From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
American conservatism is a broad system of political beliefs in the
United States that is characterized by respect for
American traditions,
republicanism, support for
Judeo-Christian values,
moral absolutism,
free markets and
free trade,
anti-communism,
individualism, advocacy of
American exceptionalism, and a defense of
Western culture from the perceived threats posed by
socialism,
authoritarianism, and
moral relativism. American conservatives consider
individual liberty--within
the bounds of conformity to American values--as the fundamental trait
of democracy; this perspective contrasts with that
modern American liberals, who generally place a greater value on
equality and
social justice than on individual liberty.
American conservatism (like all major American political ideologies) originates from
republicanism, which rejected aristocratic and monarchical government and upheld the principles of the
United States Declaration of Independence
("All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and
the Pursuit of Happiness") and the
United States Constitution (which established a
federal republic under the
rule of law). Conservative philosophy is also derived in part from the
classical liberal tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries, which advocated for
laissez-faire economics (also called
economic freedom and
deregulation).
Historians such as Patrick Allitt and political theorists such as
Russell Kirk argue that the conservative tradition has played a major
role in
American politics
and culture since 1776. However, they stress that an organized
conservative movement with beliefs that differ from those of other
American political parties has played a key role in politics only since
the 1950s. Since the 1960s, the conservative movement has been based in the
Republican Party; however, some
Democrats were also important figures early in the movement's history, especially in the American South.
Overview
The history of American conservatism has been marked by tensions and competing ideologies.
Fiscal conservatives and
libertarians favor
small government,
laissez-faire economy, low income and corporate taxes, limited regulation, and
free enterprise.
Social conservatives see traditional social values as threatened by
secularism; they tend to support mandatory
school prayer and
oppose abortion and
same sex marriage. The 21st century has seen an increase in conservative support for the unrestricted ownership of guns, citing the
Second Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Neoconservatives want to expand American ideals throughout the world.
Paleoconservatives advocate restrictions on immigration,
non-interventionist foreign policy, and stand in
opposition to multiculturalism. Nationwide most factions, except some libertarians, support a
unilateral
foreign policy, and a strong military. The conservative movement of the
1950s attempted to bring together these divergent strands, stressing
the need for unity to prevent the spread of "godless communism."
William F. Buckley Jr., in the first issue of his magazine
National Review in 1955, explained the standards of his magazine and helped make explicit the beliefs of American conservatives:
Among our convictions: It is the
job of centralized government (in peacetime) to protect its citizens'
lives, liberty and property. All other activities of government tend to
diminish freedom and hamper progress. The growth of government (the
dominant social feature of this century) must be fought relentlessly. In
this great social conflict of the era, we are, without reservations, on
the libertarian side. The profound crisis of our era is, in essence,
the conflict between the Social Engineers, who seek to adjust mankind to
scientific utopias, and the disciples of Truth, who defend the organic
moral order. We believe that truth is neither arrived at nor illuminated
by monitoring election results, binding though these are for other
purposes, but by other means, including a study of human experience. On
this point we are, without reservations, on the conservative side.
According to
Peter Viereck,
American conservatism is distinctive because it was not tied to a
monarchy, landed aristocracy, established church, or military elite. Instead American conservatives were firmly rooted in
American republicanism, which European conservatives opposed. They are committed, says
Seymour Martin Lipset,
to the belief in America's "superiority against the cold reactionary
monarchical and more rigidly status-bound system of European society."
Ideology and political philosophy
Traditional (
Burkean) conservatives tend to be anti-ideological, and some would even say anti-philosophical, promoting rather, as
Russell Kirk
explained, a steady flow of "prescription and prejudice". Kirk's use of
the word "prejudice" here is not intended to carry its contemporary
pejorative connotation: a conservative himself, he believed that the
inherited wisdom of the ages may be a better guide than apparently
rational individual judgment.
There are two overlapping subgroups of social conservatives—the
traditional and the religious. Traditional conservatives strongly
support traditional codes of conduct, especially those they feel are
threatened by social change and modernization. For example, traditional
conservatives may oppose the use of female soldiers in combat. Religious
conservatives focus on conducting society as prescribed by a religious
authority or code. In the United States this translates into taking
hard-line stances on moral issues, such as
opposition to abortion and
homosexuality. Religious conservatives often assert that "America is a Christian nation" and call for laws that enforce
Christian morality.
Fiscal conservatives support limited government, low tax, low
spending, and a balanced budget. They argue that low taxes produce more
jobs and wealth for everyone, and also that, as President Grover
Cleveland said, "unnecessary taxation is unjust taxation". A recent movement against the inheritance tax labels such a tax as a
death tax.
Fiscal conservatives often argue that competition in the free market is
more effective than the regulation of industry. Some make exceptions in
the case of trusts or monopolies. Others, such as some libertarians and
followers of
Ludwig von Mises,
believe all government intervention in the economy is wasteful,
corrupt, and immoral. More moderate fiscal conservatives argue that "
free market economics" is the most efficient way to promote
economic growth: they support it not based on some moral principle, but pragmatically, because they hold that it just "works."
