by David Hunt – Chairman of the Colorado Conservative Patriot Alliance
Conservative principles are timeless, and will outlast any politician. – Alfred Regner
Man is a being capable of subduing his emotions and impulses; he can rationalize his behavior. He arranges his wishes into a scale, he chooses; in short, he acts. What distinguishes man from beasts is precisely that he adjusts his behavior deliberately. – Ludwig von Mises
Conservatism is a thinking mans ideology. It requires understanding and wisdom, research and knowledge, and the ability and willingness to judge right from wrong. It requires a moral compass, a fortitude for righteousness, and above all a love of liberty. To be a true conservative the value of the individual must be nourished and a fierce independence cultivated that can withstand the petty criticisms, persecutions, and mockeries of those who have yet to see the light.
Conservatism has innumerable subsets. Generally speaking, one can safely divide conservatism into Classical or institutional conservatism, Ideological conservatism or right-wing conservatism (typified by three distinct sub-ideologies: social conservatism, fiscal conservatism, and economic liberalism), Neo-conservatism, and Cultural conservatism.
Feel free to pick your poison, definition, and faction.
Despite the attempts at labeling and hairsplitting many of us fail to easily fit into any one particular category but yet we are undoubtedly a member of the Right. I like to use the label “common-sense conservative” for myself as I believe that common sense and logic form the firm foundation that all of the various conservative sects are based upon. They are more alike ideologically than they often wish to admit and invariably share the same roots and basic principles. More likely than not, these differences are based more on priority and focus than anything else. They are allied by necessity against their shared ideological enemies that has arisen from modern-day liberalism to do battle for the heart and soul of not just America, but Western Civilization as well.
Conservatives do tend to be more inclusive than exclusive and tend to overlook the various ideological eccentricities of their fellows as long as they are fighting in the same trenches. I move easily among the various factions and issue-specific movements that make up conservatism and over a lifetime of activism I have seen the common threads of thought and ideas that do, in the end, make them more alike than they are different.
In many ways, the various elements of the Right are merely traveling different intellectual pathways to reach the same destination. If conservativism can be compared to a mighty oak, its myriad of “cons” and divisions are merely the various branches and leaves of the tree itself. The roots of conservatism branch back through history drawing sustenance and wisdom from a wide variety of philosophies, people, and traditions resulting in the towering ideological tree that has played such an important role in the modern age.
The best, most passionate, and intellectually stimulating debates and discussion I have ever had in regards to ideological issues have been with conservatives, not liberals. Conservatives prize the intellect and independence of the individual in sharp contrast to liberalism which practices collectivism and demands ideological conformity from its adherents. The contrast is stark and abundantly clear.
Every political philosophy is a result of a process of cherry-picking the political philosophers and philosophies that have come before it. My own personal definition and concept of conservatism is no different and will undoubtedly be disputed by even some of my fellow conservatives. Each persons personal version of an ideological philosophy will be different from any other persons if they are indeed intellectually honest with themselves. At the same time I believe that the ideology of modern, common-sense American conservatism free from authoritarianism, racism, or radicalism will find common ground with the views that I express here.
My own ideological influences come from a wide array of people; from Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan to Winston Churchill and Theodore Roosevelt; from John Stuart Mill and John Locke to Edmund Burke and Adam Smith; from the Founding Fathers to the Biblical patriarchs; from Martin Luther to John Wycliffe; from Plato to Spartacus and Cicero to Cato the Elder. In the end, the balance has to be found between individual freedom and the obligation of the community, the concept of personal liberty and the restraints of morals and values, common sense and the passion of righteous indignation, the need for a Republic and the dangers of democracy, and the embracing of needed chance while respecting the hallowed reverence of tradition.
Conservatism strives for these delicate balances and its underlying principles, though not perfect, have blessed this nation and countless millions across the globe and throughout history with its wisdom, concept of liberty, and value of the individual. It teaches the immortal principles that consequences have actions, freedom comes with responsibility, the individual has intrinsic value, and that there must be stringent restraints on power. Understanding these principles is the key to understanding the conservative ideology and how I view the world.
The conservative ideology is based on the concept of Natural Law and the rights and sovereignty of the individual. It is the idea that men have inherent, God-given, natural rights and that from the moment of his birth a man is a free and sovereign citizen. The fundamental rights of man are not granted by other men or by laws, but are organic in nature and are self-evident. When government or an ideology attempts to take away these basic rights then they must be opposed or abolished. That is the inherent heart of the conservative ideology and the fertile ground from which springs the concept of liberty.
At the same time the conservative understands the difference between “natural” (animal) liberty and “civil” (societal) liberty. Man is a social entity and therefore cannot always just do whatever he pleases whenever he pleases but instead he is required to exercise his liberties within certain parameters and personal restraints. This is civil liberty. The freedom to do what you ought, not necessarily what you want. It is the fundamental basis for a successful and orderly society.
Rejection of “natural right” in favor of “the historical sense,” relativism, or conventionalism ultimately only results in disaster. We must be capable of choosing what is truly good or just. Otherwise, the result of all options being equally good or permissible is nihilism, alienation, and ultimately chaos.
Government exists only to protect these fundamental rights and freedoms and to provide the framework for these rights to be fully exercised. It is there to protect the citizenry from those who would deprive a person of their rights through violence or force. Government is necessary, but should be severely limited. It exists to preserve liberty, not to infringe upon it. Through cooperation government allows the citizenry to do things they could not otherwise do like build roads and provide effective law and order while creating a climate of peace that protects the lawful from the lawless, the weak from the strong, and the rule of Law from the forces of anarchy, chaos, and despotism.
