The Importance Of Conservatism
Being a Christian and seeing the state of America today makes a convincing point for me that our two-party political system may be broken. Economic optimism for most Americans is at a record low (United States IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index, 2023). Compare this with our Chinese counterparts, who for the past few decades, have enjoyed a rapidly advancing society even under a one-party system. As a result of this poor economic outlook, Americans have been less likely to buy a home, pay more for goods and services due to inflation, suffer from increasing crime in their neighborhoods, and are even being laid off at record rates. The next presidential election will be coming soon, about a little over a year and will most likely resemble a re-run of the 2020 presidential election cycle; with candidates whose policies and views differ from each other quite drastically.
History
The founding fathers of America are some of the brightest minds to have existed. They came together to form a government in that was built off the wisdom of many governments that came before them. Other than creating another theocracy or monarchy, they founded a democratic republic: the United States of America. It is a government that recognized natural law, individual sovereignty, as well as the concept of ‘human rights’ (Jefferson, 1776). This kind of government has led to the rise of capitalism, an economic system that has boosted our people to a level of prosperity never seen before in history. It was also the result of modernized western political thought; one of which emphasized the reformation of traditional practices and the rise of liberal philosophy. This ultimately led to the philosophical dichotomies that direct our current understanding of politics today: like Left vs. Right, Conservatism vs. Liberalism, and Democrat vs. Republican. Democracy is important, because it has revolutionized and changed the world significantly for the better. It’s what led to the recognition of rights for all peoples; regardless of their race, creed, or gender.
The founding fathers also carefully crafted the constitution to prevent any politicians from abusing their powers. However, they could’ve never been able to envision what problems would arise in the upcoming centuries; especially during a time where mainstream thought in the Americas was dominated by the Age of Enlightenment ("Age of Revolution”, 2023). However, some positive social changes did take a while to arrive, like the abolishment of slavery and women’s suffrage. Today, many women and minorities are enjoying a level of economic prosperity that their ancestors have never experienced, as well as being well off compared to women and minorities anywhere else in the world. However, our leaders and intellectuals view the current state of America as an oppressive regime that was founded by inherently evil white men (Blanton et al., 2020), although their worldview was inspired by these very same men. They’ve used these baseless claims to then radicalize and centralize our government, the very type of government that the founding fathers established checks and balances for, to push their agenda at the expense of many people. How did this kind of dysfunctional thought dominate the western world of our time? The reason stems from a phenomenon known as over-rationalization.
Liberalism And The Roman Empire: This phenomenon has occurred since the Classical Civilization era. During the time of the Roman Empire, several periods occurred where economic progress stagnated. Although rationalization was what ultimately led to Rome’s prominence, it was over-rationalization that bred corruption within the Roman aristocracy. Eventually, this led to the empire’s collapse (Lynch, 2022). However, it was populism and newly formed schools of thought that allowed for economic revival within the Roman Empire. One of these philosophies, republicanism (Plato, 375 BC), allowed Romans to find a new calling as citizens to police against corruption from authoritarians, and has helped revive democratic governance. A concept that is now hard to imagine, took place during its origins, and was important in balancing power between the Roman state and its people. The concept of republicanism now has a bad reputation, because it’s associated with modern-day American conservatives. It is viewed as backwards, although that's an ignorant lens to view conservatism through. To be fair, the public opinion of republicanism has been mostly politically motivated and financed, rather than being negated by most working-class citizens (Ekins, 2020).
Conservatism As A Concept
Conservatism is as important as liberalism for any society, in order to continue economic development. To conserve means to preserve or protect. Although often mistaken for reactionism, conservatism doesn’t exist to contradict liberalism. Rather, it exists to complement it. Liberal reformation during the Renaissance era was a meaningful progressive movement against the oppression of the Roman Catholic Church and other patriarchal institutions that succumbed to fallacy and corruption (“Why is the Reformation important?", 2017). Although this type of policy advocacy still exists in the west for valid reasons, it’s important to understand that these same patriarchal institutions were important in developing the foundation for which our current society stands upon (Woods, 2012). Eroding these institutions, like traditional family and gender roles, will only lead to our inevitable collapse, similar to that of the Roman Empire. Every nation has its own form of conservative politics. Relative to western standards, middle eastern and orthodoxic nations still need liberal reformation (Alsharekh et al., 2021, Vitkine, 2023). However, within the west, extreme liberalism has led to over-rationalization.
American Conservatism
As American conservatism stands today, it wishes to preserve as much of what the founding fathers envisioned America as. The average conservative is a constitutionalist, classical liberalist, and 2nd-amendment advocate. They reject illegal immigration and sexual promiscuity. They call for the decentralization of government and the return of Christianity within our institutions and culture. Conservatives are not racists, homophobes, transphobes, or even stereotypically depicted middle-age white males. American conservatism, synonymous with republicanism and the Republican Party, currently includes women, Muslims, blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and voters from many other backgrounds (Mascaro, 2023). Compared to conservatism in the previous decades, the movement has evolved alongside its countermovement, liberalism, in response to the current challenges that modern-day America faces.
References
United States IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index (April 2023). Trading Economics. United States IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index - April 2023 Data
Age of Revolution (May 2023). Wikipedia. Age of Revolution - Wikipedia
D. Blanton, V. Balara (2020, July 19). Fox News Poll: 63 percent see country’s Founders as heroes, 15 percent say villains. Fox News. Fox News Poll: 63 percent see country’s Founders as heroes, 15 percent say villains
R. Lynch (2022, Sept. 26). How the Roman Empire fell[VIDEO]. Youtube. How the Roman Empire Fell
Plato (2007). The Republic. Penguin Classics; New edition.
E. Etkins (2020, July 22). Poll: 62% of Americans Say They Have Political Views They’re Afraid to Share. Cato Institute. https://www.cato.org/survey-reports...they-have-political-views-theyre-afraid-share
Why is the Reformation important (2017, Oct. 11)? Insight For Living Ministries. Why Is the Reformation Important?
T. Woods (2012, Sept. 18). How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization. Regnery History; Reprint edition.
A. Alsharekh, A. Pourzand, G. Bhardwaj (2021, May 21). Women and power in the Middle East. Chatham House. https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/05/women-and-power-in-the-middle-east
B. Vitkine (2023, April 18). In Russia, feminism is equated with ‘extremist ideology’. Le Monde. In Russia, feminism is equated with 'extremist ideology'
L. Mascaro (2023, Feb. 7). GOP more diverse, but Congress still doesn’t reflect America’s demographics. PBS News. GOP more diverse, but Congress still doesn't reflect America's demographics
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