J. Marum: I think it is entirely fair, historically as opposed to logically, to say that a conservative is an "appologist for privilege." Conservatives today say they love the market system. Conservatives in Burke's time hated it. What they all have in common is wanting to conserve the privileges of the dominant class. Or if "class" sounds too Marxist, the dominant "group."

Conservatives in the U.S. claim to believe in a variety of principles, including family values, small government, equality of opportunity (but not equality of people), and states rights. But they are not consistent. When a corporation lays off all the employees in a town, it destroys families and destroys community. Don't say that to American conservatives. They will say, "what are you, some kind of commie?"

Conservatives claim to be for minimal government interference. But note, that only means interference with business, not with political freedom or the lives of individuals. John Ashcroft is a conservative.

And "libertarian" conservatives (who are the very worst kind) will never admit that power concentrated in the hands of a corporation or extremely wealthy individual is as dangerous to personal freedom as government power. Basically libertarians, on the Left as well as the Right, hate government because they hate democracy, and because government is the only democratic institution we have.

"Conservatives" have said, for about 150 years, that economic equality is a wrong idea, but equality of opportunity is what counts. To be consistent, they would have to advocate abolition the institution of inheritance. (Note that I'm not advocating that.) It seems quite clear that if really large sums of money are inherited, "equality of opportuntiy" is a joke. Don't say that to a conservative. He'll ask if you are some kind of commie. He will say that "death taxes," are terribly unfair, because they limit inheritance just a tad.

Note, I'm not saying that conservatives are always wrong. Note that I admire Edmund Burke. Earl Robinson, the Red folkie who first explained folk music to me, sounded just like Burke. I am not saying that conservatives are "hypocrites" because they are inconsistent. We are all inconsistent. But there is only one common thread in conservative thought. Conservatives are always in favor of maintaining privilige. Or as in the United States since 1980, expanding the power and wealty of the privileged class, until democracy is finally just a joke.

Am I missing something? Is there any "conservative principle" that would ever apply where it would diminish the power of the wealthiest?