Have Conservatives Abandoned Conservatism?

Tuesday, April 8, 2008 - 4:09pm

By Connect Mason Convergence Director and Columnist Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson

What more is there left to say about either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama? The remaining primaries will clear things up a little more, but, until then, there's not much worth writing, and I've actually grown rather weary of the Democratic Party's contest, especially Clinton's tactics. At the moment, the whole affair feels like a horrible lull in a once entertaining sitcom.

Luckily, into this bland void Jonathan Rauch has launched an argument in the Atlantic's May 2008 issue (not yet up on their website) entitled “Mr. Conservative.” The piece, as suggested by the title, focuses on the Republican Nominee John McCain and his skirmishes with the Conservative voter base, the long-standing lifeblood of the Republican Party. With the subheading, “John McCain hasn't betrayed conservatism; his party has”, Rauch, from his article's inception, carves out a fascinating and difficult path, mounting a compelling argument with which to justify his claims.

While many of you may never have heard of Edmund Burke, the part he played in the British House of Commons, namely supporting the calls for independence from the American Colonies, had resounding consequences throughout his British Isles and here in the United States. More importantly for Rauch's article and this column, Burke is considered the Father of Modern Conversatism, and, as Rauch writes, is “still its wisest oracle.” And, further, it was Burke that John McCain quoted twice at the Conservative Political Action Conference, along with references to Ronald Reagan (“No surprise there,” writes Rauch). McCain's speech, even laden with these Conservative Figureheads and their words, was met with boos and other cries of disdain from the conservative audience.

Rauch's article is not only well written, but well researched and deftly applied to McCain's career as a public servant, especially these last few months in the presidential race. Comparing Burke's belief that, as Rauch puts it, “change should take a measured pace and should try to follow well-worn social grooves rather than cutting across them” to McCain's choices to oppose gay marriage but also voting against the proposed constitutional amendment to prohibit same sex unions, among numerous other instances where contemporary conservative leaders have called McCain a “waffler” or questioned his true allegiance to the conservative movement, a pattern begins to emerge: “McCain, in short, is an anti-revolutionary, not a counterrevolutionary,” Rauch writes, continuing, “No wonder, then, he invoked Burke twice to an audience of skeptical conservatives - or, perhaps more accurately, skeptical ‘conservatives.’”

There's little hope to do justice to Rauch's remarkable story in only a few paragraphs. Much of its impact is lost in my meager paraphrasings and the scant quotations I inserted. I recommend the story to those positioned on either side of the aisle, regardless of its being published in the Atlantic, a magazine oft cited as part of the Liberal Media Machine. It may not sway you, but there's little harm in hearing out other's arguments. That's at least the mentality that was passed on by my family, a collection of Swedish and Irish immigrants, split now between cities and beautiful stretches of Virginian and West Virginian countryside, also divided along party lines and ideologies. There'd be little hope for peace at the Thanksgiving dinner table were we not able to respect each other's opinions, listen to each other's arguments, and to, as Gerald Ford put it, “disagree without being disagreeable.”

As a sign off, I'll feed any other politics junkies out there who have been jonzing for a fix:

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