You Know It Makes Sense

30 May 2009

The right to swear is integral to being a true conservative

For a good many of my conservative American friends, though, the abortion issue is an absolute deal-breaker. There are only two US groups that hate each other more than liberals and conservatives, and that’s the pro-choice lobby and the pro-life lobby. Since I have feet in both camps, this is an issue I prefer to avoid like the plague. I was born and raised in the English protestant tradition which sees it more as a personal, freedom-of-conscience issue than one which ought to have a major role in the national political debate. And I rather wish it were so in America, too.

The reason I wish it were so is that right now conservatism is going through a crisis of confidence, as it always does when beaten by left-liberalism at the ballot box. ‘What have we done to make ourselves so hated?’ is the first question conservatives ask when this happens. The next, much more dangerous one, is: ‘Which of our principles can we safely jettison in order to make ourselves better liked?’

We’ve seen this happen to David Cameron’s tree-hugging, 50p-tax-rate-endorsing, ideology-lite Tories; and we’re seeing something similar happen in the US to the Republican party and its sympathisers. On the GOP’s wing, you have people like the New York Times columnist David Brooks arguing that the party needs to modernise (why?) by embracing a new, more socially responsible, collectivist conservatism (aka Republicanism In Name Only). On its morally authoritarian wing, you have those who believe a more hardline stance on abortion is not only what Jesus wants but is the key to capturing those important Hispanic voters.

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paul C

May 29th, 2009 10:26am Report this comment

Nicely put, James

Rob Slack

May 29th, 2009 5:46pm Report this comment

I am writing this to see if it makes it through. Almost (if not all) I have ever tried to post has vanished into the ether. No bad language or personla comments (possible wrong on the last point). Am I banned?

Wayland

May 30th, 2009 9:08pm Report this comment

Yeah, I like that sort of conservatism. Beats the fascist Labour government we have now. What a shame that there is not a party or candidate I can vote for who thinks like this.

Richard L

May 31st, 2009 9:53am Report this comment

Nicely argued, very thoughtful - and spot on. A Libertarian view in the old, true sense of the term.

Jeremy

June 3rd, 2009 8:24pm Report this comment

I'm glad you wrote this piece and I think that what you had to say needed saying. After many years of Labour and the EU I can see how things, people, modes of dress and behaviour have become increasingly standardised and conformist. These things are the result of big-state monitoring and regulation and are, or course, essentially anti-conservative. Conservatism to me is about the autonomy of the individual. And that is about freedom of thought and expression. The freedom to dress as you please and to think as you like. And also the freedom to disagree with the majority, the state and whatever the fashionable orthodoxies of your day may be. Conservatism is not about big-state blueprints for the masses. It is not about uniformity and conformity to the state's idea of what you - and by extension all of its citizens - should be, should wear, should think and should say.

But then - like yourself, I imagine - I am an English conservative. The American variety has never struck me as being true conservatism.

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