Reconciling My Liberal and Conservative Sides

A friend posted a wonderful article about the real meaning of conservativism that really highlights the fact that conservative and liberal are not just interchangeable terms for republican and democrat.

The author has many great points, and I strongly urge you to read the article yourself, but my favorite paragraph is his description of Obama:

Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don’t matter as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody can read Obama’s books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful, pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read the Federalist Papers.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who went from supporting McCain to rooting against him.