Are Liberals Conservatives?

The Ideological Space

New Deal: https://youtu.be/6bMq9Ek6jnA?t=4m52s

Classical Liberalism: • Negative Freedom/liberty: freedom from intervention by the state. • Equality: equal rights regardless of race, religion, sex, etc. • Rule of law: no individual is above the law. • Voluntarism: legitimacy derives from the consent of the people. • Right over the good: the state is not to establish any comprehensive doctrine. • Conception of individuals as not inherently bad, but rather capable of acquiring a certain conception of justice and living peacefully under commonly accepted rules or principles. • Value of the relatively free market. • Belief in rationality of humans

European Conservatism (Burke):

• Stability: a state must be stable and provide for security • Tradition: valuable both in itself as defining a people and for ensuring stability. • Morals: common understanding of virtue establishes unity of a nation and provides a direction for public policy. o Usually through an established church. • Aristocracy: rule by a few – those who are most “qualified” to rule ought to. • Monarchy: also acceptable if it is tradition. • The society itself is of value moreso than any individual’s freedom. o Civility over expression. • Skepticism about rationality.

American Liberalism

• Much of classical liberalism. • Keynesian economics: the government can and should be used to correct for market failures, stimulate the economy. o Regulate economy and business on behalf of the consumers and environment • Welfare: the state should provide for basic necessities, offer a safety net to protect individuals from the inevitable fluctuations of the free market. • Generally favor progressive taxation. • Standardized education • Religious liberty – separation of church and state – e.g. no prayer in public schools. • Support legal abortion. • Support LGBTQIA+ • Support labor unions • Less spending on national defense. American Conservatism – A LOOONG HISTORY (by American standards) – Start from Post WWII

• Shares many of the traditionally liberal values: o Free market. o Universal principles (principles that apply to all). o Equality under those principles. o Rule of law. • Also shares traditional, European conservative views (though not as extreme): o Tradition and Fundamental values/virtues ▪ Traditional family ▪ Religious expression o Shared community (unchosen markers of identity). ▪ Christianity, Constitution • Rejection of Communism as a subversion of American Values. • Rejection of principles o Against equality of outcomes. • Libertarian Economics o Free trade, deregulation of industry. o Anti-labor unions • Racial integration o largely conservative on social and racial issues. ▪ Supreme Court rejects segregation. ▪ End of the Solid South. Southern white conservatives move to Republican party.

America’s Conservative Shift – Goldwater and Reaganism:

