OH, TO BE A CONSERVATIVE!

By Edwin Cooney

Once upon a time, a time too long ago, I was a very proud and even arrogant
conservative.  My creed came straight from the lips of Barry Morris Goldwater,
the Mr. Conservative of the late 1950s and early to mid-1960s as he accepted the
1964 GOP presidential nomination in San Francisco.  That creed was: “…Extremism
in the defense of liberty is no vice.  Moderation in the pursuit of justice is
no virtue.”  More about that later!

Although I have since rejected conservatism as my creed, occasionally I still miss the assurance of
conservatism.

Perhaps conservatism’s most compelling attribute is it’s
admonition to its disciples to preserve the great traditions of our society,
specifically home, family, private enterprise and freedom.  Like wide roads,
pure water and good beer it’s hard to be against conservative doctrine.  The
devil is in the details.  However, before getting to those details I must
mention some of the gifts that 21st Century conservatism offers.

First, conservatism stresses the importance of love for liberty, faith in God,
patriotism, and strong family ties, vital aspects of a sense of well-being. 
Next, conservatism celebrates risk, an essential aspect of accomplishment. 
Conservatives are right to insist that our society is more productively
dependent on the freedom to risk than it is on the security of safety.  All of
these elements of conservatism foster a mindset that enhances emotional,
socio/political and spiritual energy and stability which are essential for our
social, emotional and spiritual health.

What I miss most from my days of proud conservatism is that sense of certainty that gave license to my
indignation toward the advocates of social, political, financial, or spiritual
values that differed from my own values and conclusions.  Conservatives, and
only conservatives, many of them insist, truly believe in human liberty.

Even as they champion freedom, conservatives too often demonize those who dare to be,
or who are by race, ethnic background, and especially sexual orientation,
different from the norm.  Therein lies the great Conservative intellectual and
moral contradiction!

Twenty-first century conservatism’s sense of ownership, and self-righteous sense of 

social, and even religious superiority, especially
over the ideological opposition can only adequately be described as downright
“Liberal.”  Some conservatives even insist that liberalism is a mental illness. 
(Talk show host Michael Savage and author Anne Coulter have both openly
expressed this view.)  Modern conservatism’s sense of certainty and prerogative
seems to free one’s conscience to prosper whatever the cost to the environment,
to the health and safety of the worker, the well-being of the single family, and
especially to the sensitivities of those who struggle with mental, physical and
social drawbacks most people don’t face.  Today’s conservatives believe deeply
in Jesus Christ but they resist with all the fiber of their political, financial
and emotional might Christ’s insistence that society ought to reflect his
principle that we are our brother’s keeper.

Conservatives, like their liberal cousins, create their own inconsistencies.   

Conservatives pray that God will bless America even at the very moment they salute 

the Confederate flag that symbolizes racial bigotry and defied Abraham Lincoln’s leadership.  Deification
of the United States constitution through “strict constructionism”  which
justifies  “states’ rights” has too often been used by conservatives to justify
control over rather than freedom for other human beings.

When conservatives speak of freedom they invariably address America’s freedom from international
tyranny, the entrepreneur’s freedom to prosper in “the free market” (which never
has been, isn’t, and never will be free) and of course states’ rights which
historically has been more self-serving than socially enhancing.  Conservatives
believe in freedom, but they and they alone insist on the right to regulate
individual freedoms.  Therein lies the reason conservatism has lost its appeal
to me.

Back in 1964, most Americans were puzzled by what Senator Goldwater
meant when he asserted that “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice.” 
In his personal autobiography Senator Goldwater told us that he’d explained the
phrase to General Dwight D. Eisenhower by pointing out to him that his military
crusade against Hitler was an extreme defense of liberty.  Fair enough, but what
about the rest of the creed, “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no
virtue.”  Whose justice are we talking about?  I don’t recall conservatives
championing Dr. Martin Luther King’s pursuit of justice.  As I recall, Dr.
King’s pursuit of justice drove many old line Dixie Democrats into today’s
Republican Party.  Most conservatives I’ve ever known preferred to advocate on
behalf of criminal justice as opposed to civil justice.  Even worse, many
conservatives regarded Dr. King’s struggle as being pretty close to criminal
activity.  As to who needs protection against tyranny most?  Conservatives
advocate most intently for the freedom of the powerful. While there is some
justification for that, it seems to me historically the rights of the well
healed have always prevailed.  Here’s a fascinating historical irony.  Although
the legitimate rights of the poor have been advocated in Holy Scripture for over
2000 years, they have been most ardently advocated in the halls of American
government by secularists than by the religious among us.

Here’s still another irony.  Government, the bane of all conservatives, has never been
administrated by the poor!   The administrators of Soviet government or fascist
government are always rich.  The struggle over Magna Carta between King John and
his nobles was a struggle among the noble rich for the ultimate foothold to run
the government.  The French, Russian, Chinese and even the American revolutions
were struggles to control rather than disassociate from government.

Both conservatives and liberals insist they have a monopoly on morality and that
adoption of their creeds will best enable you to be the master or mistress of
your and the nation’s fate.  What conservative and liberal ideologists too often
forget is that their creeds are mere strategies.  Their creeds are subject to
the nobility’s failings and limitations of all humanity.  Thus conservatism and
liberalism are legitimate tools rather than solutions to the challenges we face.
Like the Allen wrench and the socket wrench, the sledge hammer and the jeweler’s
hammer, ideological doctrines are mere tools to be administered interchangeably
for the benefit of free men and women.

As for me, I prefer liberalism. However, I am ever mindful that conservative principles are often 

applicable to our well-being.  Above all, freedom does not exist when only one way of thinking

and acting prevails.

Here’s the 21st Century political dilemma.  Argue with a liberal and the liberal 

wonders if you have a heart.  Argue with a conservative and that conservative 

wonders if you have a soul.

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,

EDWIN COONEY