Conservative or Liberal

Classic liberals.
Minimum government interference.
Civil liberties.
Rule of law.
Economic freedom.

 

Liberals. Liberal has recently morphed to mean leftist. That has not been the case until recent history. They were liberal, but not leftist.

 

They were radicals. Revolutionaries. It's always interesting to me how current conservatives try to identify themselves with flaming revolutionaries like Patrick Henry or Thomas Paine. They were against the establishment and willing to fight and die for the cause of liberty. Now people aren't even willing to vote for the cause of liberty.

 

Revolutionary then meant wresting control of the government from monarchy and giving the reins to the people.

Revolutionary now means wresting control of the economy from private hands and handing it over to government bureaucracy.

Todays communist/socialist "revolutionaries" are not comparable to our Founders.

 

I don't agree with your definition of revolutionary today. How is the control of the economy being given over to the government? I suppose giving the Fed more influence does that. No major companies or industries have been nationalized in the U.S. since the telephone industry in 1918. There have been some minor ones like airport security.

 

Was Che Guevara a revolutionary?
Was Fidel Castro?
Was Ayatollah Khomeni?
Was Lenin?

These are the revolutionaries of the 20th century and they absolutely gave control of industry to the government. The American colonists in the late 1700's didn't do that.

 

Some of them maybe. I believe more of them were libertarian thinkers who wanted freedom from England regardless of what the King did or did not do.

 

Sure, but the end state was a new country seeking it's destiny unencumbered with royalty or aristocracy.

 

Of course they were but of a different kind than Tom Paine. America was and is a great experiment in democracy. The revolutionaries you cite were communists and dictators. Ben Franklin actually was a supporter of the Crown and got his son appointed to be the English Gov. of NJ. But then he was persuaded to change his perspective and supported the cause of liberty and democracy. Was the Boston Tea party a revolutionary event?

 

America is not now nor has it ever been a democracy. It is a republic.

 

'The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there' (L.P. Hartley)

 

It is not really either in the strictest adherence to the classical definitions. We are definitely closer to a Republic. One of my professors built a convincing case that we were a "Democratic Republic." Another built an equally compelling case we were a "Constitutional Republic." We are definitely not a Democracy or a true Republic.

 

We need to repeal the 17th Amendment and overturn Reynolds v. Sims.

 

Our founding fathers were rebels against tyranny.