r/ThePeoplesPress • u/transcendent167 • 3d ago
The Commons What Exactly Are Conservatives Conserving? (A Speech for Conservatives to Reflect On)
The Republican Party still calls itself the party of conservatives. But if that word is to mean anything, we need to ask a serious question:
What exactly are you conserving?
Because Donald Trump isn’t conserving our laws. He isn’t conserving our democratic institutions. He isn’t conserving constitutional principles. He’s actively rewriting them and from the outside it seems the party is letting it happen.
Conservatism has always claimed to be about restraint. About tradition. About protecting what works. But under Trump, we’ve seen a new standard take hold — one defined by impulse, self-interest, and open hostility to any limit on personal power.
Let’s look at what’s actually happened:
He declared that presidents should have “total authority.” That’s not in the Constitution. In fact, it’s the opposite of how our government was designed.
He refused to comply with lawful subpoenas from Congress. That’s not limited government, that’s unchecked executive power.
He attacked judges and prosecutors in active cases against him. That’s not respect for law and order, that’s an assault on judicial independence.
He demanded that federal agencies prosecute his critics and shield his allies. That’s not impartial governance, it’s banana republic behavior.
These are not conservative actions. They are not grounded in principle, or law, or restraint. They are about one thing: power without accountability.
And now, his lawyers argue that he should be immune from prosecution for anything he does while in office no matter how illegal.
Ask yourself: If Barack Obama or Joe Biden had made that claim, would conservatives have accepted it?
Of course not. Because it violates the very limits on power conservatives claim to defend.
So I ask again — what exactly is being conserved here?
Not the separation of powers. Not the independence of the courts. Not the moral seriousness of the presidency. Not the Constitution.
If your political identity is based on conserving the principles that made this country stable, free, and just then you shouldn’t ignore what’s happening right now.
You don’t have to become a liberal to say this is wrong. You just have to mean what you say when you call yourself a conservative.
So ask yourself:
What exactly are you conserving?
Because if it’s not the law, not the Constitution, and not the truth — then it’s time to stop calling it conservatism.
Because if the only thing being conserved is one man’s ambition, then the word has lost its meaning.