Challenging the hope of a conservative resurgence under Obama
Clark Coleman writes:
There has been much talk of the supposed value of an Obama presidency in provoking a conservative reaction and causing a resurgence of conservatism. Do we have any examples from the last hundred years in developed Western countries of such a thing? We might want to have some empirical evidence rather than just a theoretical hope.
My observation is that conservatism rarely overturns any leftist advances. Which New Deal or Great Society programs have been ditched due to conservative efforts?
What are the great accomplishments of conservatism in post-World War II America? It seems to me that we can list three: (1) Reagan’s military buildup and defeat of the Soviet Union, winning the Cold War; (2) Reaganomics gaining credibility such that relatively low marginal tax rates have become the norm (marginal federal rates were 70 percent during the 1980 campaign, and even neo-Marxist Democrats don’t propose going back to those rates); and (3) the 1994 congressional election triumph brought us welfare-to-work reform, which was, however, not accomplished in such a way as to reduce illegitimacy.
That’s it. Notice that none of these three examples represents undoing a program of the New Deal or Great Society.
Yet, throughout the last 50 years, we have had one leftist outrage after another. We have had events such as race riots that should have scared Americans to move rightward. The demographic changes from Latin American invasions have had obvious electoral effects which should have registered with any sentient being who is bothering to pay attention. The failure of race-based preferences should be obvious to all. Bill Clinton debased the office of the President and lowered the prestige of our whole government. One environmental scare after another has failed to pan out, yet the old scares are quickly forgotten as people flock to believe the next one. Massive spending on poverty has made little or no progress, and ditto for massive school spending. The elites despise “fly-over America” and half of all movies and TV shows drip with their disdain for ordinary Americans, the middle class, suburbs (the horror!), etc. Illegal immigrants stage Third World style mass rallies to try to intimidate the rest of society. OJ Simpson gets acquitted while blacks celebrate publicly.
Yet, we might be about to elect a Communist as our president. The leftist news media filters all the above news items as best as they can to prevent a public reaction, while the typical citizen seems to only care about the short term cycles of the economy.
If all of the above shocks were not enough to awaken people, why would electing Obama shock us into doing something? Before we make such a prediction, and let it influence our vote, we ought to have a basis for the prediction. How many times have you, at VFR, admitted that you thought, “This is going to be the event that wakes up America,” only to discover otherwise?
Until we can build a conservatism that actually accomplishes the conservation of our civilization, rather than just slowing down the rot, we had better not assume that it will spring into existence in a crisis.
LA replies:
First, I think I’ve previously said that my “silver lining” scenario does not involve a restoration or ascendancy of conservatism in America, but rather the beginning of conservative resistance to the dominant liberalism. Such resistance is weak now, and will be weaker under McCain. But we already see the intensity of conservative resistance to Obama, and that resistance will certainly continue in one form or another if he is elected. So that is not theoretical.
Second, I was not speaking of conservatives reversing the leftist advances made under Obama. I was speaking of conservatives stopping the proposed leftist advances under Obama, in much the same manner that key Clinton proposals were stopped in 1993-94. I agree with you that there is a very poor history of conservatives overturning leftist measures and laws once they have been put in place.
Third, you write:
How many times have you, at VFR, admitted that you thought, “This is going to be the event that wakes up America,” only to discover otherwise?
Excellent point. However, most of the time I have been warning other people not to think that a certain event would wake up America. At the same time, yes, I have from time to time made the same mistake I’ve warned others against, and have always pointed it out when I caught myself doing it and had been proven wrong, most recently when I thought the Wright business last March meant Obama would be sunk.
However, does this mean that NO leftist measure or outrage gets Americans/conservatives riled up enough to take effective action against it? Let’s forget about a VFR-style awakening from the belief in liberalism (the liberalism to which virtually all modern Westerners insensibly adhere), and just look at a more middle-range type of conservative resistance to particular liberal things that they don’t like. That does happen. Comprehensive immigration reform was stopped TWICE, in 2006 and 2007. In spring of 2007, the most impressive outpouring of popular resistance in modern American history stopped the immigration bill that was supposed to be a sure thing. Conservatives were outraged at the Miers nomination and rose up in rebellion against Bush, and forced him to withdraw the nomination. The country rejected the Clinton health care plan.
So, one doesn’t have to believe in a VFR-style conservative awakening to have a reasonable expectation or hope that conservatives will oppose the Obama-Democratic regime to a sufficient degree to stop significant parts of it and even to bring down the Obama-Democratic regime in two or four years.
Finally, speaking for myself, another reason I say that it’s not based on a theoretical hope is that it is something that wells up within me against Obama and what he represents. I look within myself and I see mankind, or at least some portion of mankind. So it’s not theoretical, it’s an experience. If lots of other people have the same reaction that I have, it will be expressed outwardly and become politically effective.
On a side point, you write: “we might be about to elect a Communist as our president.”
Instead of my usual complaint about people writing communist in lower case when it should be upper case, here I must protest your upper case Communist. Obama is not a member of the Communist Party, therefore he is not an upper case Communist. He may very well be, however, a lower case communist.
Bob Finch writes:
This isn’t about conservatism “resurging” at all. It’s about having a cohesive conservative force to oppose the advance of liberalism. If John McCain is elected, he will further weaken traditional conservatism and certainly seek to remove its voice from within the party apparatus and replace it with some bastard doppelganger “conservatism” envisioned by neoconservatives and birthed by two George Bushes.
This soft leftism masquerading as “the new right” will inevitably pave the way for another Obama anyway, or a later version of this one. But the field will have changed and the center moved. In other words, thanks to the current state, the revised errant definition of conservatism in the public eye, we’re probably going to have an Obama or his equivalent either now or in the next election. I’d rather take it on now while I still feel we have a chance.
Our problem is that true and traditional conservatism isn’t intellectually easy to grasp, and the good in it is made more difficult to know in the face of seductive innovations. After this election, we’ll need to come up with a new fusionism. But where are the Kirks, Meyers and Buckleys for this day? It seems that only humiliating defeat brings such rare men to the surface.
Both my heart and my mind simply cannot take part in putting either of these bastards in office. I usually have one part on each side of the fence. Tomorrow I shall glumly write in “present” in a feeble swipe at the gnat we’re about to anoint.
Posted by Lawrence Auster at November 03, 2008 05:44 PM | Send