But doesn’t adherence to this philosophy lead you to favoring certain things while rejecting certain others? Which of the options would a conservative support and which would he reject?
Be more specific. Libertarians believe it is possible for humans to live in a state of nature. But, the last time humans did live in a state of nature, Cain killed his brother. Conservatives believe that government is necessary because human nature will turn any state of nature into dog-eat-dog chaos.
A conservative also fears class warfare and will gladly see steps taken (even by the government) to even-out class differences in order to reduce class tension that could lead to social upheaval. Remember that the European arch-conservative, Otto von Bismark, implemented the first social security system in the world. The German left had been clamoring for social security and Bismark feared that the left would launch a communist revolution to get it. By giving the left a little of what it wanted, Bismark staved off even greater social revolution.
As long as the rich are regulated so they cannot use their economic power to oppress the poor- again the fear of class warfare and social upheaval.
Give some examples. By and large a conservative should favor small business because that implies a multitude of individual businesses, meaning no business can likely dominate the market and thus engage in monopolistic trade practices.
BTW: Did you gather your tenets from any published source, or are they of your own design? I base by view of conservatism mainly on the work of Edmund Burke, whom historians and scholars generally credit as the founder of modern Anglo-American conservatism.
