In another forum, we’ve had a debate ongoing about conservatism - what it is, what conservatives believe, how they behave, who is and who isn’t a conservative. One participant, quoting from a book titled “The Politics of Prudence”, provided the following list:
The conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order. That order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.
The conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity.
Conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription.
Conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence.
Conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety.
Conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability.
Conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked.
Conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism.
The conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.
The thinking conservative understands that permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society.
I advocate a simpler, more focused alternative approach to understanding conservatism:
Instead of just trying to pick conservative characteristics out of thin air, my argument has long been that a template of conservatism has long existed. If one wants to understand American conservatism, all one need do is take a close look at the Founders. Their lives and work define the term. They are the template.
In my view, true American conservatism was and always will be defined by the intellectual, moral and spiritual qualities, principles, faith, philosophy and actions of the God-fearing generation of great men and women who were the Founders of America - in particular that quorum of giants of history who were the primary drivers of the founding - intellectual, moral and spiritual gargantuans like Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Franklin, Madison and others - “wise men whom I [God] raised up to this very purpose” - D&C 101:80.
Intellectually brilliant, morally good, spiritually enlightened, these giants of history embodied and exemplified the sound Judeo/Christian principles that worked to give the nation first life and enabled it to become the greatest nation ever to exist under heaven. In their great intellectual, moral and spiritual substance, what those superb men were is what conservatism is and what conservatives today seek to emulate and "conserve".
Those today who, like our friend Fish -
- consider the intellectual, moral and spiritual accomplishments and admonitions of the Founders no more than quaint, outdated historical artifacts irrelevant to our times, and would like to consign the Founders to the ash heap of history, rewriting - "updating" - the nation's intellectual, moral and spiritual codes in the process, are nonetheless, as we have seen with Fish, incapable of going toe-to-toe with the Founders and answering their arguments. Fish and his ilk who think they are wiser than the Founders are midgets kicking at the shins of giants...
"Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Religion and morality are indispensable supports. In vain would that man claim the tribute of Patriotism, who should labour to subvert these great Pillars of human happiness, these firmest props of the duties of Men and citizens. The mere Politician, equally with the pious man ought to respect and to cherish them. A volume could not trace all their connections with private and public felicity. Let it simply be asked where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths, which are the instruments of investigation in Courts of Justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that National morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle."
- George Washington
"...we have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge... would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."
- John Adams
"The order of nature [is] that individual happiness shall be inseparable from the practice of virtue." "Peace, prosperity, liberty and morals have an intimate connection."
- Thomas Jefferson
"Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters."
- Ben Franklin
If the arguments of these great men have their roots in truth - the way things really are and really work - what, then, in the best interests of the people and the nation, ought to be the motivation and direction of our public discourse and government? If their arguments hold, what then would enlightened government look like?
If we, as a people, can understand and embrace anew all that made the Founding Generation great, we will find safety and a bright future for America. Anything less - the sort of compromised, compromising intellectual, moral and spiritual spinelessness Fish and others advocate - concedes our suicidal decadence as a given and provides, at best, a managed decline that will lead inexorably down to the abyss.
Indeed, on that principle, denying the existence of moral absolutes, insisting that we must modify and tweak morality to suit the times, we might as well dismiss the Bible as ancient mythology - an antiquated teacher of morals and spirituality ill-suited to the needs of a “modern” society.
America was great because America was good. Wickedness never was happiness (Alma 41:10). Human nature never changes… You can't fool Mother Nature... What works, works. What doesn't, doesn't… and we have the whole course of history to teach us the difference.
The full weight of that history is screaming out a warning to us. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, we can learn the easy way - from the experience of others - and, repenting in sack cloth and ashes, turn from our folly and avoid self-immolation. Or, alternatively, if we choose not to learn from history - sadly, by far the most likely possibility - there lies before us no road but the hard road, whereon we pay the heavy price exacted by the inexorable, catastrophic repeat of history... On that road, all things are possible - even this:
You want to understand conservatism - and especially understand in what direction we need to go to save our great country from the intellectual, moral and spiritual degradation and treason welling up from within? You don't need to read “The Politics of Prudence” or "The Conservative Mind" (though, since reading is always good, I’m not saying you shouldn’t).
Study the Founders - then, as Jesus said, "Go thou and do likewise."
Right vs. wrong, truth vs. lies, reality vs. fantasy, order vs. chaos, law vs. lawlessness, patriotism vs. treason, liberty vs. tyranny, morality vs. immorality, light vs. darkness, good vs. evil, happiness vs. misery, God vs. the Godless…
Take your pick…
If you can be fooled, you will be…
These are the times that try men’s souls…
Torquemada
p.s. Here are four great books for becoming acquainted with the minds and lives of the Founders:
The Real George Washington: The True Story of America's Most Indispensable Man
John Adams - (Pulitzer Prize-winning Book)
The Real Thomas Jefferson- The Real Story of America’s Philosopher of Freedom
The Real Benjamin Franklin - The True Story of America’s Greatest Diplomat