The pre-PC 1973 edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica lists six Principles of Conservatism which I have taken the liberty of abridging and reprinting here:
1. The principle of natural law.
Most conservatives have held, with Plato and Cicero, that there exists a natural law, of an origin more than human, to which any society ought to conform. The object of the political philosopher is to ascertain as best he can this norm of justice, of which man-made law is at best a bad copy. A divine intent, however dimly discerned, is at work in men’s lives and in their society. This point of view contrasts strongly with the liberal’s utilitarian view of the state and with the radical’s detestation of theological politics.
2. The principle of continuity.
Order and justice and freedom are the artificial products of a very long and painful human experience, the products of many centuries of trial and error and reflection. It is of the first importance that the continuity, the lifeblood, of a society must not be interrupted. As the human body casts off old tissue and takes on new, so human society, too, must alter. Burke’s model of a statesman was one who combined a disposition to preserve with an ability to reform. But necessary change ought to be gradual and reluctantly undertaken, lest the delicate constitution of a society, the essential continuity of human relationships, be badly disturbed.
3. The principle of prescription.
“The wisdom of our ancestors” is one of the most important phrases in the writings of Burke. Conservatives feel that modern man are dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, able to see further than their ancestors only because of their ancestor’s high stature. Thus the conservative emphasizes the importance of what Burke called “prescription” – ancient rights, moral precepts, and customs. Society is more secure when its members are accustomed to refer to inherited wisdom, the legacy of civilization, rather than to weigh every ephemeral issue on the basis of private judgments and private rationality. In politics, we will do well to refer often to precedent and precept and even prejudice, for “the great mysterious incorporation of the human race” has learned truths about the soul and about community living that no single man can hope to attain unaided in his few brief years of life.
4. The principle of prudence.
Any measure ought to be judged by its probable long-run consequences, not merely temporary advantage or popularity: this is the real statesman’s art, according to the conservative. Liberals and radicals, the conservatives thinks, are imprudent, for they dash at their objectives without considering that their reforms may bring in their train abuses worse than the evils that reformers aspire to abolish. Human society being complex, remedies cannot be simple if they are to be effective. The conservative declares that he acts only upon due reflection and after weighting the consequences; sudden and slashing reforms are as perilous as sudden and slashing surgery.
5. The principle of variety.
The philosophic conservative feels affection for the proliferating variety and intricacy and mystery of long-established social institutions and modes of life, as distinguished from the narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism of most radical systems. For the preservation of a healthy diversity in any civilization, there must be various orders and classes, differences in economic condition and many kinds of inequality. The only true equality is equality before God’s judgment; all other attempts at leveling lead to stagnation, at best. Society longs for able leadership, and if natural and institutional distinctions among men are destroyed, presently some tyrant fills the vacuum. Similarly, the conservative upholds the institution of private property as productive of human variety; without private property, liberty is almost impossible and society becomes a life-in-death.
6. The principle of imperfectability.
Human nature suffers irremediably from certain great flaws or faults, which the Christian calls original sin. Men being imperfect, no perfect social order ever can be created. Because of man’s native restlessness, indeed, mankind would grow restive under any utopian domination and once more break out in violent discontent – or else expire of boredom. To aim for utopia is to end in disaster, the conservative reasons: we are not made for perfect things. All that we reasonably can expect is a tolerably ordered, free and just society, in which there must always be some evils and maladjustments and suffering. By proper attention to prescription and prudence, we may hope to preserve and even to improve this tolerable order. But if the old institutional and moral safeguards of a nation are forgotten in an impatient snatch at perfection, then the anarchic and violent impulses in man break loose, and the fabric of a high civilization is in imminent peril.
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Edmund Burke was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who is widely regarded as the philosophical founder of Anglo-American conservatism. The economist Adam Smith remarked that Burke was “the only man I ever knew who thinks on economic subjects exactly as I do, without any previous communications having passed between us.”
It was Edmund Burke who gave us the following quotes.
–All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
–But what is liberty without wisdom, and without virtue? It is the greatest of all possible evils; for it is folly, vice, and madness, without tuition or restrain.
–Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all.
–People crushed by laws, have no hope but to evade power. If the laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to the law; and those who have most to hope and nothing to lose will always be dangerous.
–The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedience, and by parts.
–There is but one law for all, namely that law which governs all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice, equity – the law of nature and of nations.
–Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, -— in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, -— in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption, —- in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
–When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
-Liberty, too, must be limited in order to be possessed.
–When the leaders choose to make themselves bidders at an auction of popularity, their talents, in the construction of the state, will be of no service. They will become flatterers instead of legislators; the instruments, not the guides, of the people.
–The body of all true religion consists, to be sure, in obedience to the will of the Sovereign of the world, in a confidence in His declarations, and in imitation of His perfections.
–Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it.
–Society is indeed a contract. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are living, those who are dead, and those who are to be born.
Upon such foundational concepts the conservative ideology is built. It is a sturdy foundation built upon rock and not upon sand. The ideas and principles are timeless, but it took Edmund Burke to articulate them for the modern conservative.
Two contrasting assessments of Burke were offered long after his death by Karl Marx and Winston Churchill. Karl Marx, not surprisingly, was a radical opponent of Burke’s thought. In Das Kapital, he wrote:
The sycophant—who in the pay of the English oligarchy played the romantic laudator temporis acti against the French Revolution just as, in the pay of the North American colonies at the beginning of the American troubles, he had played the liberal against the English oligarchy—was an out-and-out vulgar bourgeois.
