Left Wing Conservative Values

Written by: Tom Bearse on Aug 20, 2008 9:02 AM EDT

What are conservative values? I’m having trouble answering this question because I fail to discern the way in which elements of a personal value system are political.

Instead, I would argue that a person’s particular political persuasion is not influenced by his or her set of values, but by what importance he or she places on one personal value principle over another. For example, a conservative voter with strong religious convictions may register more concern about a social issue like a woman’s individual right to decide whether to carry a pregnancy to term than a progressive voter, based on the assumption that ending the pregnancy is the moral equivalent of murder.

This does not, by any means, imply that the right of the individual to make this decision is of less importance to a progressive voter. Nor does it necessarily imply that a progressive voter would opt to use, or support the use of, surgical methods to abort her pregnancy or the pregnancy of a loved one, or that he or she supports or endorses the use of this procedure by other women.  What it signifies is that they regard the central issue in the debate not as the taking of human life but, rather, the unsanctioned intrusion of government into the personal, medical decisions of female citizens.

Does this analysis convert the value question from one regarding reproductive rights to the sanctity of life or of the individual’s right to freedom from unwarranted government control over personal matters? In my opinion, it does not, for the same reasons. That is, it is hardly a value exclusive to conservatives to preserve and protect the lives of the young, in the same way that it is not an exclusive value of progressives to preserve and protect the rights of individuals from government interference.  Conservatives and liberals prioritize their mostly shared values in approaching and addressing issues of importance, particularly social issues.

I mention this to respond to the question of what so-called conservative values are. Upon my own reflection, I’ve reached the conclusion that I hold many conservative values dear. I’m not a proponent of or advocate for surgical abortion. I am a member of a traditional family consisting of a husband, wife and children, and fully recognize the instrumental value of the family structure for the purpose of successful child rearing and socialization. I am not religious, although I come from a religious upbringing, and held very strong religious beliefs in the past, subject, I should add, to some significant critical analysis on my part that has rendered me somewhat of a religious skeptic.

But I’m not a conservative. However my political views spring from my set of personal values, they don’t alter or influence them. Stated otherwise, it’s of no consequence to my political beliefs that I happen to uphold and abide by principles that political observers might regard as “conservative,” because I’m not a religious dogmatist. I form political views from the belief that politics affects people as a group living under the precepts of a Constitutional charter. It’s these precepts that must form the basis of core political beliefs. From a Constitutional perspective, therefore, preserving women’s reproductive rights is a higher priority than protecting the right to life of the unborn. I submit that the same analysis applies to many issues that are of concern to religious or “value” voters, you and I among them.

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