TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Conservatives Can Rebuild

ADVERTISEMENT

By A. LAWRENCE CHICKERING and JAMES S. TURNER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 22, 2008

Barack Obama's remarkable election has inflicted a stunning defeat on Republicans and conservatives, apparently reversing the pro-market Reagan revolution that began in the early 1980s. Conservatives are now beginning what will be a long period of soul-searching to understand what went wrong and how they can rebuild.

The problem started with "conservatives'" misunderstanding who they are, and who the "liberals" are. Without this understanding, they brought themselves down by greatly overplaying the hand dealt them by Reagan's 1980 election.

First, there is no such creature as a "conservative." Nor a "liberal." The simple left-right spectrum conceals enormous conflict on both sides. The conflict is between those who emphasize freedom versus order: libertarian conservatives versus traditional conservatives on the right, and civil libertarian liberals versus social democratic liberals on the left.

Democrats played key roles in the "Reagan revolution." President Reagan worked with the Democratic Congressional leadership, especially House Speaker Tip O'Neill, to produce major tax reforms in 1981 and 1986. This was more a freedom agenda influenced by the freedom-right and left than an agenda of either Republicans or Democrats.

Democrats played a crucial role on tax cuts for high income people because in paradoxical, transpartisan logic, only Democrats can lead in promoting such tax cuts. The same logic explained why only a conservative Republican like Richard Nixon could normalize relations with China.

Reagan led in redefining the U.S.-Soviet relationship. Seeing real change in the Soviets long before most others, he promoted international cooperation, especially with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Unfortunately, both parties backed away from celebrating their collaboration. Republicans quickly forgot their debt to Democrats on tax reform and took exclusive ownership of the issue. Democrats, getting no credit, moved away from the issue. Similarly, Republicans claimed sole credit for bringing down the Soviet Union when, as Reagan himself acknowledged, a 50-year coalition had worked for that result. (President Carter began an arms buildup that Reagan continued.)

With the country at war, conservatives need to modify their attitudes toward government in ways that may create opportunities to work with liberals for governmental reform. In war, leaders create confusion by urging, as Bush has, support for government policy while encouraging distrust of government. Governments expand in wartime, as ours has under President Bush. Historically, in financial meltdowns, governments grow even more - exponentially.

Republicans claiming to be for small government send the message that they are unaware of what has happened under President Bush. They sound as if they have lost their minds.

Conservatives need to support government, whatever size, that emphasizes personal engagement and connection.

This, their primal value (from both the freedom- and order-right) is found in essentially private experiences, in families and local communities. Personal engagement, more important than government size, can also happen in public institutions and relationships: like schools that are strong, positive communities; in racial integration forged by real personal engagement rather than numbers; and in civil society initiatives that promote peace and democracy by engaging people in common purposes here and in other countries.

Conservatives overplayed their hand.

Lawrence Chickering, former assistant to William F. Buckley, is a Research Fellow at The Hoover Institution. James S. Turner, an original Nader's Raider, is a public interest lawyer in Washington, D.C.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT