Is Free Trade a Conservative value?

To a certain extent conservative is a relative term; is can be defined in relation to liberal, but liberal is always going further to the left. This creates a situation in which a liberal, if he holds the same the exact same political views for enough decades might find himself to first be a moderate and then possibly might begin to style himself a conservative.

In another sense it could be said that Americans have a North star that constantly points the way. By using the Founding Fathers as a set standard to define what it is we want to conserve we can declare what is or is not conservative without reference to how far liberals have moved their sideline.

The Founders are the only well defined standard that Americans can look too; the 1950's are not a standard because that was an era, not a group of people or an ideology. Also the founders spanned a couple of generations, the 1950's was a decade. We must also consider that the 50's, and the culture and developments of the 50's must bare some responsibility for the 60's and the 70's.

On the other hand we can't do everything the same way the founders did because among other things the "West" was declared settled in 1890. The availability of unsettled free land available for homesteading in the West made for a different set of circumstances than exist now. To maintain the same dynamic, that of being a nation of sturdy smallholders, a few customs would be needed to conserve this historically rare bird.

Make no mistake, our country was never a collection of rugged individuals. It was a country of united, but mostly self-ruling states, and the states consisted of mostly self-ruling-counties. As to the counties self-ruling, very little ruling was necessary as the counties were composed of self-disciplined God fearing families. Even the head of a family, though he may be rugged, is hardly a rugged individual.

The whole family pulled together to make the farm or small shop work. Though things had improved from the time of the Pilgrims when the men might say "I like my women big, strong, and ready to work", none-the-less the men weren't doing this alone. Children were welcomed as needed help and even young children had small duties and responsibilities. The old-folks as well filled a role and this role was necessary and respected.

Because Americans made many things for themselves they didn't rely on imports, in fact the federal government relied on tariffs for much of its' income and people preferred this less intrusive form of tax-collection. Another benefit of reasonable tariffs is that it helps maintain local manufacturing even in the face of dumping and currency manipulation. This is a net positive for national security as well as economic security and without economic security there is no national security.

Free-trade was not a part of the founders vision; the founders and the following generations set tariffs. They also steered clear of "foreign entanglements" and I can't help but think that because Americans were not heavily invested in so many countries through trade we were able to mostly stay out of their wars as well.

International wars follow international trade for the simple reason that international trade is almost a type of soft warfare between nations; there is no such thing as friendly competition only winners and losers. To prevent trade-wars we have to set up international governing bodies to settle disputes and to do that they must have authority over the national governments. So we see that international trade ends with international government. I don't think anyone can call that conservative.