What Does it Mean to be a Conservative Democrat?

[Token Republican]

47. This thread is very useful to me

as I'm at a period were I'm questioning my own views and labels.

One observation I can add is the term conservative and progressive have morphed over the years, and what some define as conservative values are completely opposite of what others define them as.

I've always viewed conservative values as simply being someone who wants to conserve things. To that end, i'm
- pro conservation of natural resources, ie pro environmental protection is a conservative value.

- pro conservation of human resources, which means protecting our citizens

- conservative foreign policy, meaning far less intervention, far less aggressive approach and being extremely cautious

- conservative as to the role of government in people's personal lives. Best example I can give here is that under my definition, a conservative should be a strong advocate for gay rights and gay marriage, since limited application of government restrictions is best for our country as a whole. For gay rights, there is absolutely no reason why such a fundamental right as marriage should be denied to a portion of our population.

These are just a handful of examples, but I'm finding these views do not mesh with what many consider to be conservative, which means I need to make sure I'm wearing the right label too. Hence DU has their token republican