Conservatism in America—What is it, and where does it go from here?

Since I started my campaign for the Chair of the HCRP, I have tried to focus on solutions to problems that are inhibiting our ability to elect Republican candidates locally: a perceived closed culture within our party, which inhibits assimilation of new people and ideas into our organization; a message that is confused and feeds a continuing lack of credibility with voters; a top-down, pyramidal organizational structure that inhibits action and innovation; a failure to grow by establishing permanent relationships in every community; and a lack of competent management.

However, after talking with many Republicans and disaffected conservatives over the last few months, I realize that it will be hard to focus on these issues without addressing the fundamental “Elephant in the Closet” for our party: as the conservative party in this country, how do we define conservatism today, and where do we take conservatism in America from here? Many people want answers to these questions before they will look at the organizational problems facing the GOP locally. To address these questions, I’ve incorporated an idea into our campaign—Renewing the American Community.

Over the next two weeks, I will try and address these issues in a two-part post. This first post will focus on what I believe it means to be a Conservative and Republican in America; and in my second post, I will try to present some ideas about where we take conservatism in America from here.

Part 1—What is American Conservatism, and what is a Republican?

We live in a remarkable, transitional moment, and many of us approach the gravity of this moment with some anxiety. We sense—I believe, correctly—that the cultural, economic, and political world that has developed since the stock-market crash of October, 1929, and that the United States has dominated almost totally, is finally coming to an end; but we have no idea what the new world will look like. The movement of world events seems to point toward a future in which international trade and communication will continue to pull the people of the world into a more cooperative, seamless relationship with each other, though with all the potential for tensions that close proximity creates. It is breaking down old allegiances of individuals to home and nation, just as it is creating new allegiances and localized needs and exacerbating old tribal and religious tensions.

Of course nothing so remarkable really happens in an instant. This process has been unfolding slowly for at least the last 40 years while we enjoyed the continued fruits of American dominance. Although, many of us noted and tried to prevent the worst consequences of this process on the collective character of our society, it is both alarming and frustrating to realize that the pace of the unraveling has accelerated over the last year to a point where it now feels out of our control.

In response to this moment, most of us in America are stuck in a political fight between two old orthodoxies unwilling to confront the future. On the left, the Democratic Party is using this moment not to craft a truly new approach to our future, but to finally implement its “transformative” statist, European-style social order, which it has championed since the 1930s. In fact, it is proceeding so well on this path that Europe has awarded its highest honor—the Nobel Peace Prize—to Obama in recognition of his efforts so far to align our country with the European approach to society.

Meanwhile, the GOP seems adrift in its response—continuing its rhetorical defense of cherished principles that have been the foundation of the American system, but without presenting any ideas of how to make those principles relevant to the future we now face.

Those of us watching this scrum day after day have finally had it, and we want our politicians to listen to us and our concerns, and to act as adults in facing this future. Whichever party breaks out of this old paradigm first will control how the future unfolds, and how this country and our citizens are guided into that future. As a conservative and a life-long Republican, I want the GOP to be that party.

But to be the party of the future, we must understand our mission in American politics—the GOP is the conservative party in America. We must understand what that means before we can create a positive agenda for the future.

I believe that to fully understand a concept, one must delve into, and understand its meaning. So, let’s start with some basic definitions for the words “society” and “conservatism”.

“Society” is defined generally in the American Heritage Dictionary as “the totality of social relationships among humans. A group of humans broadly distinguished from other groups by mutual interests, participation in characteristic relationships, shared institutions, and a common culture.” “Conservatism” is defined as “the inclination to maintain the existing or traditional order; a political philosophy or attitude emphasizing respect for traditional institutions, …and opposition to sudden change in the established order.”

Now let’s put these two definitions together to describe a conservative: a person who respects the traditional institutions and established order that maintain the totality of social relationships among a group of humans, and protects such institutions and order from sudden change.

Notice the emphasis on “sudden change”. The role of a conservative in guiding change in society was described eloquently by Indiana Senator Albert Beveridge just after the turn of the last century:

Conservatism does not mean doubt or indecision. It does not mean wise looks masking vacuity, nor pompous phrase as meaningless as it is solemn. Conservatism means clear common sense, which equally rejects the fanaticism of precedent and the fanaticism of change. It would not have midnight last just because it exists; and yet it knows that dawn comes not in a flash, but gradually…. So the conservative is the real statesman. He brings things to pass in a way that lasts and does good.

Let’s now take our definitions, and Beveridge’s description, and put them together to describe an American Conservative: a person who respects the traditional institutions and established order that maintain the totality of social relationships among Americans, and protects American institutions and order by guiding events and policies in a way that brings to pass positive and lasting change. I believe that the Republican Party always has been the natural home of this American Conservative.

Now that we have our definition of a Republican—an American Conservative—we must understand the “traditional institutions and established order” that are peculiar to America, and which a Republican is devoted to protect and guide. That’s where our story presents a paradox: Republicans are the custodians of the most liberating political ideas, institutions, and order man ever devised; so, our mission is to preserve an exceptional tradition for our posterity.

America may be the child of Europe, but those English and Dutch settlers who arrived here in the early 1600s began an experiment that separated us for all time from the European experience. They came to this continent to form a society based on an independence from a state, a church, or an anointed class of elites; but not on an independence from each other. Instead, they formed communities based on an interdependence with each other grounded on the most cherished principles of liberty and love of neighbor derived from the fundamental ideas of politics and faith they learned from Roman and Greek history, and from the New Testament. When it came time to form governments, they designed governments that would preserve the liberty and private relationships already thriving in these communities. So, while Europeans have shed much blood since 1789 to allow democratic participation in their existing governments, our mission has been to preserve our unique experiment in self-government, and guide it into the future.

It is this unique society, based on the private relationships formed in communities—families, neighborhoods, churches, clubs, etc.—upon which our founders formed state and federal governments “conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.” The Republican Party was formed when the future of this exceptional society was severely tested because of its failures to live-up to its principles. The GOP dedicated itself from its beginning to the preservation of the principles stated in the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the provisions of Constitution, and to the inclusion of all men and women into our unique society of private relationships and communities.

It is this unique society that Republicans are dedicated to preserve and guide into the future, and to protect from any effort to make it more like any other society—European or otherwise. With this as its mission, the GOP is truly the most exceptional political party in the world. To be true to this mission, the GOP at all levels must create a positive agenda of ideas and policies that will preserve our unique societal institutions and order as we enter this new era; and that will preserve the “exceptionalism” of our nation and society as we participate in the more seamless world that is emerging.

What will be the message that will guide the mission of the GOP and American Conservatism as we develop this positive agenda for the future? Basically, that message must be consistent with what it has always been: the promotion of individual empowerment, and of the private relationships that nourish it. This means:

1. We must seek to preserve, enrich and improve the institutions that have protected our liberties, including our families, our neighborhoods, our schools, our civic associations, and our local governments.

2. We must seek to protect the free-market/free trade economic system, which insulates our private decisions and relationships from the control of government.

3. We must seek to enforce the Constitution, its system of federalism, and its embrace of a limited (yet effective) role for government at all levels.

4. We must seek to maintain a strong military and diplomatic defense, for we will continue to be the defensive and moral arsenal for the West for the foreseeable future.

5. We must seek to maintain a proper balance between the isolation and chaos caused by promoting unbridled liberty, and the tyranny created by regimented conformity to one specific set of customs and traditions.

6. We must seek to promote the development of individual character and wisdom each person needs to truly enjoy freedom over the course of a lifetime.

7. We must always acknowledge that the inalienable rights listed in the Declaration of Independence apply to all people at every stage of life.

8. Finally, we must recognize that, if we are to maintain America's unique society, we must find a way to participate in the new emerging world as an equal member, but in a way that does not diminish or subjugate the exceptionalism of America.

In my next post, I will discuss some of the positive ideas that can turn this message into policies for the future.