Paul1405,

I’d agree that fear certainly plays a big part in conservative thought. While not all conservatives are xenophobic or racist, virtually all xenophobia and racism comes from that side of politics.

Perhaps the most pertinent example of fear-driven conservative politics nowadays would be homophobia, and the stance against same-sex marriage: something with multiple demonstrable benefits, and absolutely no foreseeable negative effects.

Crudely put, I’d say that social conservatism is one big argumentum ad antiquitatem fallacy, while economic conservatism is one big trickle-down-economics “fallacy”.

http://goo.gl/7g6Lka

Paul1405, is not the Progressive multicultural utopia based on fear and greed?

Greed prompts Third World people to flock to the advanced countries.

Fear permeates progressive ideology: fear of anyone being offended, fear of any unequal distributions or outcomes, fear of Men, fear of Whites, fear of the power of tradition and history, fear of realistic or gradualist "compromise", fear that even the slightest bit of race-preservation will lead to a Fourth Reich and millions dead.

"virtually all xenophobia and racism comes from that side of politics."

Except that the consequence of the Leftists' multicultural displacement will be the annihilation of an ENTIRE race: Whites/Europeans.
All White-predominant countries are being flooded with unrelated peoples, on the basis that there is something "wrong" with Whites and they need to be "crippled" to make them harmless.

No prob Shocka,

Get migrants from India where 80% of the population are "white" and where English is one of the Official Languages.

Win, win.

certainly conservatives like to enjoy the fruit of their hard labours while socialist love to spend and dine and give away other peoples money.

Dear runner,

Do tell. So you consider people like Tony Abbott, John Howard,
Bronwyn Bishop, George Brandis, Joe Hockey, et al,
a bunch of socialists? Interesting.

" I stand by my assertion that Conservatism is based on greed and fear. "

Yes, it certainly is an assertion ie a claim which is devoid of any evidence or empirical argument.

Conservatives (small c conservatives) are neither necessarily greedy nor fearful. They simply accept that our forebears were intelligent and thoughtful and that the structures of society developed over the generations were/are of value and ought not be trashed without due care and understanding. Its not fear of change but simply accepting that change is not necessarily for the better and care should taken to understand whether the change will indeed be improvement.

You, being of the class warrior brigade, assert (again) that change is opposed for matters of greed. But it has often been those who'd you'd call conservatives who have been at the forefront of the movements to improve the lot of the poor. But it would take a level of understanding of history to get that and, well, we know that ain't gunna happen.

BTW here are a few more links to data about how Reagan is viewed in Eastern Europe. I look forward to see what mechanisms you use to convince yourself that this data ought to be ignored...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/poland/8904456/Ronald-Reagan-statue-unveiled-in-Warsaw.html

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/jun/29/statue-in-budapests-liberty-square-credits-reagan-/

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/washington/2011-06-26-europe-reagan-100th-birthday_n.htm