The title is a major theme of mine, but its meaning might not be obvious.  I’ll be talking about it in future posts but here’s the “short” version.

The U.S. Constitution, as ratified and amended, is a marvelous prescription for organizing and operating a federal (collection of semi-sovereign states) government. With only a single exception (the 18^th amendment), it holds together as a solid framework for an active citizen-based representative democracy.

The terms “conservative” and “liberal” here do not refer to current usage in political discourse, e.g. to partisan positions or popular beliefs.

I am conservative with respect to the Constitution in the sense that I accept and honor it as written within the times and under the circumstances it and its amendments were ratified.  Neither English common law nor the numerous letters and papers exchanged prior to ratification can substitute for the document as a whole, though they may shed some light on the meaning of words and phrases in common use at the time.  Not even Supreme Court rulings should be considered on a par with the document itself, since they can be (and frequently are) overturned or modified by later Courts without the stringent requirements imposed on formal amendments.

I am in the liberal tradition along the lines that inspired the founding fathers to part from Mother England and to establish a new form of government.  The roots are in the Enlightenment, in the writings of such men as Locke, Rousseau, Hume, Kant, and Adam Smith. From WikiPedia: “The Enlightenment included a range of ideas centered on reason as the primary source of authority and legitimacy, and came to advance ideals such as liberty, progress, tolerance, fraternity, constitutional government, and separation of church and state.” What is equally notable about those writings is their challenge to dogma, dictated values, and the status quo, and their desire to connect philosophy with the reality of people’s lives, to force governments to recognize the importance of what people cared about – in fact, to simply put forth individual liberty, both active and passive, as a prime mover in the affairs of all people.  It was a proactive movement, not static, not fixed in time, but forward-looking, progressive to the max.

Briefly: conservative as in “cautious, stable, value-based”, and “liberal” as in “individual identity, flexible, active involvement, value-based”.  That term “value” has many interpretations, which is another deep topic.