According to Winston Churchill’s Consistency in Politics:
On the one hand [Burke] is revealed as a foremost apostle of Liberty, on the other as the redoubtable champion of Authority. But a charge of political inconsistency applied to this life appears a mean and petty thing. History easily discerns the reasons and forces which actuated him, and the immense changes in the problems he was facing which evoked from the same profound mind and sincere spirit these entirely contrary manifestations. His soul revolted against tyranny, whether it appeared in the aspect of a domineering Monarch and a corrupt Court and Parliamentary system, or whether, mouthing the watch-words of a non-existent liberty, it towered up against him in the dictation of a brutal mob and wicked sect. No one can read the Burke of Liberty and the Burke of Authority without feeling that here was the same man pursuing the same ends, seeking the same ideals of society and Government, and defending them from assaults, now from one extreme, now from the other.
Edmund Burke is essential reading for understanding the principles of the conservative ideology.
In the modern era four great conservative minds have been recognized. Two were politicians and two were ideological philosophers, but all were instrumental in defining and shaping what we now recognize as the modern-day conservative ideology. They were Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, William F. Buckley Jr. and Russell Kirk. They didn’t necessarily agree on every issue, but they each left their own distinctive mark on how we view conservatism today. These four men are the great pioneers of the modern conservative movement. One can easily add to this list but each of these men had a momentous historical impact on the conservative ideology.
I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is “needed” before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents “interests,” I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can. – Barry Goldwater
Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. Their mistaken course stems from false notions of equality, ladies and gentlemen. Equality, rightly understood, as our founding fathers understood it, leads to liberty and to the emancipation of creative differences. Wrongly understood, as it has been so tragically in our time, it leads first to conformity and then to despotism.
– Barry Goldwater
Let us beware that while they preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man, and predict its eventual domination over all the peoples of the earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world…. I urge you to beware the temptation …, to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of any evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil. – Ronald Reagan
Government growing beyond our consent had become a lumbering giant, slamming shut the gates of opportunity, threatening to crush the very roots of our freedom. What brought America back? The American people brought us back — with quiet courage and common sense; with undying faith that in this nation under God the future will be ours, for the future belongs to the free. – Ronald Reagan
Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy “accommodation.” And they say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. . . . We cannot buy our security, our freedom from the threat of the bomb by committing an immorality so great as saying to a billion human beings now in slavery behind the Iron Curtain, “Give up your dreams of freedom because to save our own skin, we are willing to make a deal with your slave-masters.” – Ronald Reagan
An opportunity society awaits us. We need only believe in ourselves and give men and women of faith, courage, and vision the freedom to build it. Let others run down America and seek to punish success. Let them call you greedy for not wanting government to take more and more of your earnings. Let them defend their tombstone society of wage and price guidelines, mandatory quotas, tax increases, planned shortages, and shared sacrifices. We want no part of that mess, thank you very much. We will encourage all Americans—men and women, young and old, individuals of every race, creed, and color—to succeed and be healthy, happy, and whole. This is our goal. We see America not falling behind, but moving ahead; our citizens not fearful and divided, but confident and united by shared values of faith, family, work, neighborhood, peace and freedom. – Ronald Reagan
Are you willing to spend time studying the issues, making yourself aware, and then conveying that information to family and friends? Will you resist the temptation to get a government handout for your community? Realize that the doctor’s fight against socialized medicine is your fight. We can’t socialize the doctors without socializing the patients. Recognize that government invasion of public power is eventually an assault upon your own business. If some among you fear taking a stand because you are afraid of reprisals from customers, clients, or even government, recognize that you are just feeding the crocodile hoping he’ll eat you last. – Ronald Reagan
At age 29, William F. Buckley launched National Review with this founding statement: “It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.”
And a couple more from this wise man…
Well, there’s something known as American conservatism, though it does not even call itself that. It’s been calling itself ‘voting Republican’ or ‘not liking the New Deal.’ But it is a very American approach to life, and it has to do with knowing that the government is not your master, that America is good, that freedom is good and must be defended, and communism is very, very bad. —William F. Buckley Jr.
I will not cede more power to the state. I will not willingly cede more power to anyone, not to the state, not to General Motors, not to the CIO. I will hoard my power like a miser, resisting every effort to drain it away from me. I will then use my power, as I see fit. I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth. That is a program of sorts, is it not? It is certainly program enough to keep conservatives busy, and Liberals at bay. And the nation free. – William F. Buckley Jr.
Russell Kirk developed six canons of conservatism and advocated the idea of “ordered liberty.” The canons are described as follows:
Lee Edwards Ph.D. of the Heritage Foundation expounded on the contribution of Kirk to modern conservatism.
However, the intellectual pedigree of American conservatism goes much farther back in time than the 18th century. Russell Kirk wrote that the roots of American order were first planted nearly three thousand years earlier.
Kirk used the device of five cities–Jerusalem, Athens, Rome, London, and Philadelphia–to trace their development. The roots first appeared in Jerusalem, with the Hebrew perception of a purposeful moral existence under God. They were strengthened in Athens, with the philosophical and political self-awareness of the Greeks. They were nurtured in Rome, by the Roman experience of law and social awareness. They were intertwined with the Christian understanding of human duties and human hopes, of man redeemed. They were joined by medieval custom, learning, and valor.
The roots of American order were then enriched by two great political experiments that occurred in London, the birthplace of parliaments and the guardian of common law, and in Philadelphia, where both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution were written. The miracle of Philadelphia was that the delegates were able to resolve, for the most part, the conflicting demands of freedom and order. They created a true national government but not an absolute government. They designed something new under the political sun–a federalism which carefully enumerated, separated, and restrained the powers of the national government.
Despite the protestations of our friends on the Left, conservatives actually have an ideology. When it is correctly expressed in a person it is inspiring to see.
Conservative believe in common sense, patriotism, tradition, morals and values, free enterprise, victory in any war, conservation (not to be confused with environmentalism) the family, honoring our Judeo-Christian heritage, individual and personal responsibility, limited and small government and the innate value of human life, justice, and liberty while sharing a distinctly palpable distaste for totalitarianism and the concept of the nanny-state. This list is by no means exhaustive or all -inclusive. You will find differing interpretations and emphasis on these issues among the conservative factions but there is a general consensus on the core values of the conservative philosophy.
Once you get beyond the political philosophers, conservatism can be distilled down to some very basic concepts. It is a political philosophy that seeks to stand on the shoulders of wise men and the tried-and-true principles of the past while seeking to bring hope and wise change to the future. Conservatives reject the concept of governing by the whims of the moment, the passing fads of popular opinion or the panic of momentary crisis.
Metrospy.com distributes a bumper sticker that shows the silhouettes of a cross, a traditional family holding hands, an unborn baby, an American flag, and a pistol.
Five simple symbols that represent the values that we conservatives stand for. What’s ironic is that these same five symbols represent everything the humanistic, self-important, liberals are against. |
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That about sums it up. God, Grandma, Guts, and Guns. Throw in some apple pie and you’ve just about got it covered.
I have often been asked why I am a committed advocate of the conservative ideology. The answer is that I believe it to be the last refuge for logic, common sense, decency, morality, respect for tradition, and understanding of the role history has to play in current events.
Part and parcel of both Christianity and conservatism is the simple concept that actions have consequences. The concept of the prohibition of sin was not to somehow squash your “fun” but to warn one about the repercussions of certain actions. It was to protect us, not to be “mean” to us. The same idea is contained within the conservative ideology. Conservatives dare to mention the fact that “sex-without-consequences,” the destruction and dilution of the family unit, an every growing and all-powerful government, uncontrolled immigration, socialism, the destruction of gender roles and the welfare state may all “feel good” in the short run but have devastating consequences in the long run that should not and cannot be ignored.
Liberals hate those who dare to mention that the “eat, drink, and be merry” philosophy is childlike in its intellect and spiritually, emotionally, ideologically and culturally destructive. Conservatives rain on their parade and spoil their fun by merely pointing out the truth.
Russell Kirk said that Christianity and Western Civilization are “unimaginable apart from one another” and that “all culture arises out of religion.” “When religious faith decays, culture must decline, though often seeming to flourish for a space after the religion which has nourished it has sunk into disbelief.”
Not every Christian is a conservative, and every conservative is not a Christian. But there is no denying that the principle bedrock beliefs of conservatism are derived from, and pay homage to, the Judeo-Christian tradition and value system. Even secular conservatives admit the role religion has played in the strength and freedom of Western Civilization and pay tribute to the fact that Christian principles are at the heart of their own political ideology. There is no separating the two.
The Judeo-Christian tradition at the root of Western civilization is doubly important because it provides the fullest, most coherent understanding available concerning human nature and the proper goals of man and society. The West inherits from the Israelites, to whom God gave the Ten Commandments through Moses, the understanding that religious norms are superior to those of politics – that we should kneel before God, not Caesar, and that religious, higher law norm must be enunciated and put forward vigorously by religious leaders who are institutionally separated from political leaders. Our civilization owes to Christianity the understanding that the character of each individual is crucial, that each of us is created in the image of God and is capable of salvation as an individual, seeking communion with the creator. Thus conservatives, in keeping with their tradition, value each life as sacred, free, and responsible, with duties, rights, and a central goal of leading a life as much in accordance with the will of God as is humanly possible.
– Bruce Frohnen
Liberalism on the other hand has only waged a full-scale culture war on anything and everything even remotely connected to Christianity, the Bible, and the Judeo-Christian tradition. The Right has always been accused of “legislating morality” even as the Left cheerfully “legislates immorality” while criminalizing traditional values. Rather ironic don’t you think? When “they” are so wrong, then “we” must be right. And if what conservatives advocate for and believe in is the truth, then what the liberals advocate for and believe in are simply lies.
Liberal and conservative worldviews often collide for this reason: Disciplined conservatives put God first, family and country second and themselves third, while liberals tend to put themselves first, their country last, and serve gods made in their image. This is the most defining philosophical distinction between these two groups.
– Mark Alexander, PatriotPost.com.
We need to be principled in our conservatism. We need to be unabashed, unafraid. We won’t always be popular with editorial writers and a lot of the members of the national media, and that’s okay. At the end of the day, it’s more important that we stick to our principles. – Bobby Jindal
A world view is a preponderance and mixture of concepts, ideas, understandings, ideology, and theology. And the conservative viewpoint is as much a lifestyle and world view as it is a mere political philosophy.
Dutch-born diplomat and President Bill Clinton’s former national security adviser Ivo Daalder uttered this sneering comment about “nationalists.”
The nationalists’ direction is clear: America is a great power that exists to do great things. America will use international institutions and abide by international law when they advance its great mission; but it will abandon institutions and ignore international laws if they constrain its freedom to act. America will deal with like-minded countries, but it will never rely on anyone else for its security. And America will never place its trust in tyrants or anyone else who opposes freedom.
One could not have outlined a better argument for the “nationalist” (read patriotic or “proud-to-be-an-American”) position. Try to find one thing wrong with that statement. We should not allow feeble, limp-wristed, corrupt international institutions to control America’s destiny or allow the concept that America is not a great nation poison our national consciousness.
For more than two hundred and forty years the Republic has weathered wars, epidemics, hostile neighbors, worldwide conflicts, economic disasters, internal struggles, and competing ideologies. It has withstood the attacks and hatred of Marxism, communism, fascism, National Socialism, and international anarchism.
