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, a major party that supported royal authority against the parliament. American Tories, or Loyalists, fled to Canada during the Revolution, so this faction played no role is subsequent U.S political history. 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. Although the Federalist Party dissolved in 1816, James Monroe, president from 1817 to 1825, adopted various Federalist positions regarding tariffs, a national bank, and other issues. Ideological differences were left behind as an "Era of Good Feelings" dawned.

Whigs and Democrats

Andrew Jackson's 1824 campaign for president divided the Republican Party into Jacksonians (who later organized as the Democratic Party) and anti-Jacksonians (later the Whig Party). Although the Whigs proclaimed themselves conservative, the political positions of the party's various state organizations diverged widely. The party's nominees for president were non-ideological war heroes.

The modern Republican Party was founded in 1854 as an anti-slavery party. Although the new party adopted the name of Jefferson's party, it is not linked to it organizationally. 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. Stephen Douglas, the Democratic nominee, supported the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision, which proclaim slaves private property protected by the U.S. Constitution, beyond federal control. The liberal wing of the Republican party, or Abolitionists, favored the abolition 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. The founding of the Populist Party in 1891 marks the appearance modern liberalism as an American political movement. The Pullman strike of 1894 split the nation into liberal and conservative camps. In the 1896 presidential election, the populists gained control of the Democratic Party and nominated William Jennings Bryan for president. Those Democrats who supported President Grover Cleveland, a conservative icon, fled to the Republican Party. William McKinley, the Republican nominee, won the general election. In this way, the Republican Party became a conservative pro-business party, the party of "sound money and protection." The 1896 election was the first in which a pro-union liberal party faced off against a pro-business conservative party. The ideological battle lines drawn at this time endured for generations.

The 1920s: Conservative high tide

President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, used World War I as a pretext to impose his "progressive" agenda, including federal control of the national economy. Americans reacted by voting for Warren 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). 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 Board Governor Benjamin Strong led to a depression in 1929-1934 under President Hoover. In 1933, Franklin Roosevelt, the newly elected Democratic president, wisely allowed a banking panic to run its course. A recovery of historic proportions followed. Liberalism and Roosevelt's "New Deal" got the credit, but the deleveraging of the banking system was almost certainly a more significant factor.

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 to use "sit-down" strikes to gain control of industry. The largest of these strikes was against General Motors in Flint, Michigan. The strikes sent the economy reeling, and there was a "Roosevelt Recession" in 1937-1938. At the end of 1937, the southern Democrats defected from Roosevelt's coalition to form a "Conservative Coalition" with Republicans. The Coalition was at first led by Senator Josiah Bailey of North Carolina, who issued a "Conservative Manifesto" in December 1937. When a bill to enlarge the Supreme Court with additional justices nominated by Roosevelt was defeated, the planned "Second New Deal" had to be aborted. Despite Roosevelt's mismanagement of the economy, the Democrats could still win elections by blaming Hoover long after the former president had left the political stage. However, the Conservative Coalition continued to dominated Congress until 1961.