Goldwater: https://youtu.be/PzrHR9-LdTM

Daisy: https://youtu.be/dDTBnsqxZ3k

Reagan: https://youtu.be/bYwQxvFAIJY

• Limited Government: `Throughout history, government has proved to be the chief instrument for thwarting man’s liberty. o “The enemy of freedom is unrestrained power, and the champions of freedom will fight against the concentration of power wherever they find it. o Maintaining internal order, keeping foreign foes at bay, administering justice, removing obstacles to the free interchange of goods – the exercise of these powers makes it possible for men to follow their chosen pursuits with maximum freedom o Government is too big in the size of its financial operation (federal spending), the range of its activities, the portion of people’s earnings it appropriates, and the extent that government interferes in daily lives (health, safety, education). o See Page 18-19 CC. • Narrow/Originalist reading of the Constitution. o Limitation of the federal government’s authority to specific, delegated powers. o The reservation to the states and the people of all power not delegated ot the federal government. o Careful division of the federal government’s power among the three branches. o The amendment process, rightly complex. o “Was it then a democracy the framers created? Hardly.” • Civil Rights: do not exist but for those enumerated by the constitution. o “It may be just or wise or expedient for Negro children to attend the same schools as white children, but they do not have a civil right to do so which is protected by the federal constitution, or which is enforceable by the federal government.” o These are NOT decidable by the Courts! • Free Market: o Against Subsidies, quotas, and federal involvement with farming. ▪ “Farm production, like any other production is best controlled by the natural operation of the free market. If the nation’s farmers are willing to pay, they will, under the law of supply and demand, end up producing roughly what can be consumed in national and world markets. And if farmers, in general, find they are not getting high enough prices for their produce, some of them will move into other kinds of economic activity… If, however, the government interferes with this natural economic process … the nation will pay exorbitant prices for work that is not needed and for produce that cannot be consumed. o Anti-Labor Unions, except for their narrow use to increase bargaining advantage. ▪ Association must be voluntary. ▪ Activity confined to collective bargaining, only conducted by the employees and with the employer of the workers concerned. (no national autoworkers union). ▪ No political contribution. o Anti-trust laws: The same argument for keeping unions out of politics applies to corporations as well! ▪ “I see no reason for labor unions—or corporations—to participate in politics. Both were created for economic purposes and their activities should be restricted accordingly. • Taxes and Spending: o “each man has an inalienable right to his property, [but] it must also be said that every citizen has an obligation to contribute his fair share to the legitimate functions of government. Government, in other words, has some claim on our wealth, and the problem is to define that claim in a way that gives due consideration to the property rights of the individual. The size of the government’s rightful claim—that is, the total amount it may take in taxes—will be determined by how we define the `legitimate functions of government.’ With regard to the federal government, the Constitution is the proper standard of legitimacy.’’ o Anti- Welfare: “Conservatives can demonstrate and communicate the difference between being concerned with these problems and believing the federal government is the proper agent for their solution.” ▪ Forces people to pay for causes they do not believe in. ▪ Makes people dependent on the state ▪ “Let welfare be a private concern. Let it be promoted by individuals and families, by churches, private hospitals, religious service organizations, community charities and other institutions that have been established for this purpose.” • Better have local agencies deal with charity (and not treat certain provisions of welfare as entitlements. • The only reason such institutions can’t achieve their goals is because of their tax burden. o Anti-federal funding of education. ▪ “The function of our schools is not to educate, or elevate, society; but rather to educate individuals and to equip them with the knowledge that will enable them to take care of society’s needs… we should look upon our schools – not as a place to train the `whole character’ of the child—a responsibility that properly belongs to his family and church— but to train his mind.’’ • Foreign policy: o ``And still the awful truth remains: We can establish the domestic conditions for maximizing freedom, along the lines I have indicated, and yet become slaves. We can do this by losing the Cold War to the Soviet Union.”

Race and Reagan: https://youtu.be/X_8E3ENrKrQ

Bush Willie Horton ad: https://youtu.be/Io9KMSSEZ0Y

The Religious Conservative Movement

• Importance of religious values and the establishment of Christian religion. o Reaching implications into social policies: same-sex marriage, abortion access, gender roles and norms. o Education: creationism in school education. • Society viewed as in moral decline.

Jesus Camp: https://youtu.be/97NFNXk8aFc

Kaufman

Conservatism is NOT just liberalism

• Nation over liberal world order. • Decency over free speech. • Justice? Over democracy. • Conception of the good or truth in education.

Failures of Liberalism

• No common identity of a nation. Reduction in sovereignty. World order, a global village is unstable. • Some notion of Justice prior to freedom. • Valuing religion, faith, family, community, nation over “abstract theorizing of universal, natural, man”

The Tension

• But Liberalism is, at heart, a major part of American tradition. Wouldn’t rejecting it result in a non-conservative view? • The notion that certain conservative commitments uphold liberalism.

The Tea Party

How did the tea party revitalize right-wing activism in the lead up to the 2010 midterm elections, and what does this tell us about the trajectory of US conservatism?

The Argument

The Tea Party is a new incarnation of longstanding strands in US conservatism:

Anti- federal social programs like the ACA but pro-social security and medicare.

Opposition to `handouts’ to the `undeserving’ (usually construed along racial and ethnic lines).

General anxieties about racial, ethnic, and generational changes in American society.

Innovations:

Small set of national elites promoting low-tax, anti-regulation play a key role in local and regional efforts, but traditional had little success.

Previous grassroots conservatives have been embedded in social networks linked to churches and devoted to an agenda somewhat distinct from free-market absolutism.

Role of conservative media: Fox News as a national advocacy organization.

Who are the Tea Party?

Older, white, middle class: 55-60% are men, 80-90% are white, and 70-75% are over 45 years.

Politically active conservative Republicans.

Organization

Grass Roots: Local/regional organizers.

National Advocates: Tea Party Express (grass roots group). Tea Party Patriots (run by FreedomWorks – even sharing a slogan).

Mostly supported by pro-business conservatism as opposed to church linked social conservatism.

