I'm not talking about the well-rehearsed, well-funded improv act being put on by the Republican Party's political color-war team. That's not conservatism; that's schizophrenia.
I'm talking about the meaning of the word "conservatism" as in what it means to be a conservative (as opposed to merely a fan of the GOP) in the 21st century. And I want to be relatively charitable to my conservative friends, meaning I don't want to define conservatism as being bad or evil or wrong or say it's a "disease" or a mental condition, because that gets us nowhere.
And I'm not trying to come up with anything that's complete, comprehensive, thorough, complex, nuanced, or universally applicable. I'm just trying to come up with a quick, simple, rhetorical phrase that gets to the gist of what conservatism is without making any judgments about it. A jumping-off point, if you will, for a deeper understanding.
I've narrowed it down to two variations:
1. Conservatism is the belief that we can solve all of our problems without changing our behavior or spending any money.
2. Conservatism is the belief that we can solve all of our problems without making me change my behavior or costing me money.
I thought of the first one first. The second one occurred to me later as a variation on the first.
Which one is better?
As a corollary, for the comments section, which of these is better:
1. Liberalism is the belief that in order to solve our problems, we need to change our behavior and spend money.
2. Liberalism is the belief that we should change our behavior and spend money so we can solve our problems.