Its birthing pains were a long struggle for independence against the strongest and most advanced military in the world. In the War of 1812 its capitol was burned to the ground. It suffered the growing pains of expansionism against often hostile natives as well as unfriendly claims and competition by Spain, France, Great Britain, and Mexico. It suffered a tragic and horribly bloody civil war that helped to define the idea of federalism at the expense of states rights and ended once and for all the national shame of slavery. It endured the rigors of industrialization and eventually emerged as one of the most technologically and intellectually advanced nations the world had ever seen.
The Republic weathered the stock market collapse and a national drought that sent tens of millions into poverty and many thousands into starvation. And it emerged from its humble origins to proclaim Manifest Destiny and to smash the various empires and ideologies of the Spanish Empire, German imperialism, Japanese militarism, Italian fascism, the horrors of Nazism, and eventually the corrupt ideology of Soviet communism. Its armies have faced the Chinese, the Mexicans, the Spanish, the Germans, the Italians, the Japanese, the North Koreans, the Vietnamese, and the petty tyrants of dozens of smaller countries. Today it faces the international enemy of Islamic fascism, jihadism, and fundamentalism and the internal enemies of pacifism, internationalism, globalism, and the hodgepodge of radical isms lumped together as liberalism or progressivism.
America has suffered imperfections and made mistakes and miscalculations. For nations, like people, all suffer shortfalls. But through it all the United States has shown the world the way. It has freed more people from tyranny, been more generous monetarily, eliminated more evil, created more democracy and hope, championed more human rights, and been more of a shining example of what can be right and true than any other nation or people in the history of the world. It granted women more rights than they had ever had. It ended the evil of slavery and championed the revolutionary ideals that all men are equal before God. This country has provided more opportunity, more hope, more peace, more wealth, and more freedom than any had ever dreamed.
America continues to struggle forward into a new century. It faces many challenges and hurdles. Multiculturalism and political correctness, massive legal and illegal immigration, globalism, and abandonment of traditional morality and family structures must be challenged. As, currently, the worlds only superpower it must face the evils that arise around the globe, weather the never-ending naysayers who attack its dominance in Western Civilization, and find a way to deal with a resurgent Russia as well as a Red China that is flexing its political, military, and economic muscle in unprecedented ways.
The Republic faces many problems but we have faith in its people, its history, its ideals, and its culture. It has overcome much in its first two centuries of existence and it will have much to overcome in the next two centuries. It still remains that “shining city upon a hill” and I thank God everyday that I live in this country and am eternally proud to call myself an American.
Every day one should take the time to appreciate the most powerful and promising country that has ever existed and be thankful for the freedoms that we still have the right to exercise on a daily basis. We still have the right to assemble, the right to worship, the right to debate and criticize, the right to raise our children as we see fit, the right to bear arms to protect our family and community, and the right to own property and a home. These simple things we often take for granted but the great mass of humanity in the world still do not have the right to exercise these valued things that we are guaranteed in America.
When liberals bitterly complain about conservatives wrapping themselves up in the American flag and patriotism I can only say that is a “badge-of-shame” that I wear with honor. Whoever said patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel never met a liberal. This may come as a shock to our liberal friends but America is not something to be ashamed of, but something to be proud of.
If America is the last, best hope for the world then the conservative ideology is the last, best hope for America. Conservatives are the conscience of the nation. We may be unpopular and our message hard to hear for those who don’t want to hear it, but it is a message that has the inescapable ring of truth about it.
The conservative ideology is a civilized ideology. It champions substance over symbolism and common sense over feel-good policies and bumper-sticker slogans. Politics and governance should not just be based on emotional tirades, but on the tried and true and a functional understanding of history. Fads and political policies determined by pollsters do not make a sound society. The United States was founded as a Republic based on the rule of Law, not the tyranny of the majority or the whims of the moment. The tyranny of the mob and the cult of the demagogue must be avoided at all costs.
It is actually very liberating being a conservative. Being a conservative means you don’t have to walk around bent over under the terrible burden of guilt for being male, or white, or a Christian, or an American, or a member of Western Civilization. It means that you don’t lie awake at night wailing and gnashing your teeth over the fact that you own two cars and have electricity in your home, or that you use more than one square of toilet paper when you go to the restroom. It means you don’t have to “mellow when it’s yellow” and only “flush it down when it’s brown.”
The thing I like best about being a conservative is that I don’t have to lie. I don’t have to pretend that men and women are the same. I don’t have to declare that failed or oppressive cultures are as good as mine. I don’t have to say that everyone’s special or that the rich cause poverty or that all religions are a path to God…. I don’t have to pretend that Islam means peace. – Andrew Klavan
It is time for a new breed of uncompromising, unapologetic, conservative candidates. The days of the RINO (Republican in name only) and the surrender and capitulation to the Democratic and liberal agendas absolutely must come to an end. If it does not it will indeed be all over and we will find ourselves living in a de facto, one-party state with just a token opposition ran by the country club elite. Conservatism must not allow itself to suffer a slow, self-inflicted death by capitulation to the powers-that-be.
The Roman Republic fell, not because of the ambition of Caesar or Augustus, but because it had already long ceased to be in any real sense a republic at all. When the sturdy Roman plebeian, who lived by his own labor, who voted without reward according to his own convictions, and who with his fellows formed in war the terrible Roman legion, had been changed into an idle creature who craved nothing in life save the gratification of a thirst for vapid excitement, who was fed by the state, and who directly or indirectly sold his vote to the highest bidder, then the end of the republic was at hand, and nothing could save it. The laws were the same as they had been, but the people behind the laws had changed, and so the laws counted for nothing. – Teddy Roosevelt
We exist in a vast sea of ignorance and lack of understanding in regards to history, politics, and ideology. (Not to mention the implications of each upon our nation and civilization.) Perhaps we should not be surprised that large segments of society can’t put the Civil War in the correct century or begin to find major countries on a map. There are entire political ideologies that rely on that mind-numbing, and sometimes frightening, misunderstanding and basic ignorance that a significant portion of society manifests as a source for their power and strength.
