I love the all too rare conversations with my friend Stu. Talking about populism, liberalism and Conservatism and how most people who call themselves conservatives aren’t conservative at all, but taking a particular set of ideas and behaviours as an identity and then applying a populist approach. The term conservative ought to be reclaimed.
@realmattseymour What if conservatism *is* populist and the alternative is a minority approach that must consistently control culture to retain its power and influence?
@williamlweaver
I'm not sure I follow... In my experience those who say they're conservative politically espouse quite modern ideas, such as neo-liberal economics, that would be quite alien to members of their party 40 years ago. Religous conservatives again seem to seek to protect an identity construct that's say no older than the 1950s but they seem completely unaware of this. So for me many conservatives are not seeking to conserve something of age and value.
@realmattseymour
Maybe it would be helpful to define conservatism in 2018...
