American conservatism

American conservatism is a political tradition in the United States that honors the U.S. Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and Christianity. Various definitions exist. “What is conservatism?” Abraham Lincoln asked. “Is it not preference for the old and tried, over the new and untried?” In The Devil's Dictionary (1906), American writer Ambrose Bierce explains that a conservative is, “a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others.” Historian Gregory Schneider defines conservatism as "a defense of tradition." In the conservative view, the proper role of government is to support existing ways of life. Conservatives are partial to institutions that were built up gradually and whose current form distills the accumulated wisdom of generations. Liberal proposals to restructure society are condemned as "utopian" and "social reengineering." The word "conservative" is from Le Conservateur, the name of an ultraroyalist French periodical founded by Chateaubriand in 1818. In the early 1830s, the word was adopted as a self-description by the Tories in Britain, as well as by John Calhoun in the U.S.

History

The modern conservative movement can be traced to Edmund Burke, a British politician who provided a statement of his ideology in Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790). Burke's views were developed in response to the social reengineering projects of the French revolutionaries. Burke was a Whig and a supporter the American Revolution. His political position was to the left of the Tories, who supported royal authority and opposed the revolution. Liberals may identify conservatism with right-wing views. But as this example illustrates, conservatives are not necessarily the most right-wing group on the political spectrum. According to Burke, "change is the means of our preservation." So the idea that conservatives oppose all change is another liberal canard.

Since America lacks an aristocracy or an established church, the tradition that American conservatives defend is not simple to define. Schneider identifies American conservatism with support of republicanism, "the rule of law and the Christian religion," and a defense of "Western civilization from the challenges of modernist culture and totalitarian governments."

Adams and Jefferson

Burke was read by the first generation of American conservatives, including Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and John Randolph. Historian Russell Kirk identifies the Citizen Genêt affair of 1793 as the first occasion when American liberals and conservatives squared off. In the election of 1800, Republican Thomas Jefferson and Federalist John Adams clashed over policy toward France, taxes, state's rights, and other issues. This type of intensely ideological politicking dissipated with the end of the French Revolution. The Federalist Party dissolved in 1816. At the same time, the Republican Party adopted many of its positions regarding tariffs, a national bank, and other issues.

Whigs and Democrats

Jefferson's Republican Party dissolved in 1825, succeeded by the Democrats and the American Whigs. The Whigs identified as conservative. In practice, the political positions of the party's state organizations varied widely. It's nominees for president were non-ideological war heroes.

The modern Republican Party was founded in 1854 as an anti-slavery party. In the election of 1860, Lincoln, the Republican nominee, emphasized that federal control of slavery in the federal territories was a conservative idea, based on a straightforward reading of the U.S. Constitution. Douglas, the Democratic nominee, supported the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which forbad such control. The Abolitionists, or liberal wing of the Republican Party, wanted to abolish slavery nationally, a position not based on the Constitution. Once the slavery issue was resolved, the Democrats became simply the party of the South, the Republicans the party of the North.

McKinley and Bryan

The rise of labor unions in the late the nineteenth century led to renewed ideological struggle. With the Pullman strike of 1894, the nation was again split into liberal and conservative camps. In the 1896 presidential election, "populist" William Jennings Bryan ousted President Grover Cleveland, a conservative icon, as the Democratic Party's nominee. Cleveland's supporters fled to the Republican Party to support William McKinley, who won the general election. In this way, the Republicans became a conservative pro-business party, the party of "sound money and protection." The 1896 election proved to be a watershed event that would define the positions of the two major parties for generations.

The 1920: Conservative high tide

President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, used World War I as a pretext to impose his "progressive" agenda, including increased federal economic control. Americans reacted by voting for Harding and "normalcy" in 1920. The election of 1924 was the "high tide" of American conservatism, with both major party nominees for president espousing conservative views. The 1920s was also a golden age of conservative writing. Irving Babbitt wrote the classic Democracy and Leadership (1924), while H. L. Mencken edited The American Mercury. The Democratic Party returned to liberal control when New York governor Al Smith was nominated for president in 1928.

The 1930s: Liberalism ascendant

Deflationary policies initiated by the Federal Reserve led to a depression (1929-1934) under President Hoover. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, wisely allowed a banking panic to run its course. A recovery of historic proportions followed, and liberalism received the credit. Roosevelt was overwhelmingly reelected in 1936 with a huge Congressional majority. In 1937, America suffered under its most left-wing government ever. There was a wave a labor unrest as the unions attempted gain control of industry with federal support. The economy slipped into a "Roosevelt depression" (1937-1938). At the end of the year, southern Democrats defected from Roosevelt's coalition to form the "Conservative Coalition" with Republicans and the "Second New Deal" was aborted. This coalition dominated Congress until 1961. Despite Roosevelt's mismanagement of the economy, the Democrats continued to win elections by blaming Hoover.