Conservative Media: Coordination point

Fox News forging the shared beliefs and collective identity of Tea Partiers: 63% of Tea Party supporters watch, compared to 11% of all respondents.

Serves as a “national social movement organization”

Ideology

1. Hostility to large government: specifically government spending. Do not see social issues as central to their activism. However, support Federal spending programs like Medicaid and Social Security. 2. Deservingness: A view that they deserve the federal programs whose benefits they receive. a. Govt. spending is corrupted when benefits are redistributed to those who they perceive as not contributing. b. Not necessarily linked to jobs: more linked to young people and unauthorized immigrants. (33-4) c. Fear of new immigrants as allowing Obama administration to ignore the interests of current American Citizens. d. Worry that average politicians are not responsive to Average Americans. 3. Racial, ethnic, generational resentment. a. Fears of immigration are linked to ethnic identity. (Latinx). b. The new generation is more racially and ethnically diverse. ``These racial resentments form part of a nebulous fear about generational societal change --… read on.’’ (34R 4. Opposition to federal entitlement programs and espousal of racial stereotypes not uncommon in conservatism.

Future:

Republicans in the 112th will know that any compromises with Obama or the Democrats might hurt their chances in future GOP primaries… (36R) Alt Right and Conservatism

Race and Trump:

The Same as?

• Does not care about limited government. • Does not share passion for symbols of American patriotism. • Criticism of Conservatism: too many similarities with liberalism.

Against

• Conservatism is ``presumably based on abstract principles and in theory can appeal to people of all genders, racial groups, and religions, the reality is that conservatism has always been most appealing to people with specific demographic characteristics: financially secure white people living in suburbs and rural areas.’’ o Though, demographic changes result in the shrinking percentage of the overall electorate. • Liberal and alt-right criticism: conservatism’s demographic group is shrinking. o Liberal: we should then abandon these policies. o Alt-right: lean into the hard right and ``push transparent white-identity politics, with the ultimate goal of stopping and even reversing these demographic trends.’’ • Conservatives often appeal to white identity, but then never live up to them or deliver what their white voters really want.

Cuckservatism

• Notion of a “white gentile conservative (or libertarian) who thinks he’s promoting his own interests but really isn’t… In short, a is a white (non-Jewish) conservative who isn’t racially aware’’ • Republicans fear this might mean one is a RINO (republican in name only). • Vox Day and John Red Eagle: United States is not a “proposition nation” based on abstract principles such as liberty and equality: it has always been meant for a particular people with a shared ancestry: The West, and White persons. o Thus, the US is not a nation of immigrants. o The US should not be engaged in free-trade. • “cuckservative hit a sweet spot, presenting a message that was usually but not invariably racial in nature. This puts us in a position where people would listen to our message instead of rejecting it out of hand. Going forward, we should strive for this level of edginess: probably racially aware, but with plausible deniability.” • The goal is to balance between outright white nationalism and blending in with mainstream conservatives.

The Religious Right

• Actually a secular movement, hostile to Christianity: its origins in Judaism, emphasis on equality, sense of guilt and atonement, and the notion of weakness as moral superiority. • Instead, alt-right endorses more European faiths: Norse or Greco-Roman religions. • Evangelicals have changed their tune – speaking to social and economic justice, downplaying issues of gay marriage, prayer in school, and abortion. Also, support the removal of confederate statues. • Abortion: the alt-right is more pro-choice than the conservative movement: because they believe it’s eugenic. o Conservatives argue abortion is racist because a disproportionate number of abortions take place within the African American and Hispanic communities, many voices in the Alt-Right look at those numbers and declare abortion is a good thing. • BUT Co-opting Christianity and redefining the flock.

Conservatism and the Failure to Defeat the Alt-Right

• Purge of far-right groups common in the Republican party or in conservative ranks. • Usually, conservatives then make short-term alliances with the left and center. • BUT: o The organized conservative movement is at the `nadir’ of its influence. Their influence over Trump has waned. CPAC (111-2) The . o The internet allows the alt-right to reach a wider group of people with ease. o The former means of dealing with wide-right elements of conservatism relied on those groups wanting to be conservative… • But the difference here is that the alt-right doesn’t lose significance with non-association with conservatives.

Strategy: https://youtu.be/Mwmr2QMLuWY?t=7m46s