What Are Conservatives Conserving?
Once in a while, we conservatives will get asked, “Okay, Mr. Smarty Conservative…what, exactly, is it that you’re trying to conserve?” It’s a fair question. Conservatives too often fall back on the hackneyed slogans (Low taxes! Individual liberty! Free Markets!) without explaining why those things are important. In truth, low taxes and the rest are important to conservatism, but they’re important for a reason. They are not simply an end, but an inevitable result of a specific belief called American exceptionalism.
Rich Lowry and Ramesh Ponnuru wrote an excellent piece on the subject in a recent edition of National Review, and their answer to the question is one of the best I’ve ever seen.
The answer is simple: the pillars of American exceptionalism. Our country has always been exceptional. It is freer, more individualistic, more democratic, and more open and dynamic than any other nation on earth. These qualities are the bequest of our Founding and of our cultural heritage. They have always marked America as special, with a unique role and mission in the world: as a model of ordered liberty and self-government and as an exemplar of freedom and a vindicator of it, through persuasion when possible and force of arms when absolutely necessary.
Here is the very heart of conservatism. We don’t dig in our heels in opposition to President Obama’s various and sundry policies because we dislike him or because we’re counting political coup. We oppose his policies because they would deeply and dramatically change the basic character of the country. President Obama sees America as not at all exceptional and his plans for us would make his beliefs into reality.
That’s not to say we conservatives are pie-eyed optimists. We are well aware of America’s flaws. How could we not be? Many of us have been force-fed the Howard Zinn progressive “America as Villain” line from childhood. We’ve gotten it in school, on television, in movies, on the radio, and in our newscasts for most of our lives. However, we are also aware that the American people have always sought to right our wrongs, to do the least amount of damage, and to spread freedom and optimism like a farmer scatters seed. We do not define our nation by her wrongs but by the more numerous and longer-lasting things she has done right.
More than that, though, we understand that only by adhering to the principles of limited government and maximum individual freedom and opportunity will America continue to be great because it has been those things which have given her people the room to achieve greatness. Why is that? Because human nature is what it is. Lowry and Ponnuru quote Alexander Hamilton’s Federalist No. 51 to emphasize the point, but there’s a bigger point in there I think they didn’t emphasize quite enough.
It may be a reflection on human nature that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government. But what is government itself, but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.
That last phrase describes the chief conceit, and the biggest mistake, of the progressive movement. See, progressives believe that they are angels fit to govern men and if they could be in charge, then government could operate fettered only by their angelic motives. Conservatives, and the bulk of the American people, know that is folly, which is why you’ll hear the left voice their belief only by accident or when they think they can not be stopped. The truth of the matter is that no man is an angel. Our Founders knew that centuries ago and they baked that fact into the cake. The result has been a country unlike any other, the legendary shining city on a hill, home of freedom, prosperity, and opportunity for anyone who wants to come and join us.
And we conservatives wouldn’t want it to be any other way.
Other Posts of Interest:
- David Brooks: Garbage In Garbage Out
- “Business Card” Conservatism
- Forty Conservatives Gems of Wisdom (And A Few of My Own)
Category: Conservatism, Cool Columnists and Wicked Writers
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