Did anyone realize that No Child Left Behind, and Prescription Health Care programs would be signed into law by this President? He cut taxes. He appointed the two most conservative judges to the Supreme Court. Yet, he vetoed nothing in six years, turned surpluses into gargantuan deficits, doubled the national debt to 9.5 trillion dollars, globally crusaded the world to reshape it for democracy. And these are supposed to be the policies of a conservative?
What would Russell Kirk, William Buckley, Robert Taft, or Ronald Reagan say?
"Et tu, Brute," Ceasar's last words to his best of friends, Brutus. Do not the same words dribble from the mouths of conservatives, soccer moms, local pro-lifers who fought, walked, and registered new voters in 2000 and 2004? President Bush ran as a conservative. He governed as a liberal, in so many ways.
As Republicans endure an existential crisis, questioning who they are, what exactly are we to say conservatives are to do? After all, if Bush #43 or John McCain's policies are the new policies of the Republican party, what are good conservatives to do with the party they have worked so dilligently shaping since the days of Goldwater, Reagan, and Gingrich?
Let us reaffirm the manifesto of conservativism-what is it exactly?
According to philosopher Dinesh D'Souzas, "Conservatives seek a social structure that helps to bring out the best in human nature and suppress man's lower or base impulses. Conservatives support capitalism as a way of steering our natural pursuit of self-interest toward the material betterment of society at large. Finally, conservatives support autonomy when it is attached to personal responsibility -- when people are held accountable for their actions. However, they also believe in the indispensability of moral incubators -- the family, the church, civic institutions such as the Boy Scouts and The American Legion -- that aim to foster civic virtue and show people how to use freedom well."
In a broad sweeping statement from the intellectual 20th century founder and giant of American political conservativism, Russell Kirk says,"Conservatives generally believe that there exists a transcendent moral order, to which we ought to try to conform the ways of society. Conservatives uphold the principle of social continuity. They prefer the devil they know to the devil they don't know. Order and justice and freedom, they believe, are the artificial products of a long and painful social experience, the results of centuries of trial and reflection and sacrifice. Conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability. Human nature suffers irremediably from certain faults, the conservatives know. Man being imperfect, no perfect social order can ever be created," in The Conservative Mind.
A more concrete definition of a conservative can be found in the Harvard University Institute of Politics:
"Conservatives traditionally stand for low taxes, a strong military, traditional values, and little intervention by government in everyday life." -- Harvard University Institute of Politics
John Derbyshire's bullet points (3) describing conservatives is as follows:
1. a deep suspicion of the power of the state.
2. a preference for liberty over equality.
3. patriotism.
4. a belief in established institutions and hierarchies.
5. skepticism about the idea of progress.
6. elitism.
Of course, no conservative dossier is complete without the bullet point lessons from the mastermind of the 20th century conservative movement, Russell Kirk. It is he, with his ten principles that articulated what would become the principles of Goldwater, Reagan, and Gingrich in the Republican Party in principle.
Kirk's principles of conservativism:
1) there exists an enduring moral order
2) adherance to custom, convention, and continuity
3) adherance to the principle of prescription
4) guided by the principle of prudence
5) attention is given to the principle of variety
6) conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectibility
7) belief that freedom and property are closely linked
8) uphold voluntary community; oppose involuntary collectivism
9) need for prudent restraints upon power and human passions
10) permanence and change must be reconciled to a vigorous society
Being a liberal is so much easier. Promise your constituents everything they want to hear. Then rant and rave on the Congressional floor and on the air waves about how unfair a place America is.
Conservativism, on the other hand, requires intelligence and discipline. Explaining to your consituents that Washington shouldn't meddle in the lives of Americans is difficult enough. Coming home without any pork while every other district in the nation has Senators and Congressmen returning home with Christmas gifts of pork is even more diffiicult.
The post Gingrich revolution has seen Repubicans become just like the Democrats in their spending habits. Even Democrats are a bit dispappointed. Most Democrats were, I'm sure, secretly missing their stodgy grey-haired conservative colleagues standing at the edge of the financial cliff waving stop signs before Democrats conjured up financial Armageddon.
Americans remain moderately conservative, by enlarge. Republicans and Democrats even run conservative campaigns knowing that is how to get elected. Once elected, conservativism is turned into Goodwill like an old coat for the plush appointments to committees and chairmanships.
The nation has seen revolutionary days before. The 5,000 Patriots who gathered in Boston Harbor in 1773 tossed 45 tons of tea off British boats into the harbor. Reagan had a revolution that lasted 30 years changing the course of America. Gingrich brought one to town in the 1990's giving us balanced budgets and surpluses.
Since the politicians aren't listening much anymore, isn't time for conservatives to gather the pitchforks? It's time for a new crop of conservatives who value individual liberty more than collective security and creativity more than government spending.
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