I have a great respect for the pen of Josh Chernila, though one is hard-pressed to say that we disagree on everything, the only thing remaining between us being respect. Such a distinction seems to be a qualifier for just about every leftist explaining to their political comrades why they even have friends to their right: “I disagree with them on everything, but apart from that he’s a nice enough guy…”
One learns to tolerate this sentiment among the left. After all, liberals — it must the said — have no conception of society outside of government. Indeed, if there is a great delimiter to the question of whether one is a conservative or a liberal in America, it is entirely wrapped in the question as to whether or not society and government are separate or inexorably intertwined.
Of course, we’re not talking about liberal and conservative in the same sense as say, a Soviet apparatchik might. Or in the sense of a “conservative” or “liberal” National Socialist (punchability left for common debate). Or even a conservative or liberal during the French Revolution — the American conception of such an idea is far different even from British political norms.
Indeed, were Chernila describing the British in his definition of conservatism over at Blue Virginia, we might even be on the same side fighting against it:
Conservatism itself is the domination of society by an aristocracy. Call them the 1% or identify them as those with a net worth of over $10 million, but those aristocrats and those who support their absolute power in society are the conservatives. This is as old as the Pharaohs or the feudal thugs of Rome or pre-enlightenment European monarchies. In each society in which conservatism takes hold language, reason, democracy, and conscience are destroyed in a way unique to its own culture.
Far be it from me to presume that I am part of the 1%… or even paid by the 1%… or have a net worth of $10 million… or a net worth of even $1 million… or $100,000 when you start counting in my mortgage, seven kids, and a couple of stray credit cards.
One struggles to go over the “four destructions” Chernila lists — conscience, reason, language, and democracy — if for no other reason that it sounds too close to the “borders, language, and culture” argument proffered by the alt-right and their nouvelle droite boosters back on continental Europe.
At best, the last 50 years haven’t exactly been a renaissance for the straw man conservatism that Chernila represents as an enemy… and yet conscience is under attack as never before, reason and decorum have taken back seats to outrage and at times outright arson and assault (see: UC Berkley), language lessons from those who believe homosexuality genetic but gender as fluid seem passe, and democracy — despite the momentary tripartite conservative victory of Reagan, Thatcher, and St. John Paul the Great over the forces of the United Soviet Socialist Republic — seems to be yielding to the twin vices of socialism on the left and corporatism on the right… ideologies that present themselves as antidotes against the other, but in truth are little more than the Bastiat endgame: two camps trying to steal from the other half of society and using government as the billy club to justify the theft.
The problem with socialism at the end of the day, as Thatcher famously remarked, is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.
The problem with corporatism, of course, could be twisted the very same way… eventually, everyone else runs out of money.
The great problem we are grappling with today is threefold. First, we are living in a postmodern culture that places truth as something subjective. Second, the economy is changing rapidly — the move to automation will replace 47% of American jobs over the next 5-10 years. Third? The American middle class has seen real wages stagnate or even drop as productivity has exponentially increased — leaving the middle class with fewer tools to cope with the coming economic upheaval.
The real genius of the modern American political system — and it was the critique leveled by every libertarian since the 1970s — was that liberals and conservatives were two sides of the same political coin. They were right. American patriots were defenders of a classical liberal tradition that had its liberal and conservative elements: conservatives seeking to preserve the American constitutional tradition and framework, and liberals seeking to expand that framework to include a maximum possible promise.
The danger, of course, is the latent socialism within the progressive movement and the latent nationalism within the populist movement. Both wings prey upon liberalism and conservatism like a leech… and in their political manifestations are enemies of republican forms of government.
…and when these manifest themselves? They tend view the opposition as enemies.
When Chernila feels the need to state that we disagree on everything, but we respect one another this somehow admits something bordering on disdain. Not a begrudging respect between enemies (sic), but a dire need to label the opposition as “other” in order to generate the emotions required to hate that other…
That should bother folks, and not just a little bit. We are seeing its effects already in Berkeley. Students of history know where this leads. Spain in the 1930s saw the sharpening of ideologies as the socialists looked to break against the conservative and monarchist status quo. Unable to counter the rise of socialism, the establishment turned to a new ideological power to ally (yet subordinate) to their own cause — the Spanish falange. As the Spanish republicans continued to gain ground and the conservatives failed to rally, the falange grew more and more powerful, until one day the conservatives couldn’t define themselves as conservatives anymore…
…and if there’s one thing that I share with Chernila’s critique, it is that American conservatism will bleed itself white, both literally and metaphorically, while the socialist endgame devolves into what we saw in Spain.
If democracy is to survive, it must take on a conservative character. After all, it is liberty that we are trying to conserve. Collectivism, whether gathered in the hands of government or in corporations, is the enemy precisely because it is power placed in the hands of a few and not the many.
Liberals used to believe that as well. If there is room for the “honorable middle” in American politics still, the sooner that liberals and conservatives resist against the extremes of nationalism and socialism and their siren songs of utopia, the better off we are.
The sooner we give power back to the powerless,
The sooner we give opportunity back to Americans,
The sooner we give every child the basic right to exist,
The sooner the right of a child to their biological mother and father are protected,
The sooner we give parents the right to give their child a quality education,
The sooner we give individuals the right to a quality health care of their choosing,
The sooner we protect access to quality health care,
The sooner we destroy the artificial divide of race,
The sooner we realize the authentic potential both sexes,
The sooner we maximize the freedom to start a small business,
The sooner we actualize the potential of our graduates,
The sooner we stop penalizing motherhood,
The sooner we start rewarding strong families,
The sooner we stop thinking as government as arbiter,
The sooner we begin to see others as hopeful rather than harmful,
The sooner we stop treating envy as a virtue,
The sooner we stop treating humility and hard work as a vice,
The sooner we restore reason and decorum,
The sooner we praise dialogue and shun confrontation,
The sooner we abhor violence in the pursuit of the political,
The sooner we treat senior citizens with the dignity they deserve,
The sooner we remember that tradition is the democracy of the dead,
The sooner we return to constitutional principles…
…the sooner Americans will get our Republic back. But it won’t be done by selling out to ideologies of the left or the right.
Conservatism in the American tradition is the great anti-ideology. Rather, hope lies within the golden mean and the tried and true process of meeting tomorrow’s challenges with tomorrow’s solutions — what made America great once before, and what continue to make America the last best hope for freedom — for all of us.