The Day Conservatism Died
I’ve been a frequent visitor of HumanEvents.com for some time now. I visit this site and many others that have viewpoints that differ from my own simply because I want to get an idea of what people are thinking. Many of the articles and blog posts on this site are from a far-right, neo-conservative point of view…and they certainly don’t apologize for it. I pick on many of the writers on this site simply because I feel they represent what is truly wrong with politics today. It always seems like they are so good at preaching about conservatism and yet I always feel like they don’t know what being conservative truly means in politics.
Now, I have never outright proclaimed to be a member of any political party. Truth be told, I really don’t believe in political parties. I think they cause more problems simply because it causes Americans to choose sides. Problem is that you rarely hear of there being more than just two sides. It’s always Republicans vs Democrats, liberals vs conservatives, left vs right, and so on. Rarely do you hear much about the middle and nor do you hear about the third side: the truth. Yes, there are politicians that do speak the truth but many times this truth ends up being masked and muddied up in the form of dirty politics, which is but one of the problems with American politics today.
Take a post made by D.R. Tucker called Hard To Swallow. D.R. seems to feel that August 17, 1998 was the day conservatism began to die in America. This was the day that President Clinton admitted to having a sexual relationship with intern Monica Lewinsky. D.R. goes on to say that only a third of the American people strongly supported the impeachment and removal of Clinton from office, that somehow so many Americans bought the story that Clinton was a victim of a political witch-hunt by prudish right-wing Republicans. Personally I think it was just because the whole story was embarrassing and the greater American public was tired of hearing about it. Seriously, can you imagine the history books if he was impeached? He damn near was. After all, a vote was called on by Congress. Clinton would go down in history as the only President to ever have been impeached for lying about getting a blow job!
D.R. goes on to quote the writings of Paul Weyrich, a conservative activist, about the reason why politics started to fail after that, the thought being that too many conservatives assumed that most Americans shared their point of view and thus didn’t result in an adoption of their agenda:
The reason, I think, is that politics itself has failed. And politics has failed because of the collapse of the culture. The culture we are living in becomes an ever-wider sewer. In truth, I think we are caught up in a cultural collapse of historic proportions, a collapse so great that it simply overwhelms politics.
D.R.’s quotes continue further with another statement from Weyrich that says the U.S. is becoming too ideological:
The ideology of Political Correctness, which openly calls for the destruction of our traditional culture, has so gripped the body politic, has so gripped our institutions, that it is even affecting the Church. It has completely taken over the academic community. It is now pervasive in the entertainment industry, and it threatens to control literally every aspect of our lives…Let me be perfectly frank about it. If there really were a moral majority out there, Bill Clinton would have been driven out of office months ago. It is not only the lack of political will on the part of Republicans, although that is part of the problem. More powerful is the fact that what Americans would have found absolutely intolerable only a few years ago, a majority now not only tolerates but celebrates. Americans have adopted, in large measure, the MTV culture that we so valiantly opposed just a few years ago, and it has permeated the thinking of all but those who have separated themselves from the contemporary culture…I believe that we probably have lost the culture war. That doesn’t mean the war is not going to continue, and that it isn’t going to be fought on other fronts. But in terms of society in general, we have lost. This is why, even when we win in politics, our victories fail to translate into the kind of policies we believe are important.
Let me get this straight. You mean to tell me that the reason politics in America is so screwed up is because of a lack of a moral majority? It makes no sense whatsoever to say that conservatism is failing because so many people in the country lack morals and thus do not vote for conservative candidates. It’s a ridiculous notion simply because conservatism does not equal a moral majority. That’s not what conservatism in politics is about. It’s not about religion. It’s not about family values. Conservatism in politics can not and should not be compared to the moral fiber of our nation. Anyone who does that simply doesn’t know what it truly means to be conservative.
Where Mr. Tucker gets it truly wrong is when he starts talking about Barack Obama and tries to compare him to Clinton:
If Barack Obama wins with a majority of the vote, it will complete the political and cultural alteration that began ten years ago. In 1998, Americans didn’t care about Clinton’s lies and licentiousness because the economy was doing well; in 2008, Americans seemingly don’t care about Obama’s dishonesty and double-dealing because he promises to restore the economy to the (perceived) health of the Clinton years. 1998 was the first indication that Americans valued certain things above “traditional morality”; 2008 could be the most significant indication of the same.
Ridiculous. The idea that just because Obama is a Democrat that somehow he’ll end up just like Clinton is just that: ridiculous. How is it exactly that Obama is dishonest and double-dealing the American public? Personally, I don’t see it. And as much as I would like to say the same about McCain, I’m afraid I can’t. I gave McCain a fair shot but, unfortunately, all he did was prove to me that he can’t be honest and can’t seem to talk about things without bullshitting the American public. That’s something I have not seen or heard from Obama.
And this whole notion that Obama will continue to lead people down a road of immorality is equally ridiculous. Obama has shown that he truly cares about family values. Isn’t that what neo-conservatives are always preaching about? Has anyone even looked at how Obama is with his wife and kids? He’s a damn good father if you ask me. And he appears to be teaching his kids some good values. If that isn’t a sign of someone who is moral then I don’t know what to tell you.
If we were a truly conservative country, a candidate like Obama would have been regarded as a fringe, Dennis Kucinich-style nutcase instead of a serious candidate for the Presidency. It can be argued that Obama figured out something that the right was too shortsighted to recognize: that America is not in any tangible way a conservative or center-right nation, that no one ideology truly dominates the country, and that due to America’s lack of commitment to any one ideology, someone who can market himself effectively has a chance to become President regardless of his ideology. Obama’s speeches may be content-free, but they are always well-delivered and he always looks good delivering them—which may be all he needs in a country that values image above ideology.
If anything, Obama has proven that trying to stick to a single ideology doesn’t work. This is a country that was founded on opposing viewpoint, multiple cultures, multiple religions, and diversification all over the place. To assume that you can stick to just one ideology, that of a far right-wing conservative point of view, and assume that everyone will follow is crazy. Our government must be more than that. It must remain flexible to accommodate the views and beliefs of all Americans; not just a select group.
Weyrich was right: America doesn’t really place a premium on conservative, traditionalist values. Sadly, America places a premium on glamour, beauty, articulate voices, clean-cut images. Like Clinton, Obama understands this shallow, soulless aspect of America, and he knows how to play to those who worship empty images. Like Clinton, this new master of illusion will exploit America’s love of the superficial to make his next overseas “Presidential” trip official.
Obama is more than just someone who looks good and gives a good speech. He’s a man of the utmost integrity and, above all, he’s highly intelligent. I’m amazed at how many people can so easily dismiss him as being someone who merely is playing the American people like a violin. Intelligence it seems is a trait only shown by those who are arrogant, even more so when its from someone like Obama. Personally, I find it gratifying to know that there is at least one Presidential candidate who is extremely intelligent and, above all, really knows what the Constitution says.
Conservatism didn’t die because of Clinton. In fact, conservatism isn’t really dead yet. What happened was that so-called conservatives within the Republican party morphed the party into the exact opposite of what the Republican party was supposed to be about. Yes, there is such a thing as having traditional conservative values in politics…but it’s just not about ones religious and/or moral beliefs. There’s a reason why our forefathers asked for a separations of church and state in the Constitution. It’s so that the individual rights of all people of all religions have representation within our government. For the people, by the people. What part of that do neo-conservatives not understand?
Tags: conservative