Many modern American fiscal conservatives accept some social
spending programs not specifically delineated in the Constitution.
However, some American fiscal conservatives view wider social liberalism
as an impetus for increased spending on these programs. As such, fiscal
conservatism today exists somewhere between classical liberalism and
contemporary consequentialist political philosophies, and is often
influenced by coinciding levels of social conservatism.
Through much of the 20th century, a primary force uniting the
varied strands of conservatism, and uniting conservatives with liberals
and socialists, was opposition to communism, which was seen not only as
an enemy of the traditional order, but also the enemy of Western freedom
and democracy. Thus it was the British Labour government—which embraced
socialism—that pushed the Truman administration in 1945–47 to take a
strong stand against Soviet Communism.
Social conservatism and tradition
Social conservatism in the United States is the defense of traditional social norms and
Judeo-Christian values.
Social conservatives tend to strongly identify with American
nationalism and patriotism. They often denounce anti-war protesters and
support the police and the military. They hold that military
institutions embody core values such as honor, duty, courage, loyalty,
and a willingness on the part of the individual to make sacrifices for
the good of the country.
Social conservatives are strongest in the South and in recent years played a major role in the political coalitions of
Ronald Reagan and
George W. Bush.
Fiscal conservatism and economic liberalism
Fiscal conservatism is the economic and political policy that
advocates restraint of progressive taxation and expenditure. Fiscal
conservatives since the 19th century have argued that debt is a device
to corrupt politics; they argue that big spending ruins the morals of
the people, and that a national debt creates a dangerous class of
speculators. A political strategy employed by conservatives to achieve a
smaller government is known as
starve the beast. Activist
Grover Norquist
is a well-known proponent of the strategy and has famously said, "My
goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down
to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub." The argument in favor of
balanced budgets
is often coupled with a belief that government welfare programs should
be narrowly tailored and that tax rates should be low, which implies
relatively small government institutions.
This belief in small government combines with fiscal conservatism
to produce a broader economic liberalism, which wishes to minimize
government intervention in the economy or implement
laissez-faire
policies. This economic liberalism borrows from two schools of thought:
the classical liberals' pragmatism and the libertarian's notion of
"rights." The classical liberal maintains that free markets work best,
while the libertarian contends that free markets are the only ethical
markets.
Historian Kathleen G. Donohue argues that
classical liberalism in the 19th century U.S. had distinctive characteristics as opposed to Britain:
- at the center of classical liberal theory [in Europe] was the idea of laissez-faire. To the vast majority of American classical liberals, however, laissez-faire
did not mean no government intervention at all. On the contrary, they
were more than willing to see government provide tariffs, railroad
subsidies, and internal improvements, all of which benefited producers.
What they condemned was intervention in behalf of consumers.
The economic philosophy of conservatives in the United States tends to be more liberal allowing for more
economic freedom.
Economic liberalism can go well beyond fiscal conservatism
's
concern for fiscal prudence, to a belief or principle that it is not
prudent for governments to intervene in markets. It is also, sometimes,
extended to a broader "
small government" philosophy. Economic liberalism is associated with
free market, or
laissez-faire economics.
Economic liberalism, insofar as it is ideological, owes its creation to the "
classical liberal" tradition, in the vein of
Adam Smith,
Friedrich A. Hayek,
Milton Friedman, and
Ludwig von Mises.
Classical liberals and libertarians support free markets on
moral, ideological grounds: principles of individual liberty morally
dictate support for free markets. Supporters of the moral grounds for
free markets include
Ayn Rand and
Ludwig von Mises.
The liberal tradition is suspicious of government authority, and
prefers individual choice, and hence tends to see free market capitalism
as the preferable means of achieving economic ends.
Modern conservatives, on the other hand, derive support for free
markets from practical grounds. Free markets, they argue, are the most
productive markets. Thus the modern conservative supports free markets
not out of necessity, but out of expedience. The support is not moral or
ideological, but driven on the
Burkean notion of prescription: what works best is what is right.
Another reason why conservatives support a smaller role for the
government in the economy is the belief in the importance of the
civil society. As noted by
Alexis de Tocqueville,
there is a belief that a bigger role of the government in the economy
will make people feel less responsible for the society. These
responsibilities would then need to be taken over by the government,
requiring higher taxes. In his book
Democracy in America, Tocqueville described this as "soft oppression."
Ronald Reagan gives a televised address from the
Oval Office, outlining his plan for tax reductions in July 1981 (excerpt)
While classical liberals and modern conservatives reached free
markets through different means historically, in recent years the lines
have blurred. Rarely will a conservative politician claim that free
markets are "simply more productive" or "simply the right thing to do"
but a combination of both. This blurring is very much a product of the
merging of the classical liberal and modern conservative positions under
the "umbrella" of the conservative movement.
