Well obviously.  I well remember Ronaldus Magnus’s speech where he said that it’s not a matter of left or right but rather up into liberty or down into tyranny.

But we are having a problem defining conservatism.  The go-to definition for me, if overly simplistic, is conservatives are for economic freedom but social/personal controls and liberals are the reverse.  By that definition you can indeed be too conservative if you try to exert excessive control over personal behavior such as making it illegal to smoke pot in your own home.

By “up into liberty” Reagan wasn’t talking about anarchy, but maximum freedoms under a Constitutional framework. That’s what you probably call the balanced center or “true conservatism”.  I call that “classical liberalism”.  But if you want to define “conservatism” as “preserving the traditional system” then that works and we are in agreement.

Yes, the up/down came from Reagan's speech. I didn't make up the balanced center either.  That came from The Making of America:  The Substance and Meaning of the Constitution, W. Cleon Skousen, 1985

From the book:

Historically, the Founders knew they were pioneering new territory.  In the past, ninety-nine percent of the human race had to live out their lives under Ruler's Law, with all power in the ruler.

They would not have understood our modern mismeasurement which puts communism at the extreme “left” and fascism at the extreme “right” – as though they were opposites.  In reality they are simply different names for similar forms of despotism – the police state.  They both belong together on the side of the spectrum representing despotic government.

They said at one extreme we have “too much government” and at the other “too little government.”  They despised tyranny but considered anarchy even worse.  They felt the greatest challenge to civilized man is discovering some method of structuring a government, under control of the people, which would eliminate both mobocracy and tyranny.

The founders were optimistic as well as realistic about human nature.  They realized that all human beings are a mixture of sunshine and shadow.  The sunshine consists of the perfectibility of human reason.  This makes government and civilization possible.  The darker side of human nature is the imperfectibility of human passion and man's faulty sense of judgment that makes government necessary.  As James Madison stated:  “As there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence.”

The Founders' goal was to revive the ancient principles which would allow the sunshine side of human nature to enjoy virtually unlimited freedom, while setting up appropriate safeguards to prevent the doleful shadow of human passion, greed, and lust for power from spreading a permanent “dark ages” across the face of the globe.

As Clinton Rossiter wrote, there is ”no happiness without liberty, no liberty without self-government, no self-government without constitutionalism, no constitutionalism without morality – and none of these great goods without stability and order.”

Jefferson and several of the other Founders had discovered that the most substantive principles of representative government were those practiced by ancient Israel under the leadership of Moses.  Jefferson had also studied the institutes of government of the Anglo-Saxons and had found they were almost identical to those of the Israelites.

 That basic pattern is where our form of government came from – people's rule or the balanced center.

I recommend reading The Making of America and The 5,000 year Leap, also by Skousen.
He also wrote The Naked Communist and The Naked Capitalist, which are also good reads.

I can't recall if I previously posted this video, but The History Guy did a nice video on a truly messed up presidential election involving massive voter fraud that makes the 2020 election appear downright tame in comparison:

You sat at home drinking alone while the wife went bar hopping?

Or do I need to finish my coffee then read it again?

Bar hopping together. Then went to see out favorite comedian. Been awhile since I dtank that much, but we only had to walk 3 blocks from our hotel for all the stops we did.

No you can’t argue with people like that. It’s not a rational belief so rational debate doesn’t work with them.

It's people like that, who elicit responses like yours, that allow our government to get away with poisoning us.

Think about it.

because no one will believe them.

:-)

Why do these people constantly harp about Democracy when all the believe in is power, money and control by the Elite over both White- and Blue-collar workers? 

We don't live in a Democracy.  We don't WANT to live in a Democracy.  We want to be the Constitutional Republic we were supposed to be!!!

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/04/10/msnbcs-wallace-not-one-republican-doing-a-single-goddamn-thing-to-protect-democracy/

She is such a fucking fraud. She was high up in the Bush presidency, and was on the McCain campaign.

No one with a conservative thought in her head would fail to see that what happened in Tennessee was an attempt at forced MOB rule.  It is as far from “democracy” as you can get.  I understand pure democracy is rule by the majority, but a lawful democracy does not succumb to anarchy.

And since democracy doesn’t appear ANYWHERE in our Constitution, Declaration of Independence, or even the Federalist Papers (except for Federalist 14, I think, where Madison used the term to contrast it to a republic), Wallace needs some education. 

That’s what you get when the average age of the senate is deceased.

Another part of the problem is employment is very skewed. Yes, companies are laying off, but they are white collar jobs in the tech fields and elsewhere.  In other areas there is a shortage of workers. Construction, car maintenance, railroad workers, basically the jobs that keep the economy actually going.

This is the consequence of generations of telling kids they all must go to college and get journalism or law degrees.  Nobody wants to be a plumber or truck driver.

The higher wage "value added" jobs are being reduced as are layers of management which are also higher paying.  Especially Tech and Media which are the Wokest.  Yes, we need more tradesman and technicians that actually fix and make stuff.

Okay, so, Stan … this post of Joe and Lucifer summarizes the Trump-DeSantis issue for me and really, closes it. The world has changed. We’re living in a failed republic. Preparing to survive the coming collapse would be a better use of our time than discussing what candidate can “win.” This isn’t giving up. It’s understanding that survival depends on adjusting to the new data. And that our progeny may be the ones who have to rebuild on the ashes.

Enjoy your cocktail. Ours will be perfect margaritas.

You too, my friend. I’m working through one remaining bottle of bourbon in light of the pending commencement of gin season.

Gin season usually starts when you move from jeans and sweatshirts to shorts and t-shirts, but there’s a gap between the two, at least here in Wisconsin.

My dad drank Gin or scotch almost exclusively, after having spent a few years in England before moving on to France on 7 June 1944. So my brother and I have designated his birthday, April 2, as the commencement of gin season.

I’ll permit a crossover with bourbon due to weather conditions until the anniversary of my dad’s passing on May 14, after which bourbon is prohibited.