What is a conservative, and what do they stand for?

It is about time that conservatism begins to break up under the stress that has been nipping at it for years. Many who call themselves conservatives are in fact classical liberals without realizing it. Many others are in fact, the very sort of conservative that our founding fathers depised, namely those that sought to preserve the privileges and position of the elite, as well as resurrect a spirit of collectivism and control over the common man.

When the "left-right" divide first came into existence, the values of the founding fathers were actually on the left, not on the right. The defenders of the Ancien Regime were on the right. The Ancien Regime was marked by strict class distinction, the institutionalization of religion, a deficit of individual liberty, state-protected business and monopolies, and precious few restrictions on the scope of state power over society. The idea that religion and state should hold distinctly separate spheres of influence in society, that the rule of law should apply universally and fairly, that the market should be free from favoritism by the state toward the elite and that heredity should not constitute grounds for deference were originally deemed left-wing ideas, and it is only in America that they are shared by people who identify with both sides.

Where many American conservatives get off track today is that they defend tradition, instead of truth. Tradition has nothing to recommend itself to anyone other than the fact that it has not been the cause of damage that weakens or destroys civilization. On its own, it has no inherent connection with truth, and may in fact be a lie that happens to be adept at survival. What is desperately needed is an irrevernce for tradition, for tradition is almost invariably either a man-made concept or a God-given truth molded into something less by human error.

There is indeed too much deferrence to tradition among conservatives, though admittedly many modern liberals and libertarians tend to forget that tradition may also be a manifestation of truth that far from being thrown out, should be purified and reformed much in the way that the Protestant Reformation threw out the garbage added to Christian doctrine by the Roman Catholic Church rather than throwing out the religion. The most practical approach is to obey the old, time-tested truth that the easiest way to know the nature of tree is to observe the fruit that it bears. Indeed, the liberals of the 18th and 19th centuries often violently opposed the Ancien Regime because it was the very manifestation of a slavish devotion to tradition and privilege over truth.

This is why those who call themselves conservatives, and who in fact seek to conserve the revolution of 1776 would do well to realize that conservatism is not their home. Conservatism is the home of the Rockefeller republicans and the Kristolite neoconservatives who seek to reentrench the power and privilege of the political and monied elite and render the common man subservient to powerful institutions.

To my fellow Christians I say look at the world beyond that under God's blessing and tell me what you see that is worth conserving that God did not establish. I guarantee you, that you will find precious little that passes this test. If you read the Torah, Gospel and epistles closely, you will see that it is the classical liberal tradition which most accurately reflects the spiritual ideals of the Gospel manifested in politics.