Conservatism is getting a pretty bad rap from the hate mongers and smearers of the left lately. They’re determined to misrepresent Conservatives as a means to reinforce their own political position.

I’ve therefore decided to do a series of posts to try and break through the wall of propaganda and bring the truth to the fore. NZers are seriously misinformed on Conservatism. This series of posts is an attempt to set them right. As usual, I’ll try and make the posts short and pithy. (Not easy when dealing with such a subject)

First up is Mark Levin, who is a nationally syndicated US talk radio host and president of Landmark Legal Foundation. He has also worked as an attorney in the private sector and as a top adviser and administrator to several members of President Reagan’s cabinet. He is the author of the New York Times best sellers “Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America”, and “Liberty and Tyranny, A Conservative Manifesto”. The passage that follows is excerpted from the second of those two books-

“Like the Founders, the Conservative also recognizes in society a harmony of interests, as Adam Smith put it, and rules of cooperation that have developed through generations of human experience and collective reasoning that promote the better of the individual and society. This is characterized as ordered liberty, the social contract, or the civil society.

“What are the conditions of this civil society?

“In the civil society, the individual is recognized and accepted as more than an abstract statistic or faceless member of some group; rather, he is a unique, spiritual being with a soul and a conscience. He is free to discover his own potential and pursue his own legitimate interests, tempered, however, by a moral order that has its foundation in faith and guides his life and all human life through the prudent exercise of judgment. As such, the individual in the civil society strives, albeit imperfectly, to be virtuous — that is, restrained, ethical, and honorable. He rejects the relativism that blurs the lines between good and bad, right and wrong, just and unjust, and means and ends.

“In the civil society, the individual has a duty to respect the unalienable rights of others and the values, customs, and traditions, tried and tested over time and passed from one generation to the next, that establish society’s cultural identity. He is responsible for attending to his own well-being and that of his family. And he has a duty as a citizen to contribute voluntarily to the welfare of his community through good works.

“In the civil society, private property and liberty are inseparable. The individual’s right to live freely and safely and pursue happiness includes the right to acquire and possess property, which represents the fruits of his own intellectual and/or physical labor. As the individual’s time on earth is finite, so, too, is his labor. The illegitimate denial or diminution of his private property enslaves him to another and denies him his liberty.

“In the civil society, a rule of law, which is just, known, and predictable, and applied equally albeit imperfectly, provides the governing framework for and restraints on the polity, thereby nurturing the civil society and serving as a check against the arbitrary use and, hence, abuse, of power.

“For the Conservative, the civil society has as its highest purpose its preservation and improvement.”