The archetypal free-market conservative administrations of the late 20th century—the
Margaret Thatcher government in Britain and the
Ronald Reagan
administration in the U.S.—both held the unfettered operation of the
market to be the cornerstone of contemporary modern conservatism.
To that end, Thatcher privatized industries and public housing and
Reagan cut the maximum capital gains tax from 28% to 20%, though in his
second term he agreed to raise it back up to 28%. Reagan also cut
individual income tax rates, lowering the maximum rate from 70% to 28%.
He wanted to increase defense spending and achieved that; liberal
Democrats blocked his efforts to cut domestic spending.
Reagan did not control the rapid increase in federal government
spending, or reduce the deficit, but his record looks better when
expressed as a percent of the gross domestic product. Federal revenues
as a percent of the GDP fell from 19.6% in 1981 when Reagan took office
to 18.3% in 1989 when he left. Federal spending fell slightly from 22.2%
of the GDP to 21.2%. This contrasts with statistics from 2004, when
government spending was rising more rapidly than it had in decades.
Types
In the United States today, the word "conservative" is often used
very differently from the way it is used in Europe and Asia. Following
the American Revolution, Americans rejected the core ideals of European
conservatism; those ideals were based on the
landed aristocracy, established churches, and powerful armies.
Conservatism in the United States is not a single school of thought.
Barry Goldwater in the 1960s spoke for a "
free enterprise" conservatism.
Jerry Falwell
in the 1980s preached traditional moral and religious social values. It
was Ronald Reagan's challenge to form these groups into an electable
coalition.
In the 21st century United States, types of conservatism include:
- Christian conservatism: Christian conservatives are primarily interested in family values. Typical positions include the view that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, that abortion is wrong, that there should be prayer in state schools, that intelligent design or creationism should be taught in schools alongside evolution,
and that marriage should be defined as between one man and one woman
and not between two members of the same sex. Many attack the profanity
and sexuality in the media and movies.
- Constitutional conservatism: A form of conservatism bound within the limits provided within the United States constitution, defending the structures of constitutionalism, and preserving the principles of the United States constitution. Chief among those principles is the defense of liberty.
This form of conservatism coalesced in the Republican Party in the
early 20th century, in opposition to Progressivism within the party; it
can also be seen being influential to the 21st century Tea Party movement. Constitutional conservatism has also been associated with judicial originalism.
- Fiscal conservatism: A form of conservatism that focuses on low taxes and restrained government spending.
- Libertarian conservatism: A fusion with libertarianism, this type emphasizes a strict interpretation of the Constitution, particularly with regard to federal power.
Libertarian conservatism is constituted by a broad, sometimes
conflicted, coalition including pro-business social moderates, those
favoring more rigid enforcement of states' rights,
individual liberty activists, and many of those who place their
socially liberal ideology ahead of their fiscal beliefs. This mode of
thinking tends to espouse laissez-faire
economics and a critical view of the federal government. Libertarian
conservatives' emphasis on personal freedom often leads them to have
social positions contrary to those of social conservatives, especially
on such issues as marijuana, abortion and homosexuality. Ron Paul and his son Rand Paul have been influential proponents in the Republican presidential contests.
- Movement conservatism
- Neoconservatism: A modern form of conservatism that supports a more assertive, interventionist
foreign policy, aimed at promoting democracy abroad. It is tolerant of
an activist government at home, but is focused mostly on international
affairs. Neoconservatism was first described by a group of disaffected
liberals, and thus Irving Kristol, usually credited as its intellectual progenitor, defined a neoconservative
as "a liberal who was mugged by reality." Although originally regarded
as an approach to domestic policy (the founding instrument of the
movement, Kristol's The Public Interest periodical, did not even cover foreign affairs), through the influence of figures like Dick Cheney, Robert Kagan, Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman and (Irving's son) Bill Kristol, it has become most famous for its association with the foreign policy of the George W. Bush administration in the Middle East that used the military to promote democracy.
- Paleoconservatism: In part a rebirth of the Old Right,
arising in the 1980s in reaction to neoconservatism, stresses
tradition, especially Christian tradition and the importance to society
of the traditional family. Some, Samuel P. Huntington for example, argue that multiracial, multi-ethnic, and egalitarian states are inherently unstable. Paleoconservatives are generally isolationist, and suspicious of foreign influence. The magazines Chronicles and The American Conservative are generally considered to be paleoconservative in nature.
- Social conservatism: A form of conservatism that focuses on the preservation of traditional moral values.
- Traditionalist conservatism:
Opposition to rapid change in political and social institutions. This
kind of conservatism is anti-ideological insofar as it emphasizes means
(slow change) over ends (any particular form of government). To the
traditionalist, whether one arrives at a right- or left-wing government
is less important than whether change is effected through rule of law
rather than through revolution and utopian schemes.
History
In the United States there has never been a national political party called the Conservative Party. All major American political parties support
republicanism and the basic
classical liberal ideals on which the country was founded in 1776, emphasizing liberty, the rule of law, the
consent of the governed, and that all men were created equal.
