An opinion by Martin
In the previous part of this discussion, I covered The Progressives, where they came from and where they are today. In this piece, The Conservatives, I will attempt to do the same thing and, as before, please remember this is my opinion.
Conservative have always been portrayed as a group of people who support the status quo, the ruling party or government, or big business at the expense of the “little people”, the workers and new immigrants whether legal or illegal.
In some countries, this may be true. In nations where there are dictatorships or an oligarchy, supported by the military, that has been in power for years. This is not true in the United States, where the government is supposedly answerable to the people through a well written Constitution.
For a number of years, some people have believed that American policies were hijacked by right-wing extremists, but in actuality, throughout the history of our Nation, we have evolved into a distinctly conservative country. The majority of American citizens have a jaundiced view of governmental powers while the majority of Europeans believe the government is the power. For instance, a large number of Americans believe that the power of the government comes from the people while a greater proportionate number of Europeans believe that power flows from the leadership down to the people. A large number of Americans (nearly 60%) believe that it is the job of government to give the person the security and freedom in which to pursue his or her goals while the same number (about 60%) of British citizens believe it is the responsibility of the government to ensure that no one is in need.
It is my opinion that one of the reasons for this difference is that the European nations evolved from feudal estates where the landholder ruled the manor and the serfs worked the land, paid taxes and provided military manpower to the landholder. As time moved on, the strongest landholder became a King and in return provided security for his subjects. This has evolved into the social structure that you see in most European countries today. For the most part, while there were exceptions, the United States evolved without the lord and manor style of leadership and moved away from social structure of the European style to a more individualistic view of the role of the person. The European view of “you are what your father was” just did not work on the broad expanses of the American continent. Just look to Canada, the social structure that was created under the British Crown has been slowly disintegrating through the years. A goodly number of Canadians are more individualistic than the Europeans and believe that they have the right to seek their own level of success with minimal governmental interference.
Another reason for the more conservative social structure of the United States is the fact that the Government is prohibited by the Constitution from establishing a state religion and, conversely, from interfering with the freedom to choose, or not to choose, religious membership. This freedom from governmental interference in religion has led, for the most part, to the American work ethic. You will note that most Americans work longer hours than their European counterparts. A large number of analysts credit this contrast with America’s freedom of religious choice and its history of capitalism. Adrian Wooldridge and John Micklethwait* wrote that “America has never had a socialist movement in the way that all other major developed countries have. European countries have institutions that have emerged as a result of socialist ideologies, but America has remained more capitalistic, and therefore, more conservative.”
When many Europeans visit the United States, they go to the cities, (New York, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Chicago), but very seldom visit the center of the nation (Grand Rapids, MI, Ames, IA, Colorado Springs, CO, Tucson, AZ) to see the engine of the country, the people who are responsible for the continued capitalistic success that supports the socialist experiments of the big city and national governments.
Today’s True Conservative proclaims that he/she is for smaller government at all levels (local, state and federal); he/she is quite likely to support The Constitution as written by The Founders, to strongly support the Right to Bear Arms and the Freedom to worship as he or she wishes and, to live without the fear of having other value systems forced upon them. Today’s True Conservative is more than willing to allow others to pursue their own desires and wishes as long as those desires and wishes do not impact on “our” lives.
True, there are minorities, on both sides, who would control the lives and destinies of others, but for the most part, today’s True Conservative is most likely ready to move on with his life while allowing others to live theirs.
While a vocal minority has proclaimed that the Day of The Conservative is over and that Presidents like Obama will change the face of The United States forever, I would say “don’t bet on it!”
* British journalists John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge traveled across America to write their book The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America, 2004. The book examines the history of the conservative movement in the United States. Micklethwait and Wooldridge both write for The Economist.
