What Is The Conservative Ideology?
The conservative rallying cry is “freedom.” Freedom generally meaning freedom from government intervention in matters they do not want government interfering in (usually their own personal or professional lives). But as we shall see later in this essay, conservatives have an inherent mistrust of personal freedom, and can become quite uncomfortable when serious proposals are made to extend it to someone other than themselves. The problem here is that allowing personal freedom without allowing a similar degree of freedom to others violates to principle of ‘greatest good for the greatest number.’ It therefore creates a basic inconsistency. The essence of a free society is “openness,” which implies two things: the right to free speech, and the right, even the requirement, to think for oneself, make one’s own decisions, and chart one’s own destiny. While conservatives loudly proclaim these ideals, they do not mind circumscribing them in the name of their own ideology; restrictions on aborti