Political divisions inside the United States often seemed minor or
trivial to Europeans, where the divide between the Left and the Right
led to violent polarization, starting with the
French Revolution.
Historian
Patrick Allitt expresses the difference between liberal and conservative in terms not of policy but of attitude:
- Certain continuities can be traced through American history. The
conservative 'attitude' ... was one of trusting to the past, to
long-established patterns of thought and conduct, and of assuming that
novelties were more likely to be dangerous than advantageous.
No American party has advocated European ideals of "conservatism"
such as a monarchy, an established church, or a hereditary aristocracy.
American conservatism is best characterized as a reaction against
utopian ideas of progress.
Russell Kirk saw the American Revolution itself as "a conservative reaction, in the English political tradition, against royal innovation".
John Adams
Since the 1790s, conservatives have emphasized an identification with the
Founding Fathers and the Constitution. Historians of conservative political thought "generally label
John Adams as the intellectual father of
American conservatism." Russell Kirk points to
John Adams
as the key Founding Father for conservatives, noting that "some
writers regard him as America's most important conservative public man." Historian
Clinton Rossiter writes:
Here was no lover of government by
plutocracy, no dreamer of an America filled with factions and
hard-packed cities. Here was a man who loved America as it was and had
been, one whose life was a doughty testament to the trials and glories
of ordered liberty. Here ... was the model of the American conservative.
Historian A. Owen Aldridge places Adams, "At the head of the
conservative ranks in the early years of the Republic and Jefferson as
the leader of the contrary liberal current."
It was a fundamental doctrine for Adams that all men are subject to
equal laws of morality. He held that in society all men have a right to
equal laws and equal treatment from the government. However, he added,
"no two men are perfectly equal in person, property, understanding,
activity, and virtue."
Peter Viereck concluded:
- Hamilton, Adams, and their Federalist party sought to establish
in the new world what they called a "natural aristocracy." [It was to
be] based on property, education, family status, and sense of ethical
responsibility....Their motive was liberty itself.
Recent policies
President
Ronald Reagan
set the conservative standard in the 1980s; in the 2010s, the
Republican leaders typically claim fealty to it. For example, most of
the Republican candidates in 2012 "claimed to be standard bearers of
Reagan's ideological legacy." Reagan solidified conservative Republican strength with tax cuts, a greatly increased
military budget, continued
deregulation, a policy of
rollback of Communism (rather than
just containing it), and appeals to
family values and conservative morality. The 1980s and beyond became known as the "
Reagan Era."
Typically, conservative politicians and spokesmen in the 21st century
proclaim their devotion to Reagan's ideals and policies on most social,
economic and foreign policy issues.
Other modern conservative beliefs include skepticism of the theory of man-made
global warming
and opposition to government action to combat it, which conservatives
contend would do severe economic damage, and ultimately more harm than
good even if one accepts the premise that human activity is contributing
to climate change. They support a strong policy of
law and order to control crime, including long jail terms for repeat offenders. Most conservatives support the
death penalty for particularly egregious crimes. The "law and order" issue was a major factor weakening liberalism in the 1960s. From 2001-2008, Republican President
George W. Bush stressed cutting taxes and minimizing regulation of industry and banking, while increasing regulation of education. Conservatives generally advocate the use of American military power to
fight terrorists and promote democracy in the Middle East.
According to a 2014 poll, 38% of American voters identify as
"conservative" or "very conservative," 34% as "moderate," 24% as
"liberal" or "very liberal". These percentages were fairly constant from 1990-2009, when conservatism spiked in popularity briefly
before reverting to the original trend while liberal views on social
issues reached a new high. Although the study does show some distinction
between the concentration of moderates and conservatives or liberals
between the Republican and Democratic parties. Among Democrats, 44% are
self-identified liberals, 19% as conservatives, and 36% as moderates.
For Republicans 70% self-identified as conservative, 24% as moderate,
and 5% as liberal.
Conservatism appears to be growing stronger at the state level.
The trend is most pronounced among the "least well-off, least educated,
most blue collar, most economically hard-hit states."
Conservatives generally believe that government action is not the
solution to problems such as poverty and inequality. Many believe that
government programs that seek to provide services and opportunities for
the poor actually encourage dependence and reduce self-reliance. Most
conservatives oppose
affirmative action
policies, that is, policies in employment, education, and other areas
that give special advantages to people who belong to groups that have
been historically discriminated against. Conservatives believe that the
government should not give special benefits to people on the basis of
group identity and oppose it as "
reverse discrimination".
Conservatives typically hold that the government should play a
smaller role in regulating business and managing the economy. They
typically oppose high tax rates and programs to redistribute income to
assist the poor. Such efforts, they argue, do not properly reward people
who have earned their money through hard work. However, conservatives
usually place a strong emphasis on the role of private voluntary
charitable organizations (especially faith-based charities) in helping
the poor.
As conservatives value order and security, they favor a small but
strong government role in law enforcement and national defense.
