Below are some insightful quotes on Race & Conservatism by conservative writer Chidike Okeem.
"The leftist assessment of the black conservative is that such a person is angered and frustrated at being born black, which leads to the adoption of conservative views in order to compensate for this perceived “congenital deficiency.” While this is a preposterous accusation to make against all black conservatives, it is intellectually dishonest to pretend as though this characterization of the black right came into existence wholly out of left field. Indubitably, there are some black conservatives whose proclamations and behaviors lend credence to the stereotypical leftist view of black conservatives." ― Chidike Okeem
"Race is merely a societal construct that should be used only to make certain distinctions between groups for the purpose of understanding minute sociological differences; however, evidently, it has become a tool for race hucksters to spread their poisonous demagoguery and partisanship to seclude groups of people, based on color, as exclusive property of the Democratic Party." ― Chidike Okeem
"Socialism is nothing more than a deceitful left-wing farce that inherently creates a super-exclusive oligarchy under the laughable guise of egalitarianism." ― Chidike Okeem
Other quotes on Conservatism
“To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.” ― Michael Joseph Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays
"The leftist assessment of the black conservative is that such a person is angered and frustrated at being born black, which leads to the adoption of conservative views in order to compensate for this perceived “congenital deficiency.” While this is a preposterous accusation to make against all black conservatives, it is intellectually dishonest to pretend as though this characterization of the black right came into existence wholly out of left field. Indubitably, there are some black conservatives whose proclamations and behaviors lend credence to the stereotypical leftist view of black conservatives." ― Chidike Okeem
"Race is merely a societal construct that should be used only to make certain distinctions between groups for the purpose of understanding minute sociological differences; however, evidently, it has become a tool for race hucksters to spread their poisonous demagoguery and partisanship to seclude groups of people, based on color, as exclusive property of the Democratic Party." ― Chidike Okeem
"Socialism is nothing more than a deceitful left-wing farce that inherently creates a super-exclusive oligarchy under the laughable guise of egalitarianism." ― Chidike Okeem
"Indeed, race matters; however, two things happen when some conservatives propagate the wrongheaded, politically correct idea that race is obsolete. First, they make the road clear for liberal sophists to persuade people that race matters in all the places where it does not, and second, conservatives lose the ability to effectively challenge liberals on the caustic effects of their policies on minority communities.The message conservatives need to be advancing is that race matters vis-à-vis specific issues. By championing the fallacy of colorblindness, the conservative's authority to discuss race in the public sphere is inadvertently ceded to liberals". ― Chidike Okeem
"Multiculturalism is often too simplistically held up by some on the right as being this infernal boogeyman that must be avoided at all costs, meanwhile the left constantly uses multiculturalism as a tool to impose unmitigated, extremely far-left liberalism on Western nations. Conservatives despise the consequences of the left-wing brand of multiculturalism, so they dismiss the entire concept as being malevolent without ever acknowledging that multiculturalism is a catch-all term meaning a whole host of different things to different people -- with new definitions constantly emerging.
As discussed in a previous article of mine, rather than engaging liberals in the kind of legitimate arguments that need to be made regarding race, conservatives decided to shut race down as a legitimate topic by championing the absurdity of colorblindness. Certainly, this didn't close the issue of race, but merely left race as an issue that only liberals had the authority to speak (read: lie) about.The same argument applies to the notion of multiculturalism. Rather than using multiculturalism in a constructive sense and harshly critiquing it where it is destructive, conservatives prefer to rip the issue apart merely because liberals have successfully advanced one particular brand of the concept and used it effectively to meet their malevolent goals." ― Chidike Okeem
Other quotes on Conservatism
“To be conservative, then, is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to mystery, the actual to the possible, the limited to the unbounded, the near to the distant, the sufficient to the superabundant, the convenient to the perfect, present laughter to utopian bliss.” ― Michael Joseph Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays
“The conservative response to modernity is to embrace it, but to embrace it critically, in full consciousness that human achievements are rare and precarious, that we have no God-given right to destroy our inheritance, but must always patiently submit to the voice of order and set an example of orderly living. The future of mankind, for the socialist, is simple: pull down the existing order, and allow the future to emerge. But it will not emerge, as we know. These philosophies of the "new world" are lies and delusions, products of a sentimentality which has veiled the facts of human nature."―Roger Scruton "Eliot and Conservatism" (p. 208)
“What is conservatism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?” ― Abraham Lincoln
"If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man." ― C.S. Lewis
"Don't ever take a fence down until you know why it was put up." ― Robert Frost
This mighty structure has come together thanks to eight hundred years of good fortune and discipline, which cannot be uprooted without destroying the uprooters.” ―Tacitus, Histories 4.74
"American conservatism seeks to conserve the principles of the American founding. Those principles are based upon a steady and sober recognition of the complexities of human nature, and of a respect for the accumulated wisdom of centuries that have arisen in response to those complexities. They are rooted in the “Laws of Nature and Nature’s God,” laws that are not discovered a priori, but are won from reflection and experience, and which limit and guide the will. These laws of nature are the only foundation for free government. Whenever I use the word “conservative,” this is what I mean." ―Nathan Schlueter
"Conservatism affirms as one of its central truths the primacy of civil society. Human flourishing is not achieved in the state, but in a plurality of natural associations and authorities, beginning with the family. These associations, as the late John Paul II wrote, “stem from human nature itself and have their own autonomy, always with a view to the common good.”―Nathan Schlueter
“It is important and right that all privileges of the law be ours, but it is vastly more important that we be prepared for the exercise of those privileges.” ― Booker T. Washington, Up From Slavery: An Autobiography
"Conservatism is based upon an essentialist understanding of the self. Human beings desire things because they are good, and the achievement of these goods depends upon a number of conditions, including security, wealth, character, education, and freedom. These conditions constitute the common good, and they cannot be acquired without the assistance of political authority, as well as the authority of the family and other civil institutions." ―Nathan Schlueter
“It means a great deal, I think, to start off on a foundation which one has made for oneself.”
― Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery
"Socialism, like the ancient ideas from which it springs, confuses the distinction between government and society. As a result of this, every time we object to a thing being done by government, the socialists conclude that we object to its being done at all. We disapprove of state education. Then the socialists say that we are opposed to any education. We object to a state religion. Then the socialists say that we want no religion at all. We object to a state-enforced equality. Then they say that we are against equality. And so on, and so on. It is as if the socialists were to accuse us of not wanting persons to eat because we do not want the state to raise grain." ― Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)
"If the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to permit people to be free, how is it that the tendencies of these organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their appointed agents also belong to the human race? Or do they believe that they themselves are made of a finer clay than the rest of mankind?" ― Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850)
“Among a large class, there seemed to be a dependence upon the government for every conceivable thing. The members of this class had little ambition to create a position for themselves, but wanted the federal officials to create one for them. How many times I wished then and have often wished since, that by some power of magic, I might remove the great bulk of these people into the country districts and plant them upon the soil – upon the solid and never deceptive foundation of Mother Nature, where all nations and races that have ever succeeded have gotten their start – a start that at first may be slow and toilsome, but one that nevertheless is real.” ― Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery
Great Resource: Arguments for Conservatism
http://www.roger-scruton.com/books/26-a-political-philosophy-arguments-for-conservatism.html
