I miss the Intellectual Conservative

Conservative - holding to traditional attitudes and values and cautious about change or innovation, typically in relation to politics or religion.
Conservatism as we've known it from the beginning, is dead.

• I miss the true intellectual conservative.
• I miss William F Buckley, Jr.
• I miss the non theological conservative, the ones who could differentiate between personal beliefs and the American way. One would could see that the American way wasn't based on religion, but based on protection of citizens allowing them the freedoms to practice religion, or more sanely as our Founding Fathers preferred but had trouble in their society much as we do now, in exemplifying no religion at all.
• I miss the conservative who understands what true freedom is and not just the current conservative understanding of what they want it to be.
• I miss the conservative who understands what has been sacrificed for them to have the right to believe and say utter nonsense, and yet these new wannabe conservatives don't get that just because one has a right doesn't mean one should exercise it unduly or inappropriately and certainly not just to exercise your desire for satiation against reason.
• I miss the conservative with a brain. 
• I miss conservatism that believed in conserving our conservation lands. 
• I miss the conservative that wasn't overtly and destructively religious.
• I miss the rational conservative, the educated conservative, the conservative who knows how to debate, use facts, become educated, who can acknowledge reality as defined by experts who actually know what reality is in any one or more areas.

I miss the Intellectual Conservative

Willam F. Buckley wrote something about Donald Trump when he was talking about running for President — in 2000. Buckley, in an essay he wrote for  Cigar Aficionado and said the following about Trump:

Look for the narcissist. The most obvious target in today’s lineup is, of course, Donald Trump. When he looks at a glass, he is mesmerized by its reflection. If Donald Trump were shaped a little differently, he would compete for Miss America. But whatever the depths of self-enchantment, the demagogue has to say something. So what does Trump say? That he is a successful businessman and that that is what America needs in the Oval Office. There is some plausibility in this, though not much. The greatest deeds of American Presidents — midwifing the new republic; freeing the slaves; harnessing the energies and vision needed to win the Cold War — had little to do with a bottom line.

Many conservatives and Trump supporters suffer from the arrogance of ignorance.

In that ignorance they call others out for that same thing because they have information that feels foreign or unreal to them. Actual facts do tend to feel unfamiliar to those unknowledgeable. And it gives incorrect information a familiar feel to it, especially when it already matches their agenda, their desires and their beliefs.

That behavior of calling out others when you have done something wrong, is a mainstay of the Republican party.

A party that is not ignorant itself but guilty of their own actions, of purposefully attack Americans through government, not out of ignorance, but so often out of a desire for power and money.

Some out of a skewed desire to do good, but they cannot see that within the environment they have built and allowed others to build around them. Out of a desire to be their own entity outside of one they despise. In this way they have allowed themselves to be further encased in their detached ideologies.

And so, other than the few bigots and racists in their party, they are very much a party desiring the best for America.

No matter how many may need to die to achieve that goal.
I miss the Intellectual Conservative Four Pillars of Conservatism

The first pillar of conservatism is liberty, or freedom. [But one can push anything too far, and they certainly strive to do that]

The second pillar of conservative philosophy is tradition and order. [as we've seen tradition can stifle growth when, as conservatives tend to do, you go too far, exaggerate thinking more is better. But a bowl of ice cream is delicious, a bowl for each meal without other sustenance, day in and day out brings on diabetes and potentially death]

The third pillar is the rule of law. [Fascists love this pillar and again, overdoing anything is too much]

The fourth pillar is belief in God. Belief in God means adherence to the broad concepts of religious faith—such things as justice, virtue, fairness, charity, community, and duty. These are the concepts on which conservatives base their philosophy.[there truly, with all that is going on today, no reason to further extrapolate on this very dangerous one]

I miss the Intellectual Conservative

#conservative