Liberalism/progressivism to be little more than a mental poison, an ideological and philosophical cancer on society that is malicious and destructive to everything that it touches from the sanctity of human life, to the traditional family structure (the basic foundation of all civilization), to national security, to free enterprise and beyond. It is the bane of Western Civilization, the concept of personal liberty, and a threat to all true Patriots hold dear. And it too often shares the mentality (and dare one say even goals?) of some of the nastiest political philosophies that have ever marred the face of the planet. It must be opposed however and whenever it can.
Liberalism is a dangerous, vicious, corrupting and deceptive ideology that hates everything that is true, right, and correct. It is as much a religion or mental defect as a political philosophy and it should be fought however, whenever, and wherever it can. We are proud to be on the front line in the culture and ideological wars for the heart and soul of this nation. No apologies are offered.
We are now engaged in a great struggle for the heart, soul, and future of a nation, a great people, and perhaps even Western Civilization itself. Progressivism destroys everything that is good and just and wages unrelenting war on everything we believe to be sacred, right, and true.
They have no pity and are not constrained by the mores of tradition, values, honesty, or rule of law. They dismantle free enterprise, flood our nation with foreign immigrants both legal and illegal, dismantle and redefine the family, mock our traditions, slaughter the unborn, ignore our history, mock Christianity, and shred morals and values at every turn. There are not two equally valid ideologies to choose from. All paths do not lead to truth.
The road to serfdom is a path we would rather not take, and warning people what can eventually happen when you give up liberty, control, and decision-making to a monolithic, increasingly powerful, and rapidly growing government that seeks to dictate, regulate, or control nearly every aspect of your personal, business, and daily life is not paranoia, but reality. The face of modern fascism is far more deceitful in the modern age. Progressivism is fascism with a compassionate face.
Perhaps we need to take a larger view of “the struggle.” People who are out to destroy everything we believe in and undermine the traditions, culture, language and institutions of Western Civilization certainly are an “enemy,” at least the ideology they believe in is. Have you been paying attention? Are you aware of the agendas being enacted and the ones that are planned? Statism is alive and well, and liberty and freedom are on life support.
The corrupt cabal who rule us now would have kissed the feet of King George III and embraced his tyranny for the sake of “the common good.” To the brave founders of this nation liberty was not just some obscure concept to give lip service to, but something worth fighting and dying for. It was real. We have lost that as a society and we must be willing to do what is necessary to regain it. Liberty is worth sacrificing everything for. It is at the core of what makes us free men.
The threat we face is not a fantasy, but a reality that is growing everyday. Defending the Founder’s vision and the Republic they created with vigor and even their own words and passion is a great thing, not something to be avoided. We are defending their vision and their dream. We are the heirs to their gift and it deserves to be defended every way possible. They earned it and they deserve it. The era of ‘decorum’ and polite political discourse is no longer with us and has been moldering in the grave for some time. That bridge has not only been crossed (by both sides) but has been burned down behind us.
Righteous anger and indignation is a fire that should be stoked, not extinguished. Even Christ drove the money changers out of the temple. There is no shame in that but we all must do what we can to defeat the ideological barbarians in our midst.
If the Founders saw the state of the country they would be aghast at what we have allowed to happen to their bold experiment. Conservatives see themselves as the spiritual descendants of the Founding Fathers and the keeper of the flame of freedom handed down to us from them. What we see now is a protest characterized not by a roar for revolution, but by a call for restoration — repair of our Constitution’s authority and return to its standard for Rule of Law.
“Honor, justice, and humanity, forbid us tamely to surrender that freedom which we received from our gallant ancestors, and which our innocent posterity have a right to receive from us. We cannot endure the infamy and guilt of resigning succeeding generations to that wretchedness which inevitably awaits them if we basely entail hereditary bondage on them.” –Thomas Jefferson
We advocate ideological warfare and an energized, confrontational conservative movement. The Left is completely dominating in every arena and it is not by “playing nice.” There are some who wring their hands about civility and propriety while the shining city on the hill is being looted and pillaged by the barbarian followers of an evil ideology. Let us know how “playing nice” works out. We will be in the trenches fighting the good fight.
If America is the last, best hope for the world then the conservative ideology is the last, best hope for America. Conservatives are the conscience of the nation and while the conservative message may be difficult to hear on occasion, it has the inescapable ring of truth about it.
Conservatism is a civilized ideology. It champions substance over symbolism, and common sense over feel-good policies and bumper-sticker slogans. Politics and governance should not just be based on emotional tirades, but on the tried and true as well as a functional understanding of history. Fads and political policies determined by pollsters do not make for a sound society. The United States was founded as a Republic based on the rule of Law, not the whims of the moment. The tyranny of mob rule and the cult of the demagogue must be avoided at all costs.
Conservatism is a thinking mans ideology. It requires understanding and wisdom, research and knowledge, and the ability and willingness to judge right from wrong. It requires a moral compass, a fortitude for righteousness, and above all a love of liberty. To be a true conservative the value of the individual must be nourished and a fierce independence cultivated that can withstand the petty criticisms, persecutions, and mockeries of those who have yet to see the light.
In the end, the balance has to be found between individual freedom and the obligation of the community, the concept of personal liberty and the restraints of morals and values, common sense and the passion of righteous indignation, the need for a Republic and the dangers of democracy, and the embracing of needed chance while respecting the hallowed reverence of tradition.
