Conservative
A place to discuss pro-conservative stuff
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So the long answer is this. It's a 20 minute video of a leftie analyzing what conservatives actually believe (as in what framework can be used to understand and predict their seemingly contradictory positions), with another 12 minute video next in the same series if you want to see the evidence. I strongly recommend it; he's good at what he does.
Anyway, the short answer is this: Conservatism is an ideology built on hierarchies. It attempts to sort people based on their wealth and success within the capitalist system, with the people at the top of the hierarchy—aka the ultra-rich—being inherently deserving of their wealth and more capable of using it to the benefit of society. Think Reaganomics. This is why they don't like social justice and welfare; to them it's taking money—and therefore power—away from its rightful holders and giving it to people who don't deserve it. Also, the guy who invented conservatism was a monarchist trying to find a way an aristocracy might exist within democracy in the wake of the French Revolution because he predicted that democracy would spread across Europe. His conclusion was that the new aristocracy would be the ultra wealthy, and they'd have power by virtue of having the most money*. I have to reiterate: The video is really good and you should watch it. Hell, watch the whole series; it's downright prophetic.
*He used the subjective theory of value, or the assertion that the price someone is willing to pay for something is how much value it has. As a result, people with more money have more say in the value of things and therefore more power in society.
Do you mean Democrat the party or democrat as in people who think democracy is good? If the latter then while they may say—and even think—that they're democrats, you'll still see authoritarianism in the the positions they hold and the politicians they support.
Those people are only small c conservative because of identity politics, and don't subscribe to capital C Conservatism as an ideology. Ideologically they're much more accurately described as liberal/centrists who as an addon don't like the idea of minority rights (which historically is a pretty common position).
I feel like your point of view and the one of this video is based on the USA's Republican Party, which is considered far right rather than just conservative in Europe.
There's plenty of traditional right/conservative parties in Europe who defend democracy, liberal economy, but socially conservative, for example German's CDU (Angela Merkel) and its equivalents in other EU countries.
I addressed this point here:
Someone who wants to roll back social welfare and corporate regulation would be considered a conservative. Anti-immigrant sentiment, while bad for many reasons, isn't incompatible with liberalism.
Again, I feel like this is your point of view and maybe the one from the USA left. I think what you call capital C Conservatism is far right in EU. Although it's true that part of the traditional right in the EU have started to ally with the far right, as the far right keeps scoring higher in the elections every year.
I guess if we accept European conservatism (as you describe it; I'm basically taking your word for all this) then it'd have to be designated as an exception. However, the things I wrote apply to most strains of conservatism, because it's still baked into the very core of the ideology. European conservatives get out of this conflict by being extremely centrist rather than taking firm conservative positions.
-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_Germany#Modern_conservatism