In the 2008 primaries, conservative voters were so divided between numerous candidates that they were unable to coalesce around a single conservative. By Super Tuesday, before most conservatives had any say in their party nomination, the most liberal Republican candidate had emerged as the party nominee, even though more than 65 percent of Republicans voted against him. The 65 percent agreed only on opposing John McCain, but not on whom else to run in his place.
After years of reader mail and surfing dozens of high traffic conservative blogs reading thousands of “conservative” comments concerning who or what is or isn’t “conservative,” it is clear that Republicans no longer agree on what the word “conservative” means.
Unless conservatives can agree on what it is to be “conservative,” the conservative movement in America will remain fractured and powerless.
Liberals, be they Democrat or Republican, seldom fail to unite in their efforts to advance their agenda. They are all about group think, group movement and communal responsibility. Liberal socialists may be a minority in America, but united, they trump a divided conservative majority election after election.
Conservative by What Definition?
Academic intellectuals have been defining and re-defining words since the beginning of time and the words “conservative” and “liberal” are no exception. When involving politics, the effort degrades into a form of propaganda aimed at pigeon holing people of certain belief systems, recently, in the case of conservatives, in a negative light.
Today, the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines the word “liberal” as one “not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or traditional forms” – and synonyms like “broad-minded” – “generous” – “bountiful” and “open-handed” are utilized to create a favorable mental image. On this basis, who wouldn’t want to be a “liberal?” But is it true or accurate?
The same dictionary defines the word “conservative” this way, “tending or disposed to maintain existing views, conditions, or institutions” – in other words, a stick in the mud, a useless bump on a log. Words like “moderation” – “caution” and “advocating support of established institutions” are used to conjure up a mental image of someone fearful of progress or change. On this basis, who would want to call themselves “conservative?” But is it true or accurate?
Neither Definition is True or Accurate Today
Thomas Jefferson is often quoted as the nation's founding “liberal.” But circa 1776, “liberal” simply meant “preservative of individual liberty.” Are today’s liberals “preservative of individual liberty?”
They are supportive of a woman’s individual liberty to kill her young. But they oppose an American child’s individual liberty to even Life itself, a fundamental unalienable right of every innocent American, according to our nation’s founders, unequivocally established in our founding documents, but ignored by today’s liberals, including many liberal Republicans.
If you believe what modern liberal politicians say, then you know that they believe in a good greater than the individual, - the greater good of the commune. They believe not in the individual liberty to define and pursue (earn) happiness, but rather the collective right of the central government, on behalf of the greater good of the commune, to define and re-distribute happiness from on high in Washington DC. This is far from any American concept.
Today’s liberals are in no way Jefferson liberals. They are Karl Marx liberals, believing in the Marx concept of “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need.” In short, they believe in being generous with other people’s earnings in order to secure political power for themselves. Jefferson would be fully opposed, as all founding fathers would be.
Likewise, the generally accepted definition of “conservative” is equally untrue and inaccurate.
Throughout history, conservatives have been the most progressive, productive, prosperous and as a result, generous people in society. Those who lack the ability to help themselves also lack the ability to help anyone else. It is that ten percent of truly progressive (prosperous) Americans who currently pick up over seventy percent of the nation’s tax bill, which imagined, invented, worked and created the most abundant nation in earth’s history. How does this reality align with the intellectual definition of “conservative?” Not at all, right?
The Reality of American Conservatism
After years of study and careful consideration, I am convinced that there really is only one realistic definition for the term “conservative.”
One can be “conservative” about many different things. But at the foundation, no matter the issue or subject at hand, to be conservative is to seek to “conserve,” which according to Merriam-Webster, is “to keep in a safe or sound state - to avoid wasteful or destructive use of - to preserve - to maintain - to prevent injury, decay, waste, or loss of.” Simple enough, right?
This is indeed what it is to be “conservative,” - to “conserve.” But since one can be conservative about many things, what does it mean to be an American Conservative?
The American Conservative
It’s easy to establish that to be conservative is to seek “to keep in a safe or sound state - to avoid wasteful or destructive use of - to preserve - to maintain - to prevent injury, decay, waste, or loss of.” But as pertains to being an American conservative, this is to keep safe, preserve, maintain and prevent from injury, decay or waste, what exactly?
Though there are more definitions of “American” than there are definitions of “conservative” today, there is but one true fundamental definition of “American” and that is the definition provided by the men who designed and founded America and thereby defined what it is to be an American. All other definitions conjured up over the years for reasons of political agenda, are but attempts to subvert by degree the fundamental definition provided by the founders of Americanism.
