this makes me think again, of the word conservative - I think most people and policies you'd describe as conservative these days definitely aren't - basically US republicans, UK tories, German Christian-Democrats etc. They're, in varying proportions, right-wing, pro-business, authoritarian, neo-liberal, etc etc. Conservative, OTOH, originally (and in the sense you use it, I'd guess) means wanting to keep things the way they are. In that sense, Greens are obviously ultra-conservative - they want nature to stay the way it is, want to keep those trees standing and those animals running around. They're also progressive in the social sense - change a lot about society etc; in that area, a lot of Republicans etc. are of course conservative: oooh, homosexuality, gay marriage, evil is taking over... face it: people are by nature opposed to *any* change at first; they accept it if their initial situation is bad enough, and in different areas according to priorities (i.e. some say we have to accept species going extinct to keep jobs, others say we have to sacrifice jobs to keep the species).
Now, of course, the problem is: in what state do you want to conserve things? The way they are now, the way they were 10, 20, 50, 100 years ago? The way they should have been 10 years ago but never were?
Conclusion: 'Compassionate conservative' is perfectly plausible; most people are some of both. 'Compassionate conservatism' as propagated by the US Republicans is a joke. |
