Are Americans Conservative?

American voters might be described as practical people, most of whom know how to live and manage within budget constraints. For the most part, they are economically responsible and frugal by necessity. That is particularly the case during periods of economic cycles when job opportunities are constrained as is economic mobility.

While Americans are sometimes impulsive consumers, that consumptive behavior has limits. Therefore, it is natural for them to extrapolate that behavior for application to their government. Citizens are the first to acknowledge the limited capacity of government to attend to all possible needs.

In that sense, Americans are economically conservative by necessity.

The government is the instrument used by citizens to address priority needs and requirements that help ensure that all Americans have equal opportunities in the pursuit of happiness.

"Happiness" may be defined as a "good life for all," meaning that no one should live in poverty and that everyone who is able should work to perform at their optimal capacity. Ensuring a good life for all requires optimizing individual performance while minimizing lagging and underdeveloped capacity.

While conservative advocates such as William F. Bukley, Jr. deplored the idea that government can or should engineer economic performance, more liberal populists disagree and embrace the idea.

A good life for all isn't likely to happen by laissez-faire intentions as we experience today. Intervention by the government as an instrument of We, the People, is essential to help balance between public, private and government enterprise to optimize return on national resources.

Perhaps asking about American conservatism is the wrong question. The question is, are Americans willing to support the ideals guaranteed in the nation's Constitution? Can Americans manage the government that exists in their name to ensure liberty, justice, and equality for all?

"Among our convictions: 

It is the job of centralized government (in peacetime) to protect its citizens' lives, liberty and property. All other activities of government tend to diminish freedom and hamper progress. The growth of government (the dominant social feature of this century) must be fought relentlessly. In this great social conflict of the era, we are, without reservations, on the libertarian side. The profound crisis of our era is, in essence, the conflict between the Social Engineers, who seek to adjust mankind to conform with scientific utopias, and the disciples of Truth, who defend the organic moral order. We believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated by monitoring election results, binding though these are for other purposes, but by other means, including a study of human experience. On this point we are, without reservations, on the conservative side."

William F. Buckley, Jr.

“In the United States there has never been a national political party called the Conservative Party.[36] All major American political parties support republicanism and the basic classical liberal ideals on which the country was founded in 1776, emphasizing liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the rule of law, the consent of the governed, opposition to aristocracy, and fear of corruption, coupled with equal rights—at first for free, White, Christian men, but gradually extended to all adult citizens.” 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism_in_the_United_States

William F. Buckley, Jr., National Review