is classical liberalism and what is conservatism?
Classical liberalism is not one ideology, but two. There is a contractual tradition built upon the works of Hobbes and Locke which our founders drew, which held that government exists to protect the liberties of citizens, because such liberties do not exist long without government. There is also the positivist or Rousseau-derived view that government should maximize the liberty of citizens, a liberty which heretofore had been destroyed by society. This led to the Reign of Terror in France. This is a radical position. (I am simplifying. For instance Jefferson, ever the effete and guilty aristocrat slave-driver switched positions. At won point he was pro-Jacobin, holding parties gaily parading cakes adorned with guillotines!) Classical Conservatism in the American sense of the term, building from the experience of Greece, Rome, and the English Civil War, has two other pillars: tradition religion. It recognizes that liberty does not exist alone. In fact it devolves into licence and that u
