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Newsvine – Am I a Stereotypical Conservative?: I think it’s time to blow the lid off of this notion of the stereotypical [tag]conservative[/tag]. I am conservative and I know it. But I also know I do not fit into the mold of the classic conservatives you may know. Let’s run through a short list in no particular order.

(Via Newsvine.)

I read this and wondered if he really was conservative. If one assumes he isn’t, that he’s really libertarian, or a live-and-let-live political persuasion that doesn’t align well with either party exactly, then why does he insist on calling himself conservative.

And then that made me wonder something else: how many people might consider themselves conservative, and yet only tenuously hold a few conservative tenets? Might there be a relatively large block of people who go along with the conservative agenda because that’s the group to which they consider themselves a part, their tribe?

Anyway, there’s not too much of a point to this post; it just set me to wondering. If it is that case, then it would be interesting to know how to switch that allegiance. This might be the basis, I suppose, for all political realignments. To realign the country, you don’t actually make new liberals or conservatives; maybe there’s a significant group of people who can be convinced of membership in your group without actually adhering to your values. And maybe they’re able to be convinced otherwise, unlike true partisans.