“ I’ve thought this through, and I am having a tough time coming up with examples of where my deeply held conservative ideology would be in tension with my approach to resourcing national security.”
For you personally, this may not apply. I can come up with a couple examples of tension for fusionist conservatives who want both a strong national defense and a limited government. For the libertarian-leaning conservatives, there is a tension between laissez-faire economics and the way the defense industry is currently set up (although, I might argue that a little more competition would actually be better for defense). At the very least there might be some anti-industrial policy concerns regarding military industrial policy (although many would agree that national security is an exception). There’s also the tension between balancing the budget/lowering the debt and increasing defense spending to meet our commitments. As well as the tension between decreasing size and scope of government while increasing the size and scope of the military. Some might argue that there’s too much waste/fraud/abuse in defense world (as there is in every government department), but I think most hawks would agree that eliminating that would actually improve our military.
Not sure where you are on intelligence/cyber world stuff, but there’s a bit of tension between civil libertarians concerned about privacy and the intelligence needs of our various agencies. That might be out of your wheelhouse though.
None of that is to mention the isolationist wing of the conservative movement. Of course, isolationism isn’t limited to the right - it’s been very strong on the left for at least as long as it has on the right. If I were in charge, most of the isolationists would get written out of the movement. But I’m not and so they do have a role within conservatism.
But if you were simply speaking about your own personal political philosophy, then I don’t know that any of these examples would apply.
“ I’ve thought this through, and I am having a tough time coming up with examples of where my deeply held conservative ideology would be in tension with my approach to resourcing national security.”
For you personally, this may not apply. I can come up with a couple examples of tension for fusionist conservatives who want both a strong national defense and a limited government. For the libertarian-leaning conservatives, there is a tension between laissez-faire economics and the way the defense industry is currently set up (although, I might argue that a little more competition would actually be better for defense). At the very least there might be some anti-industrial policy concerns regarding military industrial policy (although many would agree that national security is an exception). There’s also the tension between balancing the budget/lowering the debt and increasing defense spending to meet our commitments. As well as the tension between decreasing size and scope of government while increasing the size and scope of the military. Some might argue that there’s too much waste/fraud/abuse in defense world (as there is in every government department), but I think most hawks would agree that eliminating that would actually improve our military.
Not sure where you are on intelligence/cyber world stuff, but there’s a bit of tension between civil libertarians concerned about privacy and the intelligence needs of our various agencies. That might be out of your wheelhouse though.
None of that is to mention the isolationist wing of the conservative movement. Of course, isolationism isn’t limited to the right - it’s been very strong on the left for at least as long as it has on the right. If I were in charge, most of the isolationists would get written out of the movement. But I’m not and so they do have a role within conservatism.
But if you were simply speaking about your own personal political philosophy, then I don’t know that any of these examples would apply.