Social issues
On
social issues, many religious conservatives oppose changes in
traditional moral standards regarding sexuality and gender roles. They
oppose abortion, same-sex marriage and anti-discrimination laws against
homosexuals.
The libertarian faction tends to ignore these issues, instead focusing
on fiscal and monetary policy. Business-oriented conservatives oppose
the social conservatives if state laws limiting gay rights threaten to
hurt business. The
National Review reported in 2016 that, "as
evangelical forces have become less unified...the influence of
Right-leaning business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce has only
grown." In the
culture war of recent decades,
multiculturalism has been a flashpoint, especially regarding the humanities curriculum. Historian
Peter N. Stearns
finds a polarization since the 1960s between conservatives, who believe
that the humanities express eternal truths that should be taught, and
those who think that the humanities curriculum should be tailored to
demonstrate diversity. Generally conservatism opposes the "
identity politics" associated with multiculturalism, and supports
individualism. In campus battles, progressives demand "
Cultural diversity" while conservatives denounce efforts to impose "
political correctness" and stifle free speech.
Conservatives typically favor a "melting pot" model of
assimilation into common English-speaking American culture, as opposed
to a "salad bowl" approach that lends legitimacy to many different
cultures. In the 21st century, conservatives have warned on the dangers of tolerating
radical Islamic elements, of the sort that they say are engaging in large-scale terrorism in Europe.
Electoral politics
In the United States, the
Republican Party
has been the party of conservatism since the 1890s, although there was a
strong Eastern liberal wing. Since 1964, the conservatives largely took
control. Meanwhile, the conservative wing of the
Democratic Party, based in the South and strongly opposed to
Civil Rights,
grew weaker. The most dramatic realignment took place within the White
South, which moved from 3–1 Democratic to 3–1 Republican between 1960
and 2000.
In addition, some American libertarians, in the
Libertarian Party
and even some in the Republican Party, see themselves as conservative,
even though they advocate significant economic and social changes—for
instance, further dismantling the
welfare system
or liberalizing drug policy. They see these as conservative policies
because they conform to the spirit of individual liberty that they
consider to be a traditional American value. However, many libertarian
think-tanks such as the
Cato Institute, and libertarian intellectuals such as
David Boaz describe libertarianism as being "socially liberal and fiscally conservative."
On the other hand, some conservatives tend to oppose free-market trade policies and support
protectionism
instead. They want government intervention to support the economy and
protect American jobs. They oppose free trade on the ground that it
benefits other countries (especially China) at the expense of American
workers. However, in spite of their support for protectionism, they tend
to support other free-market principles like low taxes, small
government and balanced budgets.
Geography
Percent of self-identified conservatives by state in 2010.
49% and above
45–48%
41–44%
37–40%
33–36%
32% and under
The
South, the
Great Plains, the
Rocky Mountain states, and
Alaska are generally conservative strongholds. The
Northeast,
Great Lakes Region,
West Coast and
Hawaii are the main liberal strongholds. Conservatives are strongest in rural America and, to a lesser extent, in the
exurbs
or suburbs. Voters in the urban cores of large metropolitan areas tend
to be more liberal and Democratic. Thus, within each state, there is a
division between urban, suburban, exurban, and rural areas.
In recent decades, the electoral geography has helped give Republicans
control of the House of Representatives, and Democrats a decided edge in
the Electoral College which elects the president.
Other topics
Russell Kirk's principles of conservatism
Russell Kirk developed six "canons" of conservatism, which Gerald J. Russello described as follows:
- A belief in a transcendent order, which Kirk described variously as based in tradition, divine revelation, or natural law;
- An affection for the "variety and mystery" of human existence;
- A conviction that society requires orders and classes that emphasize "natural" distinctions;
- A belief that property and freedom are closely linked;
- A faith in custom, convention, and prescription, and
- A recognition that innovation must be tied to existing traditions
and customs, which entails a respect for the political value of
prudence.
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."
In later works, Kirk expanded this list into his "Ten Principles of Conservatism" which are as follows:
- First, the conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order.
- Second, the conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity.
- Third, conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription.
- Fourth, conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence.
- Fifth, conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety.
- Sixth, conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability.
- Seventh, conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked.
- Eighth, conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism.
- Ninth, the conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.
- Tenth, the thinking conservative understands that permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society.
Courts
One stream of conservatism exemplified by
William Howard Taft extols independent judges as experts in fairness and the final arbiters of the Constitution. In 1910,
Theodore Roosevelt
broke with most of his lawyer friends and called for popular votes that
could overturn unwelcome decisions by state courts. Taft denounced his
old friend and rallied conservatives to defeat him for the 1912 GOP
nomination. Taft and the conservative Republicans controlled the Supreme
Court until the late 1930s.
President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, a liberal Democrat, did not attack the
Supreme Court
directly in 1937, but ignited a firestorm of protest by a proposal to
add seven new justices. Conservative Democrats immediately broke with
FDR, defeated his proposal, and built up the Conservative Coalition.
