By most contemporary
standards, I count as a conservative. I
believe in a smaller government, a market economy, and the nuclear family. I also want us to honor the constitution and
protect religious freedom. Indeed, I am a
strong advocate for liberty—period.
But that does not mean I
want to return to the past. It does not
even mean I want to freeze things in place.
For me, the goal is to build on the past to make for a better
future. What is wrong ought to be
remedied; whereas what works should be preserved.
I remember cold winter
mornings when I was a boy. I recall how
my father had to wait for our car to warm up before he could put it in
gear. I also remember collecting change to
make long-distance calls at a nearby pay phone. Neither was much fun.
More consequentially, many New
York families had to escape to the Catskill Mountains during the summer in
order to avoid polio. Nor could blacks
and whites marry in the south. Neither
might minorities vote without fear of lynching.
Some folks even had to worry about putting food on the table.
Why would anyone want to
cancel out modern medicine, or return to an economy dependent on manual labor,
or keep women barefoot pregnant and in the kitchen? None, but the most obstinate troglodytes, ask
to go back to a horse and buggy era that did not have indoor plumbing.
Liberals are fond of the
canard that only they value progress.
This, however, is an egregious untruth.
To begin with, progressives are often backward looking. Their ideal is the rustic village of
yesteryear in which everyone knew each other and theoretically acted as if they
were family.
In fact, liberals hate
actual families. Many want to see them
dismantled. Conservatives, on the other
hand, want to strengthen domestic relationships. They want husbands and wives to be deeply committed
to each other and their children. They ask
intimates to work together for their joint benefit.
This most emphatically does
not imply plunging women into conjugal servitude. Most conservatives favor marriages in which the
spouses are moral equals. They want both
men and women to be fulfilled, which means that their relationship must be
different from that of their great-grandparents. In other words, it must change.
Liberals also accuse
conservatives of being insensitive racists.
They forget that it was Republicans who won the Civil War and fought for
school integration. Folks like me are
appalled by segregation and hypocritical tolerance. We categorically want equal rights for all.
Yet this too entails
change. Instead of the rigid racial
politics of today, the same rules should apply to everyone. We so-called “traditionalists” don’t want
affirmative action, but colorblind action.
Rather than tokens and political correctness, we insist on honesty and
mutual respect.
Liberals are forever
accusing conservatives of wanting to reinstate Jim Crow, whereas it is they who
fight to install correctives appropriate to the past rather than the
present. For instance, they want to
protect fraudulent voting, despite the fact that blacks now often vote in
greater numbers than whites.
Conservatives likewise
believe in education. They desire a
society where scholastic opportunity is available to everyone. What they oppose—and strenuously oppose—is
indoctrination. They want a marketplace
of ideas, not a one-size-fits-all liberal mentality.
Conservatives are dedicated
to equal opportunity! This, however,
requires more than slogans or government imposed regulations. We need a change of heart. All lives matter. Not just Black lives. Or women’s lives. Or gay lives.
Instead of social compartmentalization, everyone’s human rights have to
be respected.
How is this a return to the
past? In what way does it cement us into
the lifestyles of our ancestors? A
decentralized society, based on liberty and respectful relationships, depends
on us becoming more enlightened and civilized.
We need to grow up, if we are to live like genuine adults.
This is a forward-looking
agenda, not a backward looking one.
Although it reveres moral principles derived from the past, it asks us
to become the kind of people capable of implementing them.
Melvyn L. Fein, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology
Kennesaw State University
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