Conservatives like to talk about 'the strivers' who share what they like to think of as Conservative values. But as I found in my Blue Collar Tories research in 2012, such people no longer see the party as their natural ally.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Conservatives unwittingly side with the social forces that contribute to the destruction of traditional values.
The Conservative party, the modern Conservative party, is on the side of people who want to work hard and get on.
Everybody who is a Republican wants to call themselves conservative even if they don't necessarily vote that way.
At times, conservatives become defined by their volume rather than by their ideas.
Conservatives really don't believe in politics as the primary instrument of getting along in life and therefore don't tend to put their energy into it a way people left of center do.
In actual fact, I have always been a conservative cross, borne sadly by liberal friends.
Their very conservatism is secondhand, and they don't know what they are conserving.
A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they're dead.
Conservatives define themselves in terms of what they oppose.
And conservatives know that if you reject these principles of limited government and urge others to reject them you can be my ally, you can be my friend but you cannot call yourself a conservative.