Conservatism: The Short Answer
This is the short version. You can find the long version here.
What is a conservative? No, really, try to define conservatism without just listing conservative values. It’s a deceptively simple question. It is one made complicated by the long history of conservative philosophy in America, the fact that American conservatism is different from the conservatism found in other countries, the many strains of conservatism, the self-conflicting nature of trying to balance mutually exclusive aspects of our inalienable rights, and the fact that even the most conservative of minds disagree with one another all the time. The short answer is that there is no one face of conservative ideology.
I was going to say, “The Websters definition of conservatism is…” but, and this probably an indication of something, Miriam-Webster’s web site doesn’t have a definition for conservative or conservatism. At any rate, literally taken, the term conservative is used to describe those who base their decision making on traditional approaches. To muddy the waters even more, some branches of American conservatism like to use the founding fathers as their source of traditionalism while some branches of American liberalism trace their traditional roots to classical liberalism, which is the actual philosophy that those same founding fathers espoused.
And as if all that weren’t enough, the Republican party is the conservative party but conservative commentators are always complaining about how Republican Party isn’t true to conservative philosophy. That’s one of the many reasons why we have primaries – but that’s neither here nor there.
Like I said, its complicated.
Anyway, the quick and dirty road to discovering what conservatism is is to explain what modern American conservatives believe.
Conservatives want:
- Smaller government, lower taxes, and fiscal responsibility.
- Free market capitalism, free trade, and little or no regulation.
- Self-reliant, privately-managed welfare policy.
- Strong, hawkish, self-interest governed foreign policy.
- Deference for traditional, religious, and family values.
Obviously there are disagreements. No one has a monopoly on these values and only a parrot would agree with every single part of any doctrine – political or otherwise. One of the biggest sources of contention among conservatives is the ongoing battle between fiscal conservatives (who value monetary conservatism highest of all) and neoconservatives (who value religions and strong foreign policy more). As a secular conservative, I’m sure you can guess where I break from mainstream conservatives.
That’s the short version. On Thursday I’ll deliver the (ridiculously) long version.
A tip of the hat goes out to Mark who asked me to explain exactly what conservatism is. If you have a question you’d like me to answer or a topic you’d like me to discuss, leave a comment or send me an email and I’ll be happy to write about it when I get the chance.
The problem is, the Republican party isn’t conservative by any means, no matter what they call themselves. Sure, they may be the most conservative party, but that’s like saying that someone who only hates blacks is less racist than someone who hates all minorities. It may be strictly true but it’s hardly a comforting position to take. There’s very little conservative about the Republican party, even going by your list. The government has grown tremendously under George W. Bush, we’re certainly not seeing any form of fiscal responsibility, given the $10 trillion deficit and of course, we’re seeing the results of no regulation in the financial sector. The Republican party has ruined this country in ways most people aren’t even aware of yet and it’ll take decades to clean up the mess, if it’s even possible.
Your list of what conservatism is isn’t bad, although I would disagree with a couple of items. While a strong, hawkish, self-interest governed foreign policy may have worked well at one point, in the modern world, where every country is so strongly inter-connected with every other, it really isn’t possible to think only of yourself. Your actions will have ramifications on other countries which will, in return, come back to haunt you later. Thinking first about yourself is fine, thinking only about yourself causes problems, as we’ve seen in the past 8 years.
Secondly, as a self-described secular conservative, caring about religious values seems a bit off. Conservatives do not show deference for tradition simply because it is tradition, but because it has been shown over time to work. As things stop working or as new, better solutions present themselves, true conservatives should not be afraid to move on and abandon the old ways in favor of things that work better, we simply shouldn’t change for the sake of change as many liberals do. Unfortunately, as we’re seeing in the modern hyper-conservative Republican party, they refuse to change from tradition for any reason, they’re not practicing conservatism, they’re practicing stasis. The simple fact is, most of the so-called religious values are simply unjustifiable by anything but religious faith, there is no secular reason to hold to the vast majority of them. In fact, two of the things that are defining characteristics of a conservative that you missed are a commitment to personal responsibility and keeping government out of the lives of others, the second of which does away with many, if not most of the so-called religious values that have been spouted by Washington these past 8 years.
I look forward to seeing your full write-up on this. Good job.