“CONSERVATISM”: WHY? I use the term “conservative” all over this website. Possibly this makes me sound like a partisan hack-jerk. I don’t do this because there’s some set of “conservative beliefs” out there that I try to conform my own beliefs to. I do it because I want to push my concerns to the center of some political movement or other, and frankly, that’s a lot more likely with conservatism than with any other contemporary movement. This post should give some sense of what those concerns are. I think all this will become clearer once the Rock’n’Roll Conservative Manifesto is finished, which should be fairly soon; but for now, I just wanted to point out that I’m, uh, not a partisan hack-jerk–I’m trying to transform the conservative movement, drawing out and emphasizing its best qualities. And importing into that movement the best elements of liberalism (both classical and modern–I dislike the philosophies of the Enlightenment and the modern Left, but their focus on civil rights, free markets, prison and penal reform, and care for the needy are great).