Looking Forward—Why Most Conservatives are Not Conservative

Conservatives are supposedly against change. According to liberals, they haven’t had a new idea since Calvin Coolidge proclaimed that the business of America is business. Why, if it were up to these right-wing fuddy-duddies, we would still be wearing high-button shoes.
This, however, is complete nonsense. Whatever the conventional wisdom may say, most modern conservatives are actually forward looking. If “conservative” means being opposed to change, then American conservatives are not conservative. In fact, they are more progressive than most progressives.
Contemporary conservatives may honor tradition, but they do not stand pat on it. To the contrary, they believe in building upon the best of the past. They perceive the valuable contributions of our ancestors as a foundation upon which to construct further improvements.
Let us see what this adds up to. The four pillars of conservatism, i.e., the four principles upon which conservatives agree, are these. They believe in freedom, in democracy, in market economics and in family values; none of which is mired in the past. All, in fact, look toward the future.
Consider the case of democracy. Conservatives favor decentralized government. They universally support institutions that allow individuals to make decisions for themselves. Instead of delegating more power to Washington, they prefer that authority to be exercised closer to home. This, they assert, permits a flexibility that better suits the needs of ordinary people. How then is this a conservative idea? Doesn’t it actually foster novelty and responsiveness?
Then there is market economics. Conservatives are alleged to be friends of big business. But they also support small business. What they truly favor is not bigness, but the opportunities and creativity inherent in capitalism. They remember (in a way most liberals do not) that this system has produced greater wealth, and distributed it more broadly, than any other economic arrangement in the history of the world. In what way is prosperity a conservative phenomenon? Maybe it isn’t.
Next come family values. Conservatives do have a warm spot in their hearts for families. They believe in stable marriages. They also encourage parents to commit to raising their own children. Far from endorsing a patriarchal dictatorship in which men exploit women, most “conservatives” realize that the modern family is a companionate affair, where husbands and wives cooperate in establishing “a haven in a heartless world.” They know that loving families protect the interests of all concerned. There is nothing conservative in this except the conservation of human happiness.
Finally, we come to the most important conservative principle of all. If equality is the master value for liberals, freedom is the master value for conservatives. They insist that ordinary people be allowed the room to control their personal destinies. As such, conservatives are pleased to live in a nation that guarantees liberty for all. They are happy to honor a two hundred year old constitution that incorporated a Bill of Rights from the outset.
Is freedom a conservative idea? Does it prevent people from changing? Far from it! Freedom gives us the room to make changes. Freedom allows people to experiment in all sorts of directions; directions that may not have been contemplated by their forebears.
To be blunt, freedom is a progressive idea. Indeed, it may be the most progressive idea extant. Freedom allows people to innovate and to adjust. Coupled with democracy, market economics, and family values, it liberates the human soul to expand and to embrace an ever better future.
If the notion that liberals are progressive is one of the greatest frauds perpetrated on humankind, then the canard that conservatives oppose progress has got to be the second greatest fraud. Sometimes language misleads us. We get fooled into believing that a word characterizes that to which it is applied. This, unfortunately, has been the fate of the label “conservative.”
Melvyn L. Fein. Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University