The Fundamental American
Again I look to Merriam-Webster and find that it limits the definition of “American” to simply “a citizen of the United States.” But as America is much more than just a parcel of land surrounded by sea, much more than mere human units gathered in one place on earth, isn’t there much more to it than that?
Isn’t America an idea, a concept of social order, based on certain specific principles and values? Is it the geographical longitude and latitude or the many sizes, shapes, colors and ideologies of its 300 million people that define what America is? Or is it a specific set of foundational ideas, principles and values that defines what America is, has been and should always be?
America is founded on a very simple set of concepts recorded for all posterity with the opening words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” Beyond this opening line is a brief but very specific list of those basic “truths”…
• That our individual rights as Americans were endowed by a Creator, not granted by man.
• That these individual rights are unalienable by all men (or women), no matter the impact on the greater communal good.
• That the right of individual liberty can not be trampled on by the communal body, even for a greater common purpose.
• That all men are Created equal and free, regardless of race, creed or color.
• That every individual has the right to define and pursue (earn) his/her own happiness.
• That the very first American unalienable right is to Life itself, without which there can be no individual liberty, happiness, social decency or humane justice.
• That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men.
• That these men/women and their governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed.
• And that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends (these concepts), it is the Right (and obligation) of the People to alter or to abolish it.
• That the power in America rests in the individual, not in the special interest organization or self-serving politician.
A Conservative American
If one believes that these are in fact the founding fundamental ideas, principles and values that make America what it is, then this is also the definition of what it means to be an American, to hold these truths as self-evident and unalienable, worthy of conservation.
And if these are the ideas, principles and values that an individual seeks “to keep in a safe or sound state - to avoid wasteful or destructive use of - to preserve - to maintain - to prevent injury, decay, waste, or loss of,” then that individual, seeking to conserve these things, is indeed an “American conservative,” - nothing more and nothing less.
Degrees of Conservative
As with all belief systems known to man, there are varying individual degrees of conservative adherence to the fundamental foundations of that belief system and it is this reality which causes the confusion and division within the conservative movement, and in fact the country today.
I chose to outline the Founders’ definition of America and American –in ten simple bullet points above. If one seeks to conserve only one of the ten and opposes or ignores all others, are they an American conservative? Must an individual seek to conserve all ten to be an American conservative? Or would six of the ten be enough to qualify as conservative? How much is enough?
This is the discussion currently raging within the conservative movement and dividing the Republican Party at present and until we can reach an acceptable consensus on this question, the debate and the division it causes will remain.
I am but one man - with nothing more than one opinion to offer on the subject, albeit defined by our nation’s Founders.
I choose to believe that all ten of the founding beliefs recorded by the founding fathers exist for a reason. That they are interconnected and interdependent and that without all of them, America as we have known her for more than 230 years would not exist.
I therefore choose to look at all ten as equally valid and vital to the continuation (conservation) of America as a free prosperous self-governed nation. I seek to conserve, uphold, preserve, protect and defend all ten and on this basis, I call myself an American Conservative. Sadly however, this alone causes many fellow countrymen, even some Republicans, to call me a “right-wing extremist” today. Are they right?
Every individual has the right and the responsibility to make their individual choice in this regard. But does one have the right to call themselves an American Conservative if they fail or refuse to answer the Founders call to uphold, protect and defend this thing we call America, the concepts and ideas, principles and values that make her unique in the world?
Again, individual freedom and liberty dictate that I allow my neighbors to call themselves whatever they like. But I have a deep sense of obligation to call things what they actually are, and to avoid the natural pitfalls inherent with allowing things to be called something they are not.
Each individual is free to negotiate their individual degree of adherence to founding American ideals. But I choose to attempt no such negotiation. I choose to uphold, protect and defend all of the founding principles and values in order to preserve all of them for future generations, just as those who came before me gave life, limb and fortune to provide them for me.
In America, you are indeed free to choose your own way. But may I suggest that you do so with eyes wide open and with great care… looking not only towards your immediate self-interests, but towards the long-term interest of our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. If we do so, we too may be recorded as a great generation in history. If we fail to do so, we will instead be written into history as the generation who let it all slip away…
I close with this thought from Thomas Jefferson;
"
God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever." - Thomas Jefferson (the liberal?)
