Quote Originally Posted by Steely Glint View Post
I don't think it's right to characterise conservatism as just the reflexive defence of traditions and institutions whatever they happen to be. Like, in Soviet Russia who's the more conservative: the hardline Party member, or the old school Tsarist who wants to bring down Bolshevism and bring back the Romanovs?
There was a distinction between conservative and radical Marxists in the USSR (conservative ones were more resistant to new "experiments). In your example, the hardliner is a conservative. The tsarist is a reactionary (as is Trump, in many ways).