Conservatism in the United States is a major
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
political philosophyPolitical philosophy is the study of city, government, politics, liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...
. In contemporary American politics, it is often associated with the
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
. Conservative principles include support for God and country, for tradition, and, in economics, for capitalism.
There has always been a conservative tradition in America, but the modern American conservative movement was popularized by
Russell KirkRussell Kirk was an American political theorist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post-World War II conservative movement...
who, in 1953, published
The Conservative Mind. Two years later, in 1955,
William F. Buckley, Jr.William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist...
founded
National ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine and web site, founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955 and based in New York City...
, a conservative magazine that included
traditionalistsTraditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," and Burkean conservatism is a political philosophy which emphasizes the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition and custom, hierarchy and "Gemeinschaft" , and localism and...
, such as Kirk, along with Roman Catholics, libertarians, and
anti-communistAnti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism, especially Marxism. Organized anti-communism developed in reaction to the growing popularity of the communist movement, and took on many forms during the 20th century....
s. This bringing together of separate ideologies under a conservative umbrella was known as "fusionism." Politically, the conservative movement in the U.S. has often been a coalition of various groups, which has sometimes contributed to its electoral success and other times been a source of internal conflict.
Modern conservatism became a major political force in 1964, when
Barry GoldwaterBarry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. He was also a Major General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He was known as "Mr...
, a U.S. Senator from Arizona and author of
The Conscience of a ConservativeThe Conscience of a Conservative is a book published under the name of Arizona Senator and 1964 Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1960. The book reignited the American conservative movement and made Barry Goldwater a political star...
(1960), made an unsuccessful bid for the US presidency, with the slogan, "In your heart, you know he's right." Conservatism attracted White Southern Democrats, alienated by Democratic support of Federal
Civil RightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
legislation, and evangelical Christians, concerned about what they saw as a breakdown of American morals. The movement culminated with the election of Republican candidate Ronald Reagan, a self-identified American conservative, as president.
Origins
Prior to the American Revolution, colonial institutions were generally conservative, including established churches, entailed property ownership, and bondage labor. Local land-owning and merchant elites became powerful through patronage from colonial governors and formed "court" factions in the colonial legislatures, opposed by "popular" factions representing less privileged voters. Those conservative elites and their followers who remained loyal to the Crown are called Loyalists or "Tories". During the Revolution, approximately 20% of the loyalists fled the United States, although the great majority remained in America.
Thus the American Revolution disrupted the old networks of conservative elites. The departure of so many royal officials, rich merchants and landed gentry destroyed the hierarchical networks that had dominated most of the colonies. In New York, for example, the departure of key members of the DeLancy, DePester Walton and Cruger families undercut the interlocking families that largely owned and controlled the Hudson Valley. Likewise in Pennsylvania, the departure of powerful families--Penn, Allen, Chew, Shippen--destroyed the cohesion of the old upper class there. New men became rich merchants but they shared a spirit of republican equality that replaced the elitism and the Americans never recreated such a powerful upper class. One rich patriot in Boston noted in 1779 that "fellows who would have cleaned my shoes five years ago, have amassed fortunes and are riding in chariots."
[ Gordon Wood, The Radicalism of the American Revolution (1991) pp. 176-77; quote on p 177.]
Since all major American parties descended from the American Revolution and have always held firmly to
republicanismRepublicanism is the value system of governance that has been a major part of American civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, rejects inherited political power, expects citizens to be independent in...
, there is often disagreement over which politicians and writers from the past should be included as conservatives.
The
American RevolutionThe American Revolution is the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America at first rejected the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the British monarchy itself, to become the sovereign United States of...
founded the first modern state based on
republicanismRepublicanism is the value system of governance that has been a major part of American civic thought since the American Revolution. It stresses liberty and rights as central values, makes the people as a whole sovereign, rejects inherited political power, expects citizens to be independent in...
and the
liberalLiberalism is the belief in the importance of individual freedom. This belief is widely accepted today throughout the world, and was recognized as an important value by many philosophers throughout history...
ideas of
John LockeJohn Locke was an English physician and philosopher regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered the first of the British empiricists, he is equally important to social contract theory. His work had a great impact upon the development of epistemology and political...
. Conservatives embrace these founding principles--there are no spokesmen for royalty, hereditary aristocracy, or established church.
Russell KirkRussell Kirk was an American political theorist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post-World War II conservative movement...
, in
The Conservative Mind, wrote that the
American RevolutionThe American Revolution is the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America at first rejected the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the British monarchy itself, to become the sovereign United States of...
was "a conservative reaction, in the English political tradition, against royal innovation" Thus modern liberals and modern conservatives both claim to represent the ideas of the Founding Fathers. The modern conservative movement in the United States combines factions which were on opposite sides in the
18th CenturyThe 18th century lasted from 1701 to 1800 in the Gregorian calendar, in accordance with the Anno Domini/Common Era numbering system.However, Western historians sometimes specifically define the 18th century otherwise for the purposes of their work...
. For example
John AdamsJohn Adams was an American politician and the second President of the United States , after being the first Vice President for two terms. He is regarded as one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution...
was in favor of
free tradeFree trade is a type of trade policy that allows traders to act and transact without interference from government. According to the law of comparative advantage the policy permits trading partners mutual gains from trade of goods and services....
, but also supported a strong federal government.
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
was in favor of religious freedom, but also supported
small governmentA Small government is one which minimizes its own activities. In its "perfect" form, minarchism, the state confines itself to foreign policy, defense and law while leaving other activities to local government, companies and individuals....
.
Unlike England, Europe, and even other former European colonies, the United States did not develop political parties which were as firmly based in ideological differences. For example, during and after the
Civil WarA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
, the Republican party supported the rights of African-Americans, while the Democratic party styled itself "the Party of the White Man." When Democratic President Lyndon Johnson supported the
civil rightsCivil and political rights are a class of rights and freedoms that protect individuals from unwarranted government action and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression....
movement, the
solid SouthSolid South refers to the electoral support of the Southern United States for the Democratic Party candidates for nearly a century from 1877, the end of the Reconstruction, to 1964, during the middle of the Civil Rights era....
switched parties, from overwhelmingly Democratic to overwhelmingly Republican. Today, a strong majority of African-Americans are Democrats.
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
and
James MadisonJames Madison was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United States , and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States....
founded the Democratic-Republican Party, which dominated American politics from 1800 to 1824. When the party split in two, in 1824, the conflict was personal rather than ideological. The presidential election of that year was a tie, and so the
House of RepresentativesThe United States House of Representatives, commonly referred to as the "House," is the lower house of the bicameral United States Congress, the upper house being the United States Senate. The composition and powers of the House and the Senate are established in Article One of the Constitution...
decided the election. They chose
John Quincy AdamsJohn Quincy Adams was the sixth President of the United States from March 4, 1825 to March 4, 1829. He was also an American diplomat and served in both the Senate and House of Representatives...
over
Andrew JacksonAndrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States . He was military governor of Florida , commander of the American forces at the Battle of New Orleans , and eponym of the era of Jacksonian democracy...
. For several years, the two factions quarreled over which had the right to call itself "Republican." In the years leading up to the
Civil WarA civil war is a war between organized groups within a single nation state, or, less commonly, between two nations created from a formerly-united nation state. The aim of one side may be to take control of the nation or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies...
, the party that favored strong federal government and opposed slavery became officially known as the Republican Party, while the party that favored states rights and supported slavery officially became the Democratic Party.
In the early 1830s, the National Republicans combined with various other political factions to form the
Whig PartyThe Whig Party was a political party of the United States during the era of Jacksonian democracy. Considered integral to the Second Party System and operating from 1833 to 1856, the party was formed in opposition to the policies of President Andrew Jackson and the Democratic Party...
, choosing the name "Whig" because it had been used by patriots in the Revolution and therefore appealed to Americans' sense of tradition.
Daniel WebsterDaniel Webster was a leading American statesman during the nation's Antebellum Period. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...
and other Whig leaders called themselves the "conservative party" and used the word "conservative." This word had been coined by French politician Chateaubriand in 1819, and introduced into American politics by
John C. CalhounJohn Caldwell Calhoun was the 7th Vice President of the United States and a leading Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun was an advocate of slavery, states' rights, limited government, and nullification...
. In Whig usage, it emphasized preservation of the union and constitutionalism (as opposed to
abolitionismAbolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and emancipate slaves in western Europe and the Americas. The slave system aroused little protest until the 18th century, when rationalist thinkers of the Enlightenment criticized it for violating the rights of man, and Quaker and other evangelical...
). However, the term "conservative" was omitted from Whig's final 1856 presidential platform.
The Whigs were a
populistPopulism is a political discourse that juxtaposes "the people" with "the elites." Populism may comprise an ideology urging social and political system changes and/or a rhetorical style deployed by members of political or social movements...
party, successfully running the well-known General
William Henry HarrisonWilliam Henry Harrison was the ninth President of the United States, an American military officer and politician, and the first president to die in office...
as its presidential candidate in 1840. The campaign portrayed Harrison as a rugged frontiersman; in fact he was a Virginia planter. But lack of unity, especially over the issue of slavery, led to the party's decline and it disappeared by 1860.
After the Civil War, American conservatives supported the Democratic Party and radicals supported the Republican Party. The so-called Radical Republicans registered Negro voters in the South, and also supported state schools, state funding for the poor and orphans and for institutions for the deaf and blind. Conservative Democrats supported the
Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan , informally known as The Klan, is the name of several past and present hate group organizations in the United States whose avowed purpose was to protect the rights of and further the interests of white Americans by violence and intimidation. The first such organizations originated in...
and opposed the growing power of the federal government. The
Compromise of 1877The Compromise of 1877 was an informal, unwritten deal that settled the disputed 1876 U.S. Presidential election. Through it, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes was awarded the White House over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden on the understanding that Hayes would remove the federal troops that were propping...
overthrew the power of the Radical Republicans in the South, and delayed voting rights for Blacks for almost another century.
Southern conservatism
John Randolph of RoanokeJohn Randolph , known as John Randolph of Roanoke, was a leader in Congress from Virginia and spokesman for the "Old Republican" or "Quids" faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that wanted to restrict the role of the federal government.-Biography:He was born at Cawsons, Virginia , he was the...
and
John C. CalhounJohn Caldwell Calhoun was the 7th Vice President of the United States and a leading Southern politician from South Carolina during the first half of the 19th century. Calhoun was an advocate of slavery, states' rights, limited government, and nullification...
expressed a traditional conservatism in the Southern states before the Civil War.
Randolph declared in 1829: "I am an aristocrat: I love liberty, I hate equality." He is considered, along with John Calhoun, to be one of the main defenders of Southern plantation interests before the Civil War.
Calhoun, a Democrat, articulated a sophisticated conservatism in his writings.
Richard HofstadterRichard Hofstadter was an American historian and DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History at Columbia University...
(1948) called him "The Marx of the Master Class." He believed that only property holders should be allowed to vote, and resisted the growing strength of the federal government. He also argued that a conservative minority should be able to limit the power of a "majority dictatorship" because tradition represents the wisdom of past generations. (This argument echoes one made by
Edmund BurkeEdmund Burke PC was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who, after relocating to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a member of the Whig party. He is mainly remembered for his opposition to the French Revolution...
, the founder of British conservatism, in
Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790)).
However, as Russell Kirk wrote, after the Civil War and Reconstruction, traditional conservatism faded in the South. "Grant and Sherman ground their valor into powder, Emancipation and Reconstruction demolished the loose structure of their old society, economic subjugation crushed them into the productive machine of modern times. No political philosophy has had a briefer span of triumph than that accorded Randolph's and Calhoun's."
Southern conservatism revived after the Civil War with the rise of the Dixiecrats and the "Solid South." The
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
styled itself "The Party of the White Man", and worked to overturn the gains in civil rights accomplished by civil rights workers from the north, who were largely Republican. Northerners who came south to teach African-Americans to read and write were denigrated as carpetbaggers, while Southerners who fought for civil rights were called "scalawags." Southern Negroes were denied the right to vote, by violence and threats of violence, for a century, from the time of the Reconstruction until the 1960s.
Conservatism as an intellectual movement in the South was briefly revived in the early 20th Century with the rise of the
Southern AgrariansThe Southern Agrarians were a group of twelve American writers, poets, essayists, and novelists, all with roots in the Southern United States, who joined together to write a pro-Southern agrarian manifesto, a...
. Today, after
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
's
Southern StrategyIn American politics, the Southern strategy refers to a purported Republican method of winning Southern states in the latter decades of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st century by exploiting opposition among the segregationist South to desegregation and Civil Rights, and the cultural...
, cultural and political conservatism has gained a foothold in the American South based not on racism, but on religion, with the Republican and Democratic parties swapping places, and the "solid south" switching from Democrat to Republican.
Late 19th century
Following the American Civil War, the United States entered the
Gilded AgeIn American history, the Gilded Age refers to substantial growth in population in the United States and extravagant displays of wealth and excess of America's upper-class during the post-Civil War and post-Reconstruction era, in the late 19th century...
(1868-1900) during which there was massive economic expansion, but also growing divisions of wealth, with
John D. RockefellerJohn Davison Rockefeller was an American industrialist. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897. Standard Oil began as an Ohio...
,
Andrew CarnegieAndrew Carnegie was a Scottish industrialist, businessman, entrepreneur, and a major philanthropist....
, J.P. Morgan and others creating huge corporations dominating entire industries, while 12 hour work days, child labor, unethical business dealings and discrimination were common.
During this period, both the Republican and Democratic Parties pursued laissez-faire economic policies. The best known president of this era was
Grover ClevelandStephen Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
, a
Bourbon DemocratBourbon Democrat was a term used in the United States from 1876 to 1904 to refer to a conservative or classical liberal member of the Democratic Party, especially one who supported President Grover Cleveland in 1884–1896 and Alton B. Parker in 1904. After 1904, the Bourbons faded away...
, who fought corruption and high taxes, and vigorously defended big business.
William Graham SumnerWilliam Graham Sumner was an American academic and professor at Yale College. For many years he had a reputation as one of the most influential teachers there. He was a polymath with numerous books and essays on American history, economic history, political theory, sociology, and anthropology...
, a popular philosopher of this period, exemplified the belief in free markets, anti-imperialism and the gold standard. Opposition to conservatism came mostly from outside the two political parties, from trade unions and farm groups, often forming third parties such as the Greenback-Labor Party and the Populist Party.
As the century drew to a close, the United States had become a major commercial power and had acquired overseas territories in Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. The two parties re-aligned in the election of 1896, with the Republicans, led by
William McKinleyWilliam McKinley Jr. was the 25th President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected to the office....
, becoming the party of business, sound money, and assertive foreign policy, and the Democrats, led by populist
William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings Bryan was the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908, a lawyer, and the 41st United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson. One of the most popular speakers in American history, he was noted for a deep, commanding voice...
, becoming the party of labour and farmers, an inflationary monetary policy of bimetalism, anti-imperialism, and a tariff strictly for revenue as opposed to
protectionProtection may refer to:*Protection *Protection * Protection, measure for birth control,condom,safety gear* Power system protectionPlaces:*Protection, Kansas*Protection, New York Titled expressive works:...
.
Early 20th century
In the early years of the twentieth century, Republican presidents
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
and
William Howard TaftWilliam Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the 10th Chief Justice of the United States....
governed more as Progressives than as Conservatives (Roosevelt more so) including regulation of railroad rates, federal inspection of food and drugs, and anti-trust legislation and prosecutions. Nelson Aldrich, the Republican Senate Majority leader, introduced legislation to establish the
Federal Reserve SystemThe Federal Reserve System is the central banking system of the United States. It was created in 1913 by the enactment of the Federal Reserve Act, largely as a response to a series of financial panics or bank runs, particularly a severe panic in 1907...
, which was set up in 1913.
The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917 alarmed both Democrats and Republicans, leading both parties to take strong anti-communist positions. In 1918, American troops were sent to join European, Asian, Canadian and Australian forces in an
allied intervention in the Russian Civil WarThe Allied intervention was a multi-national military expedition launched in 1918 during the Russian Civil War and World War I. The intervention involved fourteen nations and was conducted over a vast expanse of territory...
, while at home the government passed laws against anarchists and other radicals, and conducted numerous raids (see
Palmer RaidsThe Palmer Raids were a series of controversial raids by the United States Department of Justice and Immigration and Naturalization Service from 1919 to 1921 on suspected radical leftist citizens and immigrants in the United States, the legality of which is now in question...
), arresting 10,000 people, and even fabricated evidence against suspects. Eugene Debs, the leader of the Socialist Party was convicted under the Espionage Act 1917 for opposing American entry into the First World War, and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment and many elected Socialist office-holders were expelled from office. At the height of the "
Red ScareIn US history, the term Red Scare denotes two distinct periods of strong anti-communism: the First Red Scare, from 1917 to 1920, and the Second Red Scare, from 1947 to 1957. The Scares were characterized by the fear that communism would upset the capitalist social order in the United States; the...
", the Attorney-General, Alexander Palmer predicted that there would be a Communist Revolution in America on May 1, 1920.
Conservative Republicans returned to dominance in 1920 with the election of President
Warren G. HardingWarren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States, serving from 1921 until his death from a heart attack or stroke in 1923. A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate and later as Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S...
. The presidency of
Calvin CoolidgeJohn Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the...
(1923-29) was a high water mark for conservatism, both politically and intellectually. Coolidge himself spoke and wrote extensively in defense of American enterprise. Classic writing of the period includes
Democracy and Leadership (1924) by Irving Babbitt and H.L. Mencken's magazine
American Mercury (1924-33). The
Efficiency MovementThe Efficiency Movement was a major dimension of the Progressive Era in the United States. It flourished 1890-1932. Adherents argued that all aspects of the economy, society and government were riddled with waste and inefficiency. Everything would be better if experts identified the problems and...
attracted Progressive Republicans like
Herbert HooverHerbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic...
with its pro-business, quasi-engineering approach to solving social and economic problems.
The
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
which followed the 1929 stock market collapse led to price deflation, massive unemployment, falling farm incomes, investment losses, bank failures, business bankruptcies and reduced government revenues. The voters grew impatient with Republican President
Herbert HooverHerbert Clark Hoover was the 31st President of the United States . Hoover was a professional mining engineer and author. As the United States Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s under Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge, he promoted government intervention under the rubric "economic...
's claim that prosperity was just around the corner and that government was powerless to improve the economy and elected Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt as president in 1932. Roosevelt assembled experts and introduced a set of policies called the
New DealThe New Deal was the name that United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave to his complex package of economic programs 1933-36 with the goals of what historians call the 3 Rs, of giving Relief to the unemployed and badly hurt farmers, Reform of business and financial practices, and promoting...
, which was greatly influenced by the economic theories of the Liberal economist
John Maynard KeynesJohn Maynard Keynes, 1st Baron Keynes, CB was a British economist whose ideas have been a central influence on modern macroeconomics, both in theory and practice...
. These included devaluing the dollar and increasing government spending on public works programs, as well as establishing regulatory bodies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Former Democratic presidential candidates
John W. DavisJohn William Davis was an American politician, diplomat and lawyer. He served as an United States Representative from West Virginia , then as Solicitor General of the United States and U.S. Ambassador to the UK under President Woodrow Wilson. Over a 60-year legal career, he argued 140 cases...
(1924) and
Al SmithAlfred Emanuel Smith, Jr. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American politician who was elected Governor of New York four times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928. He was the first Roman Catholic and Irish-American to run for President as a major party...
(1928) along with other anti-New Deal Democrats and wealthy industrialists, formed the
American Liberty LeagueThe American Liberty League was a United States organization formed in 1934 by conservative Democrats such as Al Smith , Jouett Shouse , John W...
in order to organize against the new administration.
Opposition to the New Deal also came from the
Old RightOld Right may refer to:* Old Right , the ideology and policies of the Conservative Party that predated the ideological shift led by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...
, a group of
libertarianLibertarianism is a term adopted by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which advocate the maximization of individual liberty and the minimization or even abolition of the state...
, free-market anti-interventionists, originally associated with Midwestern Republicans and Southern Democrats. The Old Right were also later united in opposing American entry into the Second World War, and were called "isolationists", although opposition to the war came from across the political spectrum (see
America FirstAmerica First may refer to:*America First Committee, a group that opposed entry of the United States into World War II*America First Credit Union, a credit union in Utah*America First Party , an isolationist political party...
). However, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the German declaration of war against the United States united them behind the war effort.
Vice President
John Nance GarnerJohn Nance Garner IV nicknamed "Cactus Jack" was the 44th Speaker of the United States House of Representatives and the 32nd Vice President of the United States .- Early life and family :...
worked with congressional allies to prevent Roosevelt from appointing sympathetic Supreme Court judges who would not over-rule New Deal legislation as unconstitutional. U.S. Senator Josiah Bailey (D-NC) released what later became known as the "
Conservative ManifestoThe Conservative Manifesto was a position statement drafted in 1937 by a bi-partisan group of New Deal critics. Those involved in its creation included opponents of President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal as well as erstwhile supporters who had come to believe its programs were proving ineffective...
" in December 1937 which marked the beginning of the "
Conservative CoalitionThe Conservative coalition, in the United States, was an unofficial Congressional coalition bringing together the conservative majority of the Republican Party and the conservative, mostly Southern, minority of the Democratic Party...
" between Republican and Southern Democrats. Although Roosevelt tried to purge the conservative Democrats in the 1938 election, the Coalition controlled Congress until 1961, aside from a brief period in 1949-50. Its most prominent leaders were Senator
Robert TaftRobert Alphonso Taft , of the Taft political family of Cincinnati, was a Republican United States Senator and a prominent conservative statesman...
(R-OH) and Senator
Richard RussellRichard Russell may refer to:*Richard Russell, Sr. , United States judge and chief justice of the Georgia Supreme Court*Richard Russell, Jr. , his son, governor and U.S. Senator from Georgia...
(D-GA). Robert Taft unsuccessfully sought the Republican nomination in 1940, 1948, and 1952, and was an opponent of American membership in
NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organization ); ), also called "the Atlantic Alliance", is an intergovernmental military alliance based on the North Atlantic Treaty which was signed on April 4, 1949...
and participation in the
Korean WarThe Korean War is a war that started between North Korea and South Korea on 25 June 1950 and paused with an armistice signed 27 July, 1953...
.
Although the United States emerged as the world's undisputed leading power following the Second World War, the Soviet Union was able to build substantial military power, and had influence with many independence groups in European colonies. While the government addressed this perceived threat by maintaining a permanent military presence throughout the world, conservatives used their power in Congress to investigate a perceived threat from domestic Communists. Senator Joe McCarthy and Congressman
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
were leading congressional anti-communist investigators, while FBI Director J Edgar Hoover led police investigations and informed the public of the perceived threat, and Screen Actor's Guild President
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
looked for Communists working in the film industry.
Modern conservatism
Modern conservatism, which combines elements from both
traditional conservatismTraditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," and Burkean conservatism is a political philosophy which emphasizes the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition and custom, hierarchy and "Gemeinschaft" , and localism and...
and libertarianism, emerged following
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, has its immediate political roots in reaction to the New Deal.
Origins
Although the Republicans returned to power with the election of General
Dwight D. EisenhowerDwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the...
as president in 1952, the economic and social policies of the New Deal had become generally accepted and its opponents were marginalized. Isolationism had discredited the Old Right and their opposition to Civil Rights had discredited the Southern Democrats. The most critical opposition to these policies came from writers.
Russell KirkRussell Kirk was an American political theorist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post-World War II conservative movement...
claimed that both classical and modern liberalism placed too much emphasis on economic issues and failed to address man's spiritual nature, and called for a plan of action for a conservative political movement. He said that conservative leaders should appeal to farmers, small towns, the churches, and others. This target group is similar to the core constituency of the British Conservative Party.
Friedrich HayekFriedrich August von Hayek CH , was an Austrian and British economist and philosopher known for his defense of classical liberalism and free-market capitalism against socialist and collectivist thought. He is considered by some to be one of the most important economists and political philosophers...
,
Ludwig von MisesLudwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian aristocrat, economist, philosopher, author and classical liberal who had a major influence on the modern libertarian movement and the Austrian School.-Early life:...
,
Ayn RandAyn Rand , was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
, and
Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and public intellectual, and a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics...
advocated a return to classical liberal or libertarian policies and together provided a vigorous criticism of the welfare state and Keynesian economics.
William F. Buckley, Jr.William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist...
formed the magazine the
National ReviewNational Review is a biweekly magazine and web site, founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955 and based in New York City...
in 1955 as a forum for these writers to voice their disagreements with modern liberalism and also with one another. He was joined by anti-communist
Robert W. Welch Jr.Robert Henry Winborne Welch Jr. was an American businessman, political activist and author. He was independently wealthy following his retirement and used that wealth to sponsor anti-communist causes...
, who would found the
John Birch SocietyThe John Birch Society is a political advocacy group that supports what it considers traditionally conservative causes such as the private ownership of property, the rule of law and U.S. sovereignty but opposes globalism. The society is paleoconservative on the American political spectrum. Founded...
in 1958, as a shareholder and contributor. By 1962, however, Buckley and the emerging mainstream conservatives rejected the tenants of the John Birch Society and urged the GOP to purge themselves of its influences.
The main disagreement between Kirk, who would become described as a
traditionalist conservativeTraditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," and Burkean conservatism is a political philosophy which emphasizes the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition and custom, hierarchy and "Gemeinschaft" , and localism and...
, and the libertarians was whether tradition and virtue or liberty should be their primary concern. Frank Meyer tried to resolve the dispute with "fusionism": America could not conserve its traditions without economic freedom. He also noted that they were united in opposition to "big government" and made anti-communism the glue that would unite them. The term "conservative" was used to describe the views of National Review supporters, despite initial protests from the libertarians, because the term "liberal" had become associated with "New Deal" supporters. They were also later known as the "
New RightNew Right is used in several countries as a descriptive term for various policies and/or groups that are right-wing. It has also been used to describe the emergence of Eastern European parties after the collapse of communism.-Australia:...
", as opposed to the
New LeftThe New Left were the left-wing movements in different countries in the 1960s and 1970s that, unlike the earlier leftist focus on union activism, instead adopted a broader definition of political activism commonly called social activism. The U.S...
.
The conservatives united behind the unsuccessful 1964 presidential campaign of Senator Barry Goldwater, who had published the "Conscience of a Conservative" (1960), a best-selling book that explained modern conservative theory. Substantial organization for the campaign came from the John Birch Society and the newly-formed
Young Americans for FreedomYoung Americans for Freedom is a conservative youth organization that was founded in 1960. While the 1960s were its most successful years in terms of numbers and influence, YAF continues to be active as a national organization with chapters throughout the United States.-Philosophy:YAF's founding...
. In 1965 conservatives campaigned for Buckley as a third party candidate for Mayor of New York and in 1966 for Ronald Reagan, who was elected governor of California. Reagan sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1968 and 1976, before finally being elected president in 1980.
The growth of conservatism within the Republican Party attracted White conservative Southern Democrats as new members, and the Republicans became the dominant power in the Southern states. In 1964, the segregationist Democratic Senator
Strom ThurmondJames Strom Thurmond was an American politician who served as governor of South Carolina and as a United States Senator. He also ran for the Presidency of the United States in 1948 as the segregationist States Rights Democratic Party candidate, receiving 2.4% of the popular vote and 39 electoral...
joined the Republicans, and in 1973 former Texas Democratic Governor
John ConnallyJohn Bowden Connally, Jr. was an influential American politician, serving as Governor of Texas, Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy, and as Secretary of the Treasury under President Richard M. Nixon...
followed. Meanwhile, African American voters in the South began to show overwhelming support for the Democratic Party. (See
Southern StrategyIn American politics, the Southern strategy refers to a purported Republican method of winning Southern states in the latter decades of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st century by exploiting opposition among the segregationist South to desegregation and Civil Rights, and the cultural...
).
In 1971 Lewis F. Powell Jr. urged conservatives to retake command of public discourse by "financing think tanks, reshaping mass media and seeking influence in universities and the judiciary." In the coming decades policies once consided outside the mainstream consensus — abolishing welfare, privatizing Social Security, deregulating banking, embracing preventive war — were taken seriously and sometimes passed into law thanks to the work of the
Heritage FoundationThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
, the
American Enterprise InstituteThe American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
, the Fox News Network, as well as numerous corporate lobbying organizations and university professorships.
Nixon, Reagan, and Bush
See also: Nixon and the liberal consensus
The Republican administrations of President
Richard NixonRichard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States and is the only president to resign the office. He was also the 36th Vice President of the United States ....
in the 1970s were characterized more by their emphasis on
realpolitikRealpolitik refers to politics or diplomacy based primarily on practical considerations, rather than ideological notions. In this respect, it shares aspects of its philosophical approach with those of realism and pragmatism...
,
détenteDétente is a French term, meaning a relaxing or easing; the term has been used in international politics since the early 1970s. Generally, it may be applied to any international situation where previously hostile nations not involved in an open war de-escalate tensions through diplomacy and...
, and economic policies such as wage and price controls, than by their adherence to conservative views in foreign and economic policy.
Conservative ascent
It was not until the election of
1980The United States presidential election of 1980 featured a contest between incumbent Democrat Jimmy Carter and his Republican opponent, Ronald Reagan, as well as Republican Congressman John B. Anderson, who ran as an independent...
and the subsequent eight years of
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
's presidency that the modern American conservative movement truly achieved ascendancy. In that election, Republicans took control of the Senate for the first time since 1954, and conservative principles dominated Reagan's economic and foreign policies, with supply side economics and strict opposition to Soviet Communism defining the Administration's philosophy. Reagan's ideas were largely espoused and supported by the conservative
Heritage FoundationThe Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
, which grew dramatically in its influence during the Reagan years as Reagan and his senior aides looked to Heritage for policy guidance.
An icon of the American conservative movement, Reagan is credited by his supporters with transforming the politics of the United States, galvanizing the success of the Republican Party. He brought together a coalition of economic conservatives, who supported his supply side economics; foreign policy conservatives, who favored his staunch opposition to Communism and the
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
; and social conservatives, who identified with his religious and social ideals. Reagan labeled the former
Soviet UnionThe Union of Soviet Socialist Republics was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. The name is a translation of the , tr. Soyuz Sovetskikh Sotsialisticheskikh Respublik, abbreviated СССР, SSSR. The common short name is Soviet Union, from , Sovetskiy Soyuz...
as the "
evil empireThe phrase evil empire was applied especially to the Soviet Union by U.S. President Ronald Reagan and American and Canadian conservatives, who took an aggressive, hard-line stance that favored matching and exceeding the Soviet Union's strategic and global military capabilities.-British House of...
." He was criticized by many American liberals and other world leaders, but is now viewed by some historians as turning the tide in the
Cold WarThe Cold War was the continuing state of political conflict, military tension, and economic competition existing after World War II , primarily between the USSR and its satellite states, and the powers of the Western world, including the United States...
.
In defining conservatism, Reagan said: "If you analyze it I believe the very heart and soul of conservatism is libertarianism. I think conservatism is really a misnomer just as liberalism is a misnomer for the liberals—if we were back in the days of the Revolution, so-called conservatives today would be the Liberals and the liberals would be the Tories. The basis of conservatism is a desire for less government interference or less centralized authority or more individual freedom and this is a pretty general description also of what libertarianism is."
Subsequent electoral victories included gaining a Republican congressional majority in 1994 and the election of
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
in 2000 and 2004. However, some noted conservatives, including Richard A. Viguerie and
William F. BuckleyWilliam F. Buckley may refer to:*William Francis Buckley , U.S. Army officer and CIA operative held captive by Hezbollah*William Frank Buckley, Sr. , lawyer in Tampico, Mexico during the 1910s and father of William F. Buckley, Jr....
, have said that Bush was not a conservative, either in foreign policy nor in domestic economic policy.
Types
In the United States today, the word "
conservativeConservatism is the diverse political and social philosophy that supports tradition and the status quo, or that calls for a return to the values and society of an earlier age, the status quo ante. However, the term has been used by politicians and political commentators with a variety of meanings...
" is often used very differently from the way the word was used in the past and still is used in many parts of the world. The core ideals of historical conservatism, the way they are popularly understood today, were preserving the power of the land-owning class and preserving strong ties between church and state. As the industrial revolution led to a new manufacturing and professional elite, the ideals of conservatism changed to embrace
laissez-faireThe general meaning of Laissez-faire is to allow events to take their own course, or to let people do what they choose. The term is a French phrase literally meaning "let it be" or "leave it alone"....
economics and an opposition to
socialismSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
. In the United States, from the mid-20th century on, these two forms of conservatism have largely combined, but still are at odds with those who believe in both limited government and free market economics.
Barry GoldwaterBarry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. He was also a Major General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He was known as "Mr...
is one example of a "free enterprise" conservative, one of the last
RepublicanThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
proponents of
classical liberalismClassical liberalism is a political ideology that developed by the middle of the nineteenth century in England, western Europe, and the Americas, which provided a coherent vision of how society should be organized. Central to the classical liberalism of the nineteenth century is a commitment to...
and small government.
Jerry FalwellJerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an American evangelical Christian pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
is an example of a Christian conservative, and indicative of the new alliance between large government conservatives, like
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
, and the religiously-informed proponents of conservative social policy. Many conservatives cite
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
as a self-declared conservative who incorporated all of these conservative themes in his political ideology.
In the 21st century U.S., some of the groups calling themselves "conservative" include:
Classical or
institutional conservatism — Opposition to rapid change in governmental and societal institutions. This kind of conservatism is anti-ideological insofar as it emphasizes process (slow change) over product (any particular form of government). To the classical conservative, whether one arrives at a government controlled by a particular political party is less important than whether change is affected through rule of law rather than through
revolutionA revolution is a fundamental change in power or organizational structures that takes place in a relatively short period of time.Aristotle described two types of political revolution:...
and sudden innovation. The classical conservative emphasizes historical continuity, to ensure that a reform does not cause chaos within both the populace and historical institutions of a given society. Classical conservatives also favor tradition over experimentation, and have an inherent distrust in
utopiaUtopia is a name for an ideal community or society, that is taken from Of the Best State of a Republic, and of the New Island Utopia, a book written in 1516 by Sir Thomas More describing a fictional island in the Atlantic Ocean, possessing a seemingly perfect socio-politico-legal system...
n schemes.
Ideological conservatism or
right-wing conservatism — In contrast to the anti-ideological
classical conservatism,
right-wing conservatism is, as its name implies,
ideological. It favors business and established religion, and opposes socialism,
FascismFascism, , comprises a radical and authoritarian nationalist political ideology and a corporatist economic ideology developed in Italy. Fascists believe that nations and/or races are in perpetual conflict whereby only the strong can survive by being healthy, vital, and by asserting themselves in...
, and
communismCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
.
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
conservatism — Conservative Christians are primarily interested in
family valuesFamