One of the things that attracted me to conservative thought was its staunch opposition to collectivism. The Cold War was at its pinnacle as I was coming of age, so many Conservatives were leading the forces against communism. I drew from this that to be conservative was to be anti-totalitarian and anti-communist.
With this idea in mind, I have devised a quick rating system to score public figures, pundits and politicians. I began by looking at the Communist Manifesto. I first took the opposite of the ten "principles" of the Communist Manifesto to create a set of Conservative Principles.
By examining a public figure's, pundit's or politician's statements and actions on each of these principles, a person can be scored as either agreeing with the principle completely (10 points), agreeing with the principle partially (5 points), or not agreeing with the principle at all (0 points). This creates an easy 100 point scale which can be used to give a "Conservative Rating" to each individual.
Conservative Principles:
1. Private property rights must be universal and strongly protected. Government should control the minimal amount of property necessary to carry out good governance and protect citizens from forces that would do them harm, both foreign and domestic.
2. There should be no income tax or other forms of direct taxation.
3. The legal transfer of wealth from generation to generation must not be encumbered.
4. The State should not be able to confiscate privately held property without due process of law; nor should private property be taken for public use.
5. The function of banking and credit should be carried out by competing private interests. No State sponsored bank or credit institution should be allowed to exist.
6. All people should be allowed to freely speak, assemble, worship, communicate and travel without interference from the State.
7. All lands, factories and instruments of production shall be owned by private entities and market forces should be trusted to assure the best possible allocation of all resources.
8. Free people should be allowed to trade their labor for whatever ends they wish. The State owns no person and should not direct any person as to how they use their skills, talents or intellect.
9. Government should have no interest in where people choose to live. Each person should be free to choose where they live with respect to other people.
10. Education of children is the responsibility of parents. People should be free to raise their children according to their own background and culture, as long as to do so causes no tangible harm.
I plan to use this system in the near future to give a "Conservative Rating" to some candidates and other public figures.
