Liberals who are accustomed to negligible opposition for most of the past century in their project of remaking American government and society now feel constant pressure from the counterforce that arose with Reagan back in the 1980s. Like Butch and Sundance worried at the dust cloud from a posse on their trail, the left mutters, “Who are those guys?”
The answers conflict. When conservative legislators recently formed the Republican Study Committee of Colorado, state Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, shrugged them off as “far out,” deserving only “mild mocking.” State Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver, though, warned they are “a dangerous crew (seeking) to Christianize everything.”
It’s the same in Washington. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., dismisses President Bush as “a loser.” But Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., rants that James Dobson is “the anti-Christ.”
So which is it, Democrats? Are the Republicans, conservatives in particular, mean or meaningless?
Actually, we’re neither. We’re the core. It’s true that not all Republicans are conservatives (think Lincoln Chaffee), and not all conservatives are in the GOP (think Zell Miller). Yet the Republican Study Committee of Colorado aptly says it’s “committed to the core” of conservative principles in the historic party of Lincoln and Reagan.
Those principles, according to the RSCC, include “individual liberty, personal responsibility, limited government, peace through strength and rule of law, free markets and commerce, lower taxes, family integrity and the American moral tradition, faith-based institutions, quality education, Western conservation, and legislative integrity.”
If that’s dangerous, I’ll risk it.
During the onrush of progressivism from Charles Darwin to Jimmy Carter, intellectuals wrote off the right. Conservatives were scorned as Britain’s “stupid party.” In the 1950s, with Eisenhower-Nixon moderates in charge, American historian Richard Hofstadter labeled conservatism “an irritable mental gesture.”
The psychiatric obituaries were premature, however. Rallied by Buckley in print and by Goldwater in politics, aroused by the 1960s and ’70s, a silent majority who believed America didn’t need remaking rose up to defeat communism abroad and socialism at home.
That great coalition was mighty in knowing what it was against, but less so in knowing what it was for – and what to do with government once power was achieved. After the Wall fell and Bush the Elder rose, the conservative movement lost much of its energy and focus.
Two election victories for this President Bush have revived the movement somewhat. Yet the RSCC principles are still far from ascendant, partly because of disunity on the right. Four distinct “flavors” of conservatism coexist uneasily today, each with a different ideal on its banner.
Authority and tradition inspire the Old Right, or paleo-conservatives, exemplified nationally by Patrick Buchanan and here in Colorado by Tom Tancredo or Al Knight. Liberty and reason guide the libertarians, exemplified nationally by Congressman Ron Paul, locally by Jon Caldara or Vince Carroll.
The religious right emphasizes the sovereignty of God; think Sen. Rick Santorum, Pat Robertson, or our own Marilyn Musgrave. Neoconservatives, many of them former Democrats, emphasize the dignity of all persons; think Bill Kristol, Bill O’Reilly, or in local media, Dan Caplis and David Harsanyi.
OK, you might ask: Which flavor is Andrews? During 35 years in politics, this writer has collaborated with all four camps but joined none of them. I remain simply a disciple of the Founders, a constitutional conservative, challenging all of us on the right to rededicate ourselves to the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Federalist Papers.
My hope is for conservatives from every banner to reunite around America’s founding principles. Renewed unity would magnify our influence. It would also cool our differences.
For example, if love of the Republic could bridge the bitter feud between Jefferson and Adams, cosigners of the Declaration, it can reconcile such lesser disputes as the one about taxes between me and Bill Owens, a fellow constitutional conservative. Like them, we have more important battles to fight together against the foes of liberty.
Meanwhile, the right rides on, fractious but relentless, and still the left worries: Who are those guys? Reunited, we could be a permanent majority in the land of the free. We have it in us to take our country back. But the road to 2006 and 2008, some of us insist, lies through 1776 and 1787.
John Andrews (andrewsjk@aol.com) is a Colorado fellow with the Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank. He was president of the Colorado Senate in 2003-’04.
