"Conservatism clings to what has been established,

fearing that, once we begin to question the beliefs that we have inherited, all the values of life will be destroyed."
-Morris Raphael Cohen

I want to relate politically conservative philosophy to the new immigration law and associated racist laws recently pass in Arizona. There is a fundamental problem with conservatism. It tries to keep things as they are, but in this world of space and time, nothing stays the same. The world progresses continuously and new problems constantly come up. Conservatism is a philosophy of denial. The denial of change, the denial of progress, and the denial of reality.

What are the underlying values that could drive conservative philosophy? One factor is the fear of loss of privilege. People at the top of the social and economic ladder are afforded all sorts of benefits that common people do not have. But there are plenty of working class people that are conservative. So obviously there are other values. Loss of general superiority seems to be a related factor. Conservatives tend to be white. As the new immigration law in Arizona seems to indicate, some white people are terrified of brown people. Arizona now will have nazi-like "where are your papers?" police harassing people that might be illegal, because well, they look Mexican. But there is a good reason why there are so many illegal immigrants from Mexico. It has to do with a conservative policy of free trade. Free trade has made some businessmen (mainly corporations) extremely wealthy, at the expense of whole nations. People in Mexico can no longer depend on having the cheapest goods for Mexicans; any country can compete with them. Many formerly successful farmers and business owners cannot compete with large corporations for cheap production. As their livelihoods have been destroyed, they risk coming to America illegally to be able to survive. So conservatives at the top are benefiting through profit, and working and middle class conservatives think they're being invaded by Mexicans and are passing fascist laws. Greed and fear are at least two strong values in people that have conservative values. All out hatred is not uncommon either.

Unfortunately for conservatives, the reality is that within a few decades, whites will be the minority in this country. The country is changing, and they don't like it. Who knows how far they will go to deny that reality? Will people in general ever realize that we can't live in the past?