www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp4jwtFlXho

The video is from earlier this year, but it is still significant. As a sidenote, I find it ironic that Arlen Specter claimed to have switched sides because the Republican Party had grown far “too conservative” under Bush, and yet it was President Bush in 2004 who literally saved Specter from losing his senate seat to a far more conservative challenger in the primary.

If conservatism means enthusiasm for war, using the federal government to oppose gay marriage and flag burning, and increasing state and individual interference by the federal government… then yeah, we’ve probably been too conservative.

However, if conservatism means advocating limited government, defending the Constitution and the restraints it puts on government, supporting freedom, protecting individual rights, and keeping America’s defense strong but unencumbered–then I’d say it’s time to roll up our sleeves and start acting like true conservatives again.

As Barry Goldwater put it in The Conscience of a Conservative:

The conscience of the Conservative is pricked by anyone who would debase the dignity of the individual human being. Today, therefore, he is at odds with dictators who rule by terror, and equally with those gentler collectivists who ask our permission to play God with the human race.

With this view of the nature of man, it is understandable that the conservative looks upon politics as the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order… the Conservative’s first concern will always be: Are we maximizing freedom?