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is the "traditional value" the dog dobson has in this fight? tradition is quite separate from doctine. is dobson fighting for the preservation of tradition? in the south, the 1965 vintage version of dobson would have meant the preservation of segregation. in 1865, the preservation of tradition would've meant the preservation of slavery. in 1765, the preservation of monarchy.
so, if we can agree that there are times when traditional values are better, and at times they're worse, isn't tradition for the sake of tradition a shaky idea on which to rest one's political platform?
While I can't say I represent a state that wasn't anything other than deep blue, I think you hit on an interesting point.
You're basically suggesting that traditional values represents an opposition to what most people would today, at least in polite society, deem social progress. I think its interesting that embedded within the word "conservative" is the notion that the preservation of the status quo, despite the forces in a changing world, is a worthy goal. And I think it's more than a semantic issue. If you parse it, you end up considering that such a preservation is in contravention to the idea that maybe everything isn't all right, and that there are in fact some institutions desperately in need of fixing.
But the problem is that to do so you need to go up against a lot of incumbent forces with a lot to lose. So they can bring up this sort of homey word - "conservative" as an intellectual ideal, sidestepping the fact that some things actually need fixing.
As you point out, its because people opposed this conservatism that blacks and women can vote and can eat at lunch counters with whites, or that they can own property, or a whole variety of other changes that we now generally revere. The problem at the time is that if I'm a white male landowner, why the hell would I want to dilute my power, right or wrong, justice or no justice?
I guess my point is, as an extension to your point, that right and wrong and intellectual and moral value have very little currency when it comes to social change and the shifting of power. It just comes down to what you can make happen.
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