While the liberals did take over the Court through replacements, they
lost control of Congress. That is, the Court no longer overthrew liberal
laws passed by Congress, but there were very few such laws that passed
in 1937–60.
A recent variant of conservatism condemns "judicial activism";
that is, judges using their decisions to control policy, along the lines
of the
Warren Court
in the 1960s. It came under conservative attack for decisions regarding
redistricting, desegregation, and the rights of those accused of
crimes. This position goes back to Jefferson's vehement attacks on
federal judges and to
Abraham Lincoln's attacks on the
Dred Scott decision of 1857.
Originalism
A more recent variant that emerged in the 1980s is "
originalism", the assertion that the
United States Constitution
should be interpreted to the maximum extent possible in the light of
what it meant when it was adopted. Originalism should not be confused
with a similar conservative ideology,
strict constructionism,
which deals with the interpretation of the Constitution as written, but
not necessarily within the context of the time when it was adopted. In
modern times, the term originalism has been used by Supreme Court
justice
Antonin Scalia, former federal judge
Robert Bork and some other conservative jurists to explain their beliefs.
Opposition to environmentalism
In the past, conservatives have supported
conservation efforts, from the protection of the
Yosemite Valley, to the creation of the
Environmental Protection Agency. However, more recently, neoconservatives
have opposed environmentalism; with environmentalists often ridiculed as "tree huggers". Republican Party leaders such as
Newt Gingrich and
Michele Bachmann advocate the abolition of the
EPA, calling it "the job-killing organization of America."
Conservative think tanks since the 1990s have opposed the concept of man-made
global warming;
they challenged scientific evidence, publicised what they perceived as
beneficial aspects of global warming, and stated their strong beliefs
that proposed remedies would do more harm than good. The concept of
anthropogenic global warming continues to be an ongoing debate among Conservatives in the United States, but the majority reject the
scientific consensus
that climate change is caused by humans; 73% of Republicans believed
humans were uninvolved in causing global warming, according to a 2015
poll by
Pew Research.
In recent times, American conservatives have generally supported
deregulation of pollution and reduced restrictions on carbon emissions. Similarly, they have advocated increased oil drilling with less regulatory interference, such as in the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In the 2008 election, the phrase, "Drill baby drill" was used to express the Republican position on the subject.
Semantics, language and media
Socialism
The term "socialist" has been used as a "rhetorical weapon" against the
Left by conservatives. David Hinshaw writes that
William Allen White, editor of a small-town newspaper in Kansas from 1895, used "socialistic" as "his big gun to blast radical opposition."
White set "Americanism" as the alternative, warning, "The election
will sustain Americanism or it will plant Socialism." White became
famous when
Mark Hanna, campaign manager for Republican candidate
William McKinley distributed upwards of a million or more copies of one White editorial to rally opposition to
William Jennings Bryan, the nominee of both the Democratic and Populist parties.
By the 1950s, the conservative press had discovered that the word
'socialism' "proved to be a successful derogatory epithet rather than a
descriptive label for a meaningful political alternative."
At the 1952 Republican national convention, former President Herbert
Hoover repeated his warnings about two decades of New Deal policies,
denouncing, says Gary Best, "The usurpation of power by the federal
government, the loss of freedom in America, the poisoning of the
American economy with fascism, socialism, and Keynesianism, the enormous
growth of the federal bureaucracy." Barry Goldwater in 1960 called for Republican unity against
John F. Kennedy and the "blueprint for socialism presented by the Democrats."
Goldwater in 1964 attacked central planners like fellow Republican
Nelson Rockefeller, implying he was a socialist in a millionaire's garb:
"The Democratic party believes in what I call socialism: and if that
upsets anybody's stomach, let me remind you that central planning of our
economy is socialism."
Ronald Reagan often quoted
Norman Thomas,
the perennial Socialist nominee for president in the New Deal era, as
saying, "The American people would never knowingly vote for Socialism,
but that under the name of liberalism, they would adopt every fragment
of the socialist program." In 2010,
Newt Gingrich
defined "socialism in the broad sense" as "a government-dominated,
bureaucratically-controlled, politician-dictated way of life." Gingrich believes Barack Obama is committed to this form of socialism.
Modern media
Conservatives gained a major new communications medium with the resurgence of
talk radio
in the late 1980s. This enabled them to spread their message much more
effectively to the general public, which had previously been confined to
the major
Big Three television networks.
Rush Limbaugh
proved there was a huge nationwide audience for specific and heated
discussions of current events from a conservative viewpoint. Other major
hosts who describe themselves as conservative include:
Michael Peroutka,
Jim Quinn,
Dennis Miller,
Ben Ferguson,
William Bennett,
Andrew Wilkow,
Lars Larson,
Sean Hannity,
G. Gordon Liddy,
Laura Ingraham,
Mike Church,
Glenn Beck,
Mark Levin,
Michael Savage,
Kim Peterson,
Ben Shapiro,
Michael Reagan,
Jason Lewis,
Ken Hamblin, and
Herman Cain. The
Salem Radio Network syndicates a group of religiously oriented Republican activists, including
Roman Catholic Hugh Hewitt, and Jewish conservatives
Dennis Prager and
Michael Medved. One popular Jewish conservative,
Laura Schlessinger,
offers parental and personal advice, but is outspoken on social and
political issues. In 2011, the largest weekly audiences for talk radio
were 15 million for Limbaugh and 14 million for Hannity, with about nine
million each for Glenn Beck, Michael Savage and Mark Levin. The
audiences overlap, depending on how many each listener dials into every
week.
