CDNowak

awkwardbutaccurate:

When political conservatives quote G.K. Chesterton. 

 

Chesteron, Belloc, Cobbett, and other proponents of Distributism were not concerned with whether they were ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’, rather they were concerned with the ideal they were championing.

Distributism today has far more support among ‘conservative’ circles far a number of reasons: it is family based (socially conservative), supports smaller companies (small business tends to be favored more by economic conservatives), and personal economy (fiscally conservative).  It tends to be agrarian (not all of us agree with that, but agrarian communities do have a more conservative tendency).

True, it also has some classically ‘liberal’ traits: advocating for small government, advocating against large corporations, a mild environmentalist streak.

Other portions are considered ‘conservative’ or ‘liberal’ based on the age: Chesterton was taking a liberal stand in favor of home rule, but in American politics state and local rights to the same are considered conservative.

This small-state, small-economy, socially-conservative monarchist will keep quoting Chesterton, as Chestertonian sums up my beliefs better than most other labels.