The 2019 Canadian election

[SilverFang01]

In defense of conservatism, I'll just say that at some points in history, rugged individualism and not trusting politicians were considered conservative values.

I'm afraid the problem has more to do with human nature than conservatism or liberalism.  People in general want to feel like they are part of a tribe, that their tribe is the best, that their tribe is winning, and that what they do is righteous, and people who do things differently than them are wrong and bad.  It doesn't even matter that in the modern day tribes are obvious granfalloons.  Populism is crack for high-functioning people.

There is a quote that comes to mind regarding conservatism:

To be firm without a complementary flexibility is to be a corpse. Conservative self-confidence without a liberal broad-mindedness becomes chauvinism, pedantry. My sensei taught me the value of the rock’s obduracy. He provided too, the example of the fluidity of the sea that flows around the rock…

Dave Lowry, Persimmon Wind

And although individuality can be a virtue, it can also be taken to an extreme such as telling a person who actually needs help to just “walk it off”, or thinking that you reached where you are by your effort alone without recognition of all the direct and indirect help you have received along the way.

Right now I feel that conservatism is out of balance, feeding only of our darkest impulses which throws the whole out of whack.