Fox News features conservative hosts. One such host is Sean Hannity, who also has a talk radio program. One former host is
Matt Drudge; prior, and after his time on Fox News, Drudge has operated
Drudge Report a news aggregation website and is a self-professed conservative. It is more conservative than other news sources in the United States, such as
National Public Radio and
CNN.
Canadian-American political commentator
David Frum
has been a critic of this development, and has argued that the
influence of conservative talk radio and Fox News has harmed American
conservatism, turning it from "a political philosophy into a market
segment" for extremism and conflict making "for bad politics but great
TV."
Academia
Admission to academe
Liberal and leftist viewpoints have dominated higher education faculties since the 1970s, according to many studies, whereas conservatives are better represented in policy-oriented
think tanks. Data from a survey conducted in 2004 indicated that 72% of full-time faculty identify as liberal,
while 9–18% self-identify as conservative. Conservative
self-identification is higher in two-year colleges than other categories
of higher education but has been declining overall.
Those in natural sciences, engineering, and business were less liberal
than those in the social sciences and humanities. A 2005 study found
that liberal views had increased compared to the older studies. 15% in
the survey described themselves as
center-right. While the
humanities and the
social sciences are still the most left leaning, 67% of those in other fields combined described themselves as
center-left on the
spectrum.
In business and engineering, liberals outnumber conservatives by a 2:1
ratio. The study also found that women, practicing Christians, and
Republicans taught at lower ranked schools than would be expected from
objectively measured professional accomplishments. A study by psychologists Yoel Inbar and Joris Lammars, of the
Netherlands'
Tilburg University, published in September 2012 in the journal
Perspectives on Psychological Science, found that, in social and personality psychology,
about a third of those surveyed say that they would to a small extent
favor a liberal point of view over a conservative point of view. A 2007 poll found that 58% of Americans thought that
college professors' political bias
was a "serious problem". This varied depending on the political views
of those asked. 91% of "very conservative" adults agreed compared with
only 3% of liberals. That same year a documentary,
Indoctrinate U, was released which focuses on the perceived bias within academia.
On the other hand, liberal critic
Paul Krugman wrote in
The New York Times
that this phenomenon is more due to personal choice than some kind of
discrimination or conspiracy, noting that, for example, vocations such
as military officers are much more likely to be filled by conservatives,
rather than liberals. Additionally, two studies published in the journal of the
American Political Science Association have suggested that the
political orientations of college students' professors have little influence or "indoctrination" in terms of students' political belief.
Relativism versus universal truths
Postmodernism is an approach common in the humanities on campus that greatly troubles conservative intellectuals. The issue is
relativism versus
absolute truths.
Ellen Grigsby says, "Postmodern perspectives contend that any ideology
putting forward absolute statements as timeless truths should be viewed
with profound skepticism."
Kellner says, "Postmodern discourse frequently argues that all
discourses and values are socially constructed and laden with interests
and biases. Against postmodern and liberal relativism, cultural
conservatives have argued for values of universal truth and absolute
standards of right and wrong."
Neoconservative historian
Gertrude Himmelfarb has energetically rejected postmodern academic approaches:
- [Postmodernism in history] is a denial of the objectivity of the
historian, of the factuality or reality of the past, and thus of the
possibility of arriving at any truths about the past. For all
disciplines it induces a radical skepticism, relativism, and
subjectivism that denies not this or that truth about any subject but
the very idea of truth—that denies even the ideal of truth, truth is
something to aspire to even if it can never be fully attained.
Here is a representative summary of postmodern literary studies of
the sort that antagonize conservatives, written by Jay Stevenson:
- [in] the postmodern period. Traditional literature has been found to have been written by "dead white males" to serve the ideological aims of a conservative and repressive Anglo hegemony....In
an array of reactions against the race, gender, and class biases found
to be woven into the tradition of Anglo lit, multicultural writers and
political literary theorists have sought to expose, resist, and redress
injustices and prejudices. These prejudices are often covert—disguised
in literature and other discourses as positive ideals and objective
truths—but they slant our sense of reality in favor of power and
privilege.
Conservative intellectuals have championed a "high conservative
modernism" that insists that universal truths exist, and have opposed approaches that deny the existence of universal truths. Many argued that
natural law was the repository of timeless truths.
Allan Bloom, in his highly influential
The Closing of the American Mind (1987) argues that
moral degradation results from ignorance of the great
classics that shaped
Western culture.
His book was widely cited by conservative intellectuals for its
argument that the classics contained universal truths and timeless
values which were being ignored by cultural relativists.
