Am I a progressive conservative?

"To a conservative, the goal of change is less important than the insistence that change be effected with a respect for the rule of law and traditions of society."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative

"Progressivism is a political phiosophy whose adherents promote public policies that they believe would lead to positive social change."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressivism

I believe in developing public policies that lead to positive social change while respecting the rule of law and the traditions of our society. I also believe this is best accomplished in a form of government, such as ours, where the ultimate respository of political power rests with we the people, but checks and balances exist on the use of political power such that it never becomes absolute power.

From wikipedia.org at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_power

Arguments against absolute power

British historian philosopher Lord Acton famously said, "Power tends to corrupt; absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton argued that the concentration of power in any one place — individual, religious, secular, et al — is harmful for all persons involved. (Note that he did not say power corrupts, the more popular version.)

William Pitt the Elder said something similar more than a century earlier. "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it." (The case of John Wilkes, speech in the House of Lords, 1770.) The entire speech can be found in Wikiquotes).

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Mother Teresa:

Do not wait for leaders, do it alone, person to person.

Mahatma Gandhi:

The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle;
pleasure without conscience; wealth without work;
knowledge without character; business without morality;
science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice.

Mother Teresa and Mahatma Gandhi quotations from
http://www.theactivist.co.uk/Quotations.HTM