I must admit that for me conservatism suggests: pig-headed, backward, small-minded, fundamentalist, nostalgic, jingoistic, insensitive, pro-big business, dogmatic, greedy, selfish, nationalistic, militarist, anti-scientific, irrational, racist, anti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-diversity, rigid, inflexible.
My personal experience has been that arguing with a doctrinaire conservative is very similar to arguing with a profoundly ignorant and/or religious person. Facts don't matter. Evidence doesn't matter. They cling to core beliefs that have nothing to do with the real world. There is a willful and intentional "dumbness."
They are the kind of people who cling to "core principles" even in the face of overwhelming evidence. Which in a debate sometimes seems like a certain bold clarity, or a simple certainty, but also comes across as an ignorant arrogance which some (Palin, Cheney, Bush, etc.) wear as a badge of honor. I googled "famous conservative thinkers" and came up with this list. I mean, wow, it is sort of a rogues gallery of rogues, except for maybe Eisenhower, Jimmy Stewart, Frederick Douglas, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln (OK, Lincoln is more my kind of conservative!).
But when it comes to the famous contemporary conservatives, sorry, case closed! What a Clown Factory of over-bearing, willful idiots!