Historiography
Historians in recent years have agreed that they need to rethink the role of conservatism in recent American history.
An important new approach rejects the older consensus that liberalism
was the dominant ethos. Labor historians Jefferson Cowie and Nick
Salvatore argue the New Deal was a short-term response to depression and
did not mark a permanent commitment to a welfare state, claiming that
America has always been too individualistic and too hostile to labor
unions to ever embrace liberalism for any extended period of time. This
new interpretation argues that conservatism has largely dominated
American politics since the 1920s, with the brief exceptions of the New
Deal era (1933–38) and the Great Society (1964–66).
Historian Julian Zelizer, however, argues that "The coherence of
conservatism has been exaggerated. The movement was as fragile as the
New Deal coalition that it replaced....Policy change has thus proved to
be much more difficult than conservatives hoped for."
Zelizer does find four areas where conservatives did make major
changes: retrenchment of domestic programs, lowering taxes,
deregulation, and opposition to labor unions. He concludes, "The fact is
that liberalism survived the rise of conservatism."
American exceptionalism
American conservatives typically promote
American exceptionalism,
the idea that the United States is inherently different from other
nations and has a duty to take the lead in spreading democracy and free
markets to the world. Reagan especially articulated this role (and many
liberals also agree with it). They see American values emerging from the
American Revolution, thereby becoming what political scientist
Seymour Martin Lipset called "the first new nation" and developing a uniquely American ideology, "
Americanism", based on
liberty,
egalitarianism,
individualism,
republicanism,
democracy,
laissez-faire capitalism and
Judeo-Christian values.
Although the term does not necessarily imply superiority, many
neoconservative and other American conservative writers have promoted its use in that sense. To them, the U.S. is like the biblical "
City upon a Hill"—a
phrase evoked by Puritan settlers in Massachusetts as early as 1630—and
exempt from historical forces that have affected other countries.
Scholars have argued that British and European conservatism has
little or no relevance to American traditions. According to political
scientist
Louis Hartz,
because the United States skipped the feudal stage of history, the
American community was united by liberal principles, and the conflict
between the "Whig" and "Democratic" parties were conflicts within a
liberal framework.
In this view, what is called "conservatism" in America is not European
conservatism (with its royalty, landowning aristocracy, elite officer
corps, and established churches) but rather 19th century
classical liberalism with an emphasis on economic freedom and entrepreneurship.
This is in contrast to the view that Burkean conservatism has a set of
universal principles which can be applied to all societies. Russell Kirk in
The Conservative Mind
argued that the American Revolution was "a conservative reaction, in
the English political tradition, against royal innovation". Liberal historian
Richard Hofstader
criticized modern American conservatives as "pseudo-conservatives",
because their negative reaction to the policies of Harry Truman showed
"dissatisfaction with American life, traditions and institutions" and
because they had "little in common with the temperate and compromising
spirit of true conservatism".
Thinkers and leaders
Clinton Rossiter's Giants
Clinton Rossiter, a leading expert on American political history, published his history of
Conservatism in America (1956) and also a summary article on "The Giants Of American Conservatism" in
American Heritage.
His goal was to identify the "great men who did conservative deeds,
thought conservative thoughts, practiced conservative virtues, and stood
for conservative principles." To Rossiter, conservatism was defined by
the rule of the upper class. He wrote, "The Right of these freewheeling
decades was a genuine Right: it was led by the rich and well-placed; it
was skeptical of popular government; it was opposed to all parties,
unions, leagues, or other movements that sought to invade its positions
of power and profit; it was politically, socially, and culturally
anti-radical." His "giants of American conservatism" were:
John Adams,
Alexander Hamilton,
John Marshall,
Daniel Webster,
John C. Calhoun,
Elihu Root, and
Theodore Roosevelt.
He added that Washington and Lincoln transcend the usual categories,
but that conservatives "may argue with some conviction that Washington
and Lincoln can also be added to his list."
Rossiter went to note the importance of other conservative
leaders over the past two centuries. Among the fathers of the
Constitution, which he calls "a triumph of conservative statesmanship",
Rossiter said conservatives may "take special pride" in
James Madison,
James Wilson,
Roger Sherman,
John Dickinson,
Gouverneur Morris
and the Pinckneys of South Carolina. For the early 19th century,
Rossiter said the libertarians and constitutionalists who deserve the
conservative spotlight for their fight against
Jacksonian democracy include
Joseph Story and
Josiah Quincy in Massachusetts; Chancellor
James Kent in New York;
James Madison,
James Monroe, and
John Randolph of Roanoke in Virginia.
In the decades around 1900, Rossiter finds that
Grover Cleveland,
Elihu Root,
William Howard Taft, and
Theodore Roosevelt "were most successful in shaping the old truths of conservatism to the new facts of industrialism and democracy."
Writing in 1955 he suggests that
Robert A. Taft,
Charles Evans Hughes, and
Dwight D. Eisenhower may someday be added to the list.
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