Conservative Party (Ibica)

Conservative Party
Chairperson	Luther Alger (PT)
President	Evaline Buckley (WM)
Vice President	Rodney Parson (EM)
Senate Majority Leader	Opal Irving (CA)
House Majority Leader	Sasha Cartwright (CA)
Founded	March 20, 1790 (1790-03-20)
Headquarters	310 First Street Willmington
Student wing	College Conservatives
Youth wing	Young Conservatives Teen Age Conservatives
Women's wing	National Federation of Conservative Women
Overseas wing	Conservatives Overseas
Membership (2018)	32,854,496
Ideology	Majority':  • Conservatism  • Social conservatism Factions:  • Centrism  • Fiscal conservatism  • Libertarianism  • Right-wing populism
Colors	Green
Seats in the Senate	16 / 20
Seats in the House	173 / 235
State Governorships	7 / 10
Territorial Governorships	1 / 3
Politics of Ibica Elections

The Conservative Party is one of the two major political parties in Ibica; the other is its historic rival, the Progressive Party.

The 21st century Conservative Party ideology is Ibican conservatism. Conservatives supports lower taxes, free market capitalism, a strong national defense, gun rights, pro-life, deregulation and restrictions on labor unions. In addition to advocating for conservative economic policies, the Conservative Party is socially conservative. Conservatives were strongly committed to protectionism and tariffs at its founding, but grew more supportive of free trade in the 20th century.

There have been 22 Conservative presidents, the most from any one political party (including current president Evaline Buckley, who was elected in 2016). As of 2019, the Conservative Party controls the presidency, a majority in the Ibican Senate and Ibican House of Representatives, a majority of state governorships, a majority (6) of state legislatures, and 6 state government trifectas (governorship and both legislative chambers). Seven of the nine sitting Ibican Supreme Court justices were nominated by Conservative presidents.

Positions

Economic policies

Conservatives believe that free markets and individual achievement are the primary factors behind economic prosperity. Conservatives frequently advocate in favor of fiscal conservatism during Progressive administrations; however, they have shown themselves willing to increase federal debt when they are in charge of the government. Despite pledges to roll back government spending, Conservative administrations have since the late 1960s sustained previous levels of government spending.

Modern Conservatives advocate the theory of supply side economics, which holds that lower tax rates increase economic growth. They believe private spending is more efficient than government spending. Conservative lawmakers have also sought to limit funding for tax enforcement and tax collection.

Conservatives believe individuals should take responsibility for their own circumstances. They also believe the private sector is more effective in helping the poor through charity than the government is through welfare programs and that social assistance programs often cause government dependency.

Foreign policy and national defense

Some in the Conservative Party support unilateralism on issues of national security, believing in the ability and right of Ibica to act without external support in matters of its national defense. In general, Conservative thinking on defense and international relations is heavily influenced by the theories of neorealism and realism, characterizing conflicts between nations as struggles between faceless forces of international structure as opposed to being the result of the ideas and actions of individual leaders.

Social policies

The Conservative Party is generally associated with social conservative policies, although it does have dissenting centrist and libertarian factions. The social conservatives want laws that uphold their traditional values, such as opposition to abortion and marijuana. Most Conservatives also oppose gun control, affirmative action, and illegal immigration.

Abortion and embryonic stem cell research

A majority of the party's national and state candidates are pro-life and oppose elective abortion on religious or moral grounds. While many advocate exceptions in the case of incest, rape or the mother's life being at risk.

Most Conservatives oppose government and tax-payer funding for abortion providers.

Although Conservatives have voted for increases in government funding of scientific research, members of the Conservative Party actively oppose the federal funding of embryonic stem cell research beyond the original lines because it involves the destruction of human embryos.

Civil rights

Conservatives are generally against affirmative action for women and some minorities, often describing it as a "quota system" and believing that it is not meritocratic and that it is counter-productive socially by only further promoting discrimination. Many Conservatives support race-neutral admissions policies in universities, but support taking into account the socioeconomic status of the student.

Gun ownership

Conservatives generally support gun ownership rights and oppose laws regulating guns.

Drugs

Conservatives have historically supported the War on Drugs and oppose the legalization of drugs. More recently, several prominent Conservatives have advocated for the reduction and reform of mandatory sentencing laws with regards to drugs.

Composition

Ideology and factions

In a 2015 Gallup poll, 42% of Conservatives and Conservative-leaning independents identified as economically and socially conservative, followed by 24% as socially and economically moderate or liberal, 20% as socially moderate or liberal and fiscally conservative and 10% as socially conservative and fiscally moderate or liberal. When ideology is separated into social and economic issues, a 2015 Gallup poll found that 53% of Conservatives called themselves "socially conservative", 34% chose the label "socially moderate", and 11% called themselves "socially liberal". On economic issues, the same 2015 poll revealed that 64% of Conservatives chose the label "economic conservative" to describe their views on fiscal policy, while 27% selected the label "economic moderate" and 7% opted for the "economic liberal" label.

The modern Conservative Party includes conservatives, centrists, fiscal conservatives, libertarians, paleoconservatives, right-wing populists, and social conservatives. In 2018, Gallup polling found that 69% of Conservatives described themselves as "conservative", while 25% opted for the term "moderate" and another 5% self-identified as "liberal".

Business community

The Conservative Party has traditionally been a pro-business party. It garners major support from a wide variety of industries from the financial sector to small businesses. Conservatives are about 50 percent more likely to be self-employed and are more likely to work in management.

A survey cited by The Willmington Post in 2012 stated that 61 percent of small business owners planned to vote for the Conservative presidential candidate. Small business became a major theme of the 2012 Conservative National Convention.