Conservatism In The Tea Party

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In 18th and 19th century Europe, three main political ideologies arose. They were liberalism, conservatism, and socialism. These later broke into sub-ideologies. Liberalism gave rise to American liberalism and American conservatism, while socialism broke into itself as well as its violent counterpart, communism. Each emphasises society is constructed in a different way. Liberalism is focused on citizens as individuals, conservatism is more concerned with society as a community, and socialism sees society as economic classes. This paper focuses on the differences between liberalism and conservatism, as well as the American political parties and how the Tea Party fits in.
The United States’ political system is built off variations of liberalism. …show more content…

Conservatism is an ideology that emphasizes the importance of community as a whole (Shively 31). The United States has never seen had first hand experience with true conservatism, only American Conservatism. While liberalism emphasizes the importance of governmental restraint, conservatism requires a strong government to provide order and maintain standards of morality. This ideology also focuses on the importance of religion and traditional moral values (Shively 33). Conservatism also tends to oppose feminism and instead, is more concerned with tradition and family …show more content…

They were established in 2004, though they date their beginnings back to the Boston Tea Party of 1774 (Tea Party 1). The Tea Party has 15 “non-negotiable core beliefs” that include “illegal aliens are here illegally, pro-domestic employment is indispensable, a strong military is essential, special interests must be eliminated, gun ownership is sacred, government must be downsized, the national budget must be balanced, deficit spending must end, bailout and stimulus plans are illegal, reducing personal income taxes is a must, reducing business income taxes is mandatory, political offices must be available to average citizens, intrusive government must be stopped, English as our core language is required, traditional family values are encouraged.” (Tea Party 1). All this comes directly from the Tea Party’s official website. Many of these values line up with conservative beliefs, like gun rights and a less intrusive government. However, most of their values are vague and unrealistic. They claim “bailout and stimulus plans are illegal” but political parties do not have the authority to decide what is and is not legal. Also, even though they claim to have roots going back to the Revolutionary War, the “president” of the Tea Party very simply states “we

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