I can’t recommend this new article by E.D. Kain over at The League of Ordinary Gentlemen enough. In it, Kain struggles to define and outline the contours of what he believes and then find the appropriate label to slap onto it. It’s a struggle that I have also been going through lately (see A Heartfelt Testament from Someone Who Lost Faith in the GOP).

This particular quote resonates most strongly with me:

I guess I don’t consider myself to be “a conservative” but rather consider the “conservative disposition” to be essential to the well-being of society. Oakeshott resonates with me. Limbaugh does not.

After all, I listen to NPR; watch Colbert and Jon Stewart; loathe Fox News; voted for Obama; am critical of Big Business and the military; opposed torture; support gay rights; support legalizing marijuana; can’t stand conservative talk radio; often agree with Andrew Sullivan (who, it should be remembered, is one of the top 25 most influential liberals in America!); and the list goes on and on. I’m pro-life but I’m not ready to ban abortion outright because I don’t think that’s the right way forward…and on top of that I’m pro-contraception. I’m in favor of a progressive tax system because of my belief in a broad middle class which, in a capitalist economy, sometimes requires that most dreaded of sins – redistribution of wealth! (I suppose the Catholic Church and its social teachings make it, too, a socialist organization – one place where the Obama administration and the Church can find common cause in the fairy tale land of Glenn Beck et al) I think the history of Western Civilization is vital to our understanding of the present and future. I think the arts should be preserved. I think our childrens’ education is more important than almost anything else. I think commercialism is more of a threat to our children than rock and roll.

Read the whole article here.