Labels

My discussion with a relative last week (here and here) over Intelligent Design has left me doing some serious thinking  about the labels we give ourselves and the ideas we believe in. During the ID debate last week I realized that my relative was primarily supporting ID in schools because he completely misunderstood what ID was all about. His understanding actually mirrored my own as of about a year ago, which is that he believed it meant that the proponents basically accepted current scientific conclusions about the origin of species, evolution, etc but attributed the driving force behind these things to the Almighty. As a non-fundamentalist Believer I completely understand that line of thought, even if I do not share that conclusion, but even after pointing out his error he refused to concede that Intelligent Design was not the correct label for his beliefs. What he said was that his concept of Intelligent Design was what he believed they should allow in schools or at least address in the form of a disclaimer, so he was merely offering a competing viewpoint under the same label.

For a long time I’ve really liked the label ‘progressive conservative’ because it symbolized Teddy Roosevelt, my favorite President and it also symbolized a different form of conservatism than what I saw over the last 8 years. It also appealed to the theorist in me that used to enjoy arguing with my fellow archaeologists late into the night about nuances of archaeological theory. I liked the idea of exploring where political labels came from and what my own ‘intellectual pedigree’ was. In this respect, I was churning some of the same waters as Jonah Goldberg with his latest book on ‘liberal fascism’ which is many things, but also an attempt to understand where labels belong. There is no arguing that once upon a time a Progressive (capital P) could be found as often on the Right as on the Left (though those terms themselves differ much today than they did 100 years ago).

To get to the point, I realized after this discussion that some labels matter a lot and maybe selecting a label for myself and this blog that so few understand is rather pointless. Spending hours trying to argue why conservatives can be considered Progressive is starting to seem like an exercise in futility. Liberals and conservatives both generally accept the premise that there are moderate conservatives. This generally means a conservative that veers closer to the center. While at times that could certainly describe myself (on environmental issues, for example) it’s not always applicable. But then again, there are also other issues that I am not very ‘progressive’ about. As I said long ago, I find conservatism to be the rock on which my personal beliefs rest. So should I just be happy with calling a conservative and leave the modifier to specific ideals? While conservatives tend to be much more homogenous in our beliefs than liberals, we all accept there is going to be levels of nuance. More and more every day I am starting to think that line of reasoning is the right one. I am starting to believe I can do more good for the conservative movement by not setting my beliefs up as different than mainstream conservatism. By calling myself a progressive conservative it gives the impression to others, especially my liberal friends and fellow bloggers, that I agree with their notion than basic conservatism is flawed. It isn’t. The GOP is flawed. Conservatism is just fine and within it you will find all types of us.

More thought is forthcoming, though I suspect I already know the answer. Until then, I remain…