Conservatism strives for these delicate balances. Its underlying principle have blessed this nation and countless millions across the globe and throughout history with its wisdom, concept of liberty, and value of the individual. It teaches the immortal principles that consequences have actions, freedom comes with responsibility, the individual has intrinsic value, and that there must be stringent restraints on power. Understanding these principles is the key to understanding the conservative ideology and how one should view the world.
The conservative ideology is based on the concept of Natural Law and the rights and sovereignty of the individual. It is the idea that men have inherent, God-given, natural rights and that from the moment of his birth a man is a free and sovereign citizen. The fundamental rights of man are not granted by other men or by laws, but are organic in nature and are self-evident. When government or an ideology attempts to take away these basic rights then they must be opposed or abolished. That is the inherent heart of the conservative ideology and the fertile ground from which springs the concept of liberty.
It is time for a new breed of uncompromising, unapologetic conservatives to rise up in this nation and proclaim the truth.
If you believe the left is tolerant, open-minded and democratic, you’re in for a rude awakening. –columnist David Limbaugh
We should not hate liberals, but we should hate the ideology of liberalism. We should hate how it twists the truth, manipulates the masses, and exploits the fundamental human emotions of compassion and good will to further its own ends. We should hate its unceasing attacks on all that is good, moral, and right. And we should detest its own deep-seated hatred of the very values that made Western Civilization great. Above all else, we should hate it for the millions of lives it has damaged and ruined, for the lies it has propagated, and for the threat it poses to our community, our nation, and our culture.
One of my favorite scripture quotations is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It is one that increasingly describes those who seek to govern in the name of liberalism and control society and popular culture.
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits. – Isaiah 5:20-21
Liberalism is as much a religion as it is a shallow attempt at a political philosophy. At its heart, the Leftist philosophy is violent, uncompromising, and culturally cancerous to a society. Despite its sometimes lofty pedigree and noble pretenses it is a degenerate and destructive ideology that does nothing to improve a civilization but serves instead only to undermine its traditions, decency, and stability. It insidiously attacks the roots of the family while promoting the power of the all-knowing nanny-state. It is a twisted form of fascism, but it is even more seductive and frightening than that historical train wreck of an ideology.
In the eyes of liberalism Western Civilization and it culture, traditions, and heritage is a vast sea of evil, theological, patriarchal and misogynist conspiracies all designed to keep them subjugated and deprived from power. Liberalism is the ultimate expression of the persecution complex. To the intelligent and the informed, the dark paranoid murmurings and the railing at shadows for past wrongs is downright pathetic.
Fundamentally, the liberal’s goal is to liberate individuals from inherited institutions, beliefs, and practices. Policies like no-fault divorce and politically correct speech codes and courses of study put into action the liberal desire to remold people into autonomous individuals “liberated” from prejudice and other historical inheritances so that they may build their lives on the basis of radically free, unencumbered choices constrained only by the certainty that all people, choices, and lifestyles are morally equal. – Bruce Frohnen
Liberalism is fundamentally the rejection of all that has come before it. It turns a blind eye to history and rejects the idea that we can build on the wisdom (and mistakes) of those who have preceded us. To insist on this “blank slate” concept is one of the reasons conservatives embrace, and liberals reject, the concept that “those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
The horror stories of liberalism become tedious and the shock value less and less in its intensity as we become inoculated by the continual bombardment of liberal stupidity and crude propaganda.
We have just begun to see the end results of what two decades of tolerance, diversity, and multiculturalism (as defined by the Left) has brought upon this fine land. Hypersensitivity leads to loss of freedom and it is the average American who will pay the price. Political correctness and all the other ideological isms associated with it are extremely dangerous, especially when they hide behind the skirt of “tolerance” and “awareness.” When a country insists on turning its back on its own origins and forgets where it comes from only decline will follow.
One thing you’ll notice from the Left is the mantra of “academic freedom” repeated over and over. There is no lip service to truth, or responsible citizenship, or honest academics, or logic, or educational integrity. Instead there is just a blind obedience to the concept that anyone can say anything no matter how irresponsible or untrue in the closed cage of a classroom without being challenged. That is unless its about being a Christian, or pro-life, or that Israel has the right to exist, or that the Unites Nations is a joke, or that Islam tends to be a violent religion, or that gun-free zones only encourage psychotic killers instead of deterring them.
We have long departed from the road of logic, excellence, and common sense.
So what does liberal indoctrination look like?
…the students had been building an elaborate “Legotown,” but it was accidentally demolished. The teachers decided its destruction was an opportunity to explore “the inequities of private ownership.” According to the teachers, “Our intention was to promote a contrasting set of values: collectivity, collaboration, resource-sharing, and full democratic participation.”
The children were allegedly incorporating into Legotown ”their assumptions about ownership and the social power it conveys.” These assumptions “mirrored those of a class-based, capitalist society — a society that we teachers believe to be unjust and oppressive.”
They claimed as their role shaping the children’s “social and political understandings of ownership and economic equity … from a perspective of social justice.” – L’eggo my Lego (teaching socialism with Legos) posted on www.tcsdaily.com.
While we often laugh and poke fun at the idiocy that often emanates from the various crevasses and pits of the nation it really can’t be ignored. It challenges basic concepts like marriage and is preparing the ground for concepts like carbon and consumption taxes and the rigorous regulation of every aspect of your daily life. This is just another step in that direction and that day is coming.
Americans grow increasingly tired of the hypersensitivity and political correctness in this country. We have become a nation of cowards who wince at the slightest wisp of controversy and buckle at the slightest complaint.
