Defining Conservatism

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Definitions mean something. Definitions are not something that should be changed to appease a movement, or silence a squeaky wheel. Conservative is a word that has a definition based on principles and morals, and is a word that finds its roots in the success and achievement of our nation.

The three piers of conservatism, according to Ronald Reagan, is a three legged stool. Without one of the legs in place, the whole thing falls to the ground. Those principles are fiscal conservatism, strong national security, and a moral social policy. If we follow the limiting principles of the U.S. Constitution, these issues all fall into place. In the end, our prosperity and success is dependent on the idea of a constitutional limited government.

A liberal response to that statement is often that the word conservatism makes no sense. What are you tying to conserve? The leftists ask this because they see all of America's history as flawed, and to desire to go back to any time period in the past is to desire a step backward. In truth, there are many hiccups in history we don't want to go back to, but that does not mean we should not learn from those instances.

- Alexander Hamilton, though understanding the original intent of the U.S. Constitution, and revealing much of that in his contributions to the Federalist Papers, was a raging statist that would make even some of today's liberals blush.

- John Marshall, the fourth Chief Justice of the United States, sought to circumvent the Constitution through judicial means, initiating the unconstitutional concept of "judicial review," writing opinions that compromised the legislative process, and set the stage for the judiciary to become the problem it is today.

- Abraham Lincoln acted unconstitutionally throughout his presidency, literally following through with a threat to engage the Southern States with military force should they not do what the federal government demanded. Hundreds of thousands of men and boys died in the War Between The States as a result of Lincoln's actions, considering that within a dozen years slavery would have been abolished anyhow, state by state, through the efforts of a peaceful abolition movement, and the continued rise of technology, which was changing the face of agriculture.

- The Federal Reserve was a gift to the bankers, enabling a private industry to gain control of our national economy.

- Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, with their progressive policies, did more damage to America than all wars combined.

- Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society doomed society, literally creating policies that pay the poor to remain in poverty. His war on poverty has been an unmitigated disaster.

- Jimmy Carter sold us up the river with the Panama deal, and his weakness in the face of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, and failure to free the hostages.

- Ronald Reagan's amnesty plan worsened the illegal alien problem, and his unwillingness to use the veto pen wound up tripling the national debt.

- George Herbert Walker Bush's dreams of a new world order set the stage for internationalists to take hold of American sovereignty, and compromise our position in the world.

- Bill Clinton was narrowly stopped from destroying this nation by a Republican Revolution in 1994.

- George W. Bush, while proclaiming to be a conservative, initiated progressive programs regarding prescription drugs, and with the "No Child Left Behind Act," both of which (as is any big government program) have proven to be disastrous.

- And now, Barack Obama is working to complete the transition of America into a socialist nation with devastating consequences.

What we want to go back to is not the mistakes, but the original principles of a limited government. We wish to conserve the wisdom of the ages that was given to us in the form of the U.S. Constitution.

In other words, conservatism is not for conserving the ideas of men, or a particular way of life. Conservatism is not designed to take us back to the way things used to be. Every era had its flaws, and those flaws need to be left behind where they belong.

Conservatives wish to conserve the Constitution, the principles contained within that founding document, and to return this nation to the concept of a limited government. The federal government is supposed to function on the idea that it is given only a small list of authorities. Any power not given to the federal government, or prohibited to the states, is a State power. If an issue is important enough that the federal government should have it as an authority, then propose an amendment, and let the States determine if such an amendment should be ratified.

The will of the people is that we return to the rule of law, and the rule of law is the U.S. Constitution, not the opinions of a bunch of politicians, or activist judges.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary