And What, Pray Tell, is a Conservative?

It's not often that Sid and I have conversation about political things. He is moderate, leaning Republican. I am moderate, leaning what I call common sense because I definitely do not fall into the category of "liberal." Political conversations in our house are usually muted so neither of us gets either overly passionate at the idiocy of the political process (particularly now) or too depresssed over the state of the world.

Still, today we started talking about the definition of the word "conservative" Exactly what does it mean--and I mean to us rather than to political parties who have their own agendas.

Sid looked at me quizzically when I asked the question and repeated the definition of conservative as "someone with something to conserve." "Yes," I replied, "but what is the definition of something? What exactly are we trying to keep?"

I realize this interesting question is capable of many answers. Some people just want to conserve their money and the means by which they make it. Others want to conserve the nation as they know it--the bastion of privilege for the succcessful (and if you're successful, the world looks pretty all right to you just as it is).Yet others may look back on the world as they once knew it, when things were comfortable and assumptions unchallenged.

I sympathize with all this. I suppose we all can. But the devil is in the details and even looking back on my life, there are some awful details along with some bucolic memories. Let me explain.

I was born on the south coast of England. We're talking Beatrix Potter here. Daffodils in the spring. New born lambs dancing on the Downs, walking along the Sea Front, and taking the train to London. Lovely. Nostalgic. People didn't have a lot and seemed content with it.  However, and to be bloody British/American about it--my brother died in infancy because there weren't the anitbiotics to keep him alive. I have three bridges and on-going dental work because British dentisty was primitive then. And, even better, the British school system decided when I was eleven that I was not university material. My mother emigrated to Canada in part because of the latter and I went on to earn a doctorate and work as part of an academic team that RAN a major public state university. To Britain, I was a throw-away. America welcomed me and was rewarded by my contribution over time.

Given this background, it's no surprise that I support state investment in public education, state involvement in health care, and state guarantees that everyone has a chance.  Until the "conservative" movement broke onto the scene, I thought these were American values. The past few years have been a wake up for me.

Sid, on the other hand, had what I (and I think he) consider an enchanted childhood. He was raised in small-town Cheyenne, his mother stayed home and raised her childen (mine was a single mother who struggled), and his father walked home for lunch. He was encouraged to go to university and to have a profession. Things may not have always been easy, but he had the solid support of his community behind him.

Gosh--I'd like to conserve that too if I'd ever had it.

I think the difference speaks to what we mean by "conservative." I'll go out on a limb and say that "conservatism" means trying to maintain /impose (take you pick) the values and ideals of that time in our lives when we were the most comfortable.

For me, the most comfortable time was when I was in college at the University of Hawaii and, for the Ph.D., the University of Washington (Seattle). I didn't have scholarships because for most of that time I wasn't a US citizen, but the tuition (particularly in Hawaii) was something my husband, Chuck, and I could afford and he believed in my talent. It was the first time that anyone had done so beside my mother.  It's THIS experience I want to "conserve."

In in the interest of "conserving" then, I have no problem offering some version of in-state tution to highly talented "illegal" students who graduate from high school because I speak from my own experience in saying these students will return the investment made in them. The fact their parents were illegal does not elevate me to raptures of indignation--that is the matter of luck. I came into the country when being British entitled me to special treatment because of "allotments." I was merely lucky in the times.  I also have no problem with making sure that there is some rudimentary medical/dental care available to people who need it, regardless of whether those people are "worthy." At one point, I wasn't thought "worthy"--in class conscious Britian, I wasn't see as being a "clever" girl who could rise above her "class." I feel it does me no honor, nor those who gave me my chance, to sit in judgment of others who may yet serve the nation in unexpected ways.

Yep--I'd say I was conservative, although the Peters and Newts of the world would never see it.

Many among us should just be grateful that their prescriptions for others were never applied to their ancestors (at least if they're not Irish and Asian) and would benefit from standing back and defining their own use of the word "conservative."  As my hero Shakespeare says, give us all our just deserts and not one among us would escape whipping.

Welcome conservatives--if you are brave, do what I have--look in the mirror and be prepared to shudder.