Don’t think that a few years of liberals in charge is that dangerous? Just take a moment to consider what liberals dream of doing once they gain absolute power. There is no aspect of our lives—none—that today’s liberals concede is off limits to the meddling use of government power. In their vision there is no dividing line between the public sphere and the private sphere. Limited government is a concept that makes no sense to them. Energy policies are just the tip of the iceberg—although control over energy gives government control over pretty much the entire economy already. In a world run by liberals literally no aspect of our lives will be outside the legitimate regulation of government. That is because anything—even what temperature you like to keep your house—can be turned into a matter of legitimate public concern. Everything we do, including breathing, eating and of course procreating, can be argued to have an impact on those around us or the great mother earth. And if it affects others, it can and should be regulated by those who know best, at least according to the liberals. Liberals want to regulate just about everything: where we live, what fuels we use, what car we drive, whether we can drive or be forced to use government mass transit, where we send our kids to school, what doctor we see, and even to what extent we express our approval or disapproval of others’ lifestyles. It’s hard to find something liberals don’t want to regulate. Is that a world you want to live in?
—David Strom
The simple fact is that one of the strongest bases for liberalism and the Democratic Party continues to be single women. They more commonly “need” things like government day care, public transportation, public assistance, universal health care, court ordered child support, and the dozens of other things that only a welfare-state government can provide. And that explains why the liberal message of pseudo-socialism is so palpable and attractive to them. If there is no such thing as a nuclear family unit to provide stability, security, and monetary support then you have to turn to the nanny state to provide it for you. This concept perhaps also explains the Left’s strenuous efforts to undermine, dilute, redefine, and fundamentally alter the age old, traditional concepts of monogamy, marriage, and family. Out with the old and in with the new. A new base of power for those that do. It is a bold faced lie to state that the traditional family is not the foundation of Western Civilization. And those who have spent the last few decades frantically seeking to dismantle it have done our nation a great disservice.
I close with a view on progressivism and liberalism by Michael P. Federici:
The philosophical fathers of progressivism include Francis Bacon, Hegel, Marx, Comte, Rousseau, Condoret, Bentham, Mill and Edward Bellamy… One of the main characteristics of these thinkers’ progressivism was its pseudo spirituality, or relation of humanity. In this substitute religion, faith in a transcendent moral order is replaced by faith in nature, science, technology, and reason, This faith also involves a sort of humanitarian sentimentalism that attempts to satisfy an inner desire to serve mankind and the world by engaging in reforms meant to uplift the less fortunate. Yet these reforms are not intended to affect inner spiritual reform but rather to change institutions and thus improve society through outer reform. Conservatives argue that progressive humanitarianism is both a diversion and escape from individual moral responsibility.
Progressivism also includes the idea that human perfectibility is possible in history. This doctrine holds that it is unnecessary to wait for the afterlife for human perfection; the fulfillment of human nature can take place in earthly life. Scientific progressives, like Bacon, believe that progress is a predicate of scientific knowledge and technological developments. Social progressives, like Croly, believe that human nature can be transformed through political reform
Progressivism is intimately tied to modern liberalism and the politics of the welfare state, which holds that the transformation of society can only be achieved by a centralized government that has sufficient power to remake society…
…Finally, progressivism has in it a Gnostic element. That is, progressives believe that they possess the knowledge needed to transform society and human nature. They are greatly dissatisfied with the world as it is and are impatient with life and the very structure of reality because these fall short of perfection or the progressive ideal. These Gnostic attributes are part of an existential disposition that fails to accept the permanence of evil in earthly life – in theological terms, original sin. By contrast, most conservatives believe that the structure of reality, including human nature, is permanent. Attempts to transform the human condition end up in disaster, as Huxley and Orwell suggest in their dystopias Brave New World (1932) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949). …Here again lies the underlying assumption of progressivism: evil is the result of a poorly organized world. Reorganization of the world in accordance with progressive ideas will usher in a new age of freedom, equality, and peace.
There are six canons of conservative thought:
1) Belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as conscience. Political problems, at bottom, are religious and moral problems. A narrow rationality, what Coleridge called the Understanding, cannot of itself satisfy human needs. “Every Tory is a realist,” says Keith Feiling: “he knows that there are great forces in heaven and earth that man’s philosophy cannot plumb or fathom.” True politics is the art of apprehending and applying the Justice which ought to prevail in a community of souls.
2) Affection for the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence, as opposed to the narrowing uniformity, egalitarianism, and utilitarian aims of most radical systems; conservatives resist what Robert Graves calls “Logicalism” in society. This prejudice has been called “the conservatism of enjoyment”–a sense that life is worth living, according to Walter Bagehot “the proper source of an animated Conservatism.”
3) Conviction that civilized society requires orders and classes, as against the notion of a “classless society.” With reason, conservatives have been called “the party of order.” If natural distinctions are effaced among men, oligarchs fill the vacuum. Ultimate equality in the judgment of God, and equality before courts of law, are recognized by conservatives; but equality of condition, they think, means equality in servitude and boredom.
4) Persuasion that freedom and property are closely linked: separate property from private possession, and Leviathan becomes master of all. Economic levelling, they maintain, is not economic progress.
5) Faith in prescription and distrust of “sophisters, calculators, and economists” who would reconstruct society upon abstract designs. Custom, convention, and old prescription are checks both upon man’s anarchic impulse and upon the innovator’s lust for power.
6) Recognition that change may not be salutary reform: hasty innovation may be a devouring conflagration, rather than a torch of progress. Society must alter, for prudent change is the means of social preservation; but a statesman must take Providence into his calculations, and a statesman’s chief virtue, according to Plato and Burke, is prudence.
― Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot