What Conservatism Has Come To Mean

Do most conservatives even know what they believe? I don’t think they really do and I’m certain very few could articulate those beliefs in any meaningful way. In fact, I’m not sure 1-in-10 Americans can truly be considered authentic conservatives, the philosophy that originated with the American Revolution and was cemented by Thomas Jefferson. 

Conservatism is supposed to be in opposition to liberalism; it is not to be in partnership with it. Yet, sadly, that’s where we are today. Many of those who call themselves conservatives are not fighting against liberals, nor are they trying to roll back liberalism’s vast gains, but, instead, are cowing down to the Left and in many cases going along to get along. What’s the point in having an opposition party if there’s not going to be any actual opposition?

After the revolt against the British Empire, which was a backlash based on an American idea of self-government, the new battleground inside the young independent republic centered on which political party, both of which sprung up quickly, was the true defenders of the revolutionary ideal.

In George Washington’s first term, this epic battle was personified when a conflict broke out between Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson and Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton over the direction of the new Union of American States. The two collided over every conceivable policy – foreign affairs, taxes, spending, debt, the role of government in the lives of the people, and most notably a national bank. 

Hamilton believed a Bank of the United States, as he called it, was necessary for the government to be able to carry out its financial functions, allowing it to print money, make loans to the government, and serve as a depository for revenue. Jefferson opposed it. Both sent lengthy opinions to President Washington arguing their side of the issue. In the end, though, Jefferson lost the argument. Washington sided with Hamilton and established what was, essentially, a forerunner to the Federal Reserve. 

But take note that Jefferson did not offer an alternative plan. He didn’t submit to President Washington his idea for a national bank that was a bit less threatening than Hamilton’s. No, Jefferson opposed the entire concept, stating that the bank was not only unnecessary but unconstitutional as well. “To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress,” Jefferson wrote to Washington, “is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.”

Think back, if you will, to the fight over HillaryCare in 1994. When the Clintons proposed what amounted to a government takeover of the entire healthcare industry, Americans were rightly horrified. The few true conservatives in Congress, though with their party still in the minority, vowed to kill it. Texas Senator Phil Gramm bluntly declared that it would pass over “my cold, dead political body.” But the Republican leader, Senator Bob Dole, offered a compromise plan that was just a tad less horrifying than Hillary’s. Fortunately, neither of them passed. But this is what conservatism has come to mean today – being just slightly to the right of Democrats, not in complete opposition to them. 

Today the arguments over the federal income tax have amounted to a dispute over a 40 percent tax versus a 33 percent tax. Spending debates are little different. Republicans believe spending $100 billion less than Democrats somehow counts as being conservative. And in many cases Republicans have literally outspent Democrats, though always with a ready-made excuse, such a crisis to justify their profligate spending sprees. 

But these are not the issues we should be fighting over. What should be the argument? The same as Jefferson’s: We should not fight over differing tax rates but ask whether we should have an income tax at all. Or whether most of the federal agencies and departments should even exist, not how much we are going to fund them.

With Hamilton’s Federalists in charge for the first dozen years, the federal government expanded its powers, taxed, ran up debt, and even suppressed civil liberties. Many in Jefferson’s party were talking secession from the Union, especially after the Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition Acts, and began jailing the opposition. Jefferson, though, urged caution. He had faith in the people. He wrote to a close confidante in 1798:

“A little patience, and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their spells dissolve, and the people, recovering their true sight, restore their government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are suffering deeply in spirit, and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public debt… And if we feel their power just sufficiently to hoop us together, it will be the happiest situation in which we can exist. If the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at stake.”

Eventually, though, Jefferson’s arguments won out in the election of 1800. Hamilton’s Federalist Party was crushed at the polls, ousted from the House, Senate, and White House, never to hold power again. The people rose up in righteous indignation but they did so because there was an opposition to rally around, one that would fight the Federalists and roll back their program, not attempt to co-exist with them. 

With Jefferson’s party in place for decades, Americans won back the principles that were lost and every bit of Hamilton’s program was eventually repealed, making Jeffersonian America the freest, most prosperous place on the planet. That is true conservatism.