| | Its roots prior to the 1960s and 1970s are less clear. Some based it in a longstanding tradition in the United States that supports limited government, checks and balances on power, strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution, and Christianity in general. | | Its roots prior to the 1960s and 1970s are less clear. Some based it in a longstanding tradition in the United States that supports limited government, checks and balances on power, strict adherence to the U.S. Constitution, and Christianity in general. |
| − | Various definitions exist. “What is conservatism?” Abraham Lincoln asked rhetorically. “Is it not preference for the old and tried, over the new and untried?”<ref>Lincoln, Abraham, "[http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/cooper.htm Cooper Union Address]" (1860).</ref> In ''The Devil's Dictionary'' (1906), American writer Ambrose Bierce explains that a conservative is, “a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.” Historian Gregory Schneider defines conservatism as "a defense of tradition."<ref name=Schneider>Gregory Schneider, ''The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution'' (Rowman & Littlefield. 2009) p. xii</ref> In the conservative view, the proper role of government is to support existing ways of life. Conservatives are partial to institutions that were built up gradually and whose current form distills the accumulated wisdom of generations. Liberal proposals to restructure society are condemned as "utopian" and "social re-engineering."
| + | Non-conservatives have tried to define it. Abraham Lincoln, who mistakenly rejected the significance of morality in government by seeking to allow slavery when he campaigned for president in 1860, asked rhetorically, “What is conservatism? Is it not preference for the old and tried, over the new and untried?”<ref>Lincoln, Abraham, "[http://www.abrahamlincolnonline.org/lincoln/speeches/cooper.htm Cooper Union Address]" (1860).</ref> Satirist Ambrose Bierce, in his ''The Devil's Dictionary'' (1906), suggested that a conservative is “a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.” Historian Gregory Schneider defines conservatism as "a defense of tradition."<ref name=Schneider>Gregory Schneider, ''The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution'' (Rowman & Littlefield. 2009) p. xii</ref> In the conservative view, the proper role of government is to support existing ways of life. Conservatives are partial to institutions that were built up gradually and whose current form distills the accumulated wisdom of generations. Liberal proposals to restructure society are condemned as "utopian" and "social re-engineering." |
| | The defect in equating "conservatism" with tradition is that much of conservatism does not rely on tradition at all, such as support of the very non-traditional U.S. Constitution in 1787, or support for homeschooling and innovative laws against [[abortion]] today. Great conservative laws, such as the Patent Act of 1790, the Sherman Act of 1890, and the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) were innovative and not based on tradition at all. | | The defect in equating "conservatism" with tradition is that much of conservatism does not rely on tradition at all, such as support of the very non-traditional U.S. Constitution in 1787, or support for homeschooling and innovative laws against [[abortion]] today. Great conservative laws, such as the Patent Act of 1790, the Sherman Act of 1890, and the Taft-Hartley Act (1947) were innovative and not based on tradition at all. |