What Is a Conservative?

From Wikipedia:

All conservatives value tradition. Tradition does not mean simply custom, habit or nostalgia for the past, though custom does inform tradition and sustain it. For a conservative, tradition is composed of standards and institutions that have been shown to promote the good, and therefore they find authority in tradition and apply it in politics. This authority, be it a person, a literature or a way of life, is rooted in the past, and thus cannot easily change .

To keep tradition alive, conservatives pass it down from generation to generation, embodied in the eternal verities or the sophia perennis.

Conservatives accept traditional values as authoritative, and judge the world around them by the standards they have come to trust. Many conservatives believe in God, and believe that He is not only the creator of the universe, but also the Author of those conservative values they espouse.

Since conservatives believe tradition supercedes the political process, the laws and constitutions of liberal democracies that permit behavior that conflict with traditional values cause friction in their eyes. Conservatives in a democracy choose to participate, separate, or resist. They often participate in liberal republican politics, using government policy to impose or preserve their values. Good examples of this are the Christian Democratic parties in Europe.

Another method of conservative reform, imposing their values on the public, is common among nationalist or religious conservatives. This can take a relatively benign form, such as Conservative Christians trying to order public school students to pray, or a more violent form, such as Islamists putting to death anyone who blasphemes. Armed conservatives who consider their tradition to be absolute for all may become revolutionary conservatives. In Europe the Catholic-nationalist-conservative regimes of Salazar and Franco are examples.

Though relatively rare, a modern example of conservatives who withdraw from society and attempt to live their lives in traditional ways is the Amish.

The above is a common thread from the internet regarding conservatism.

Some of my high points regarding Conservatism, would be:

• Self-reliance, individual responsibility
• Fiscal conservatism
• Belief in a higher power or authority
• Smaller government
• Traditional mores, values and familial structure
• Nationalism and sovereignty

There are many, many more, of course; these are but a few that come immediately to mind.

So:

In your mind, what is a Conservative? Not a Republican; a conservative.

What are your bullet points and, in addition, what is the first or most important aspect of a true conservative?

I suspect we'll be a bit of "all over the map" but, once in, I plan to assemble the responses and see if I can list, in order, the most important points of conservatism. There's a reason for all of this; temporarily, just humor me if you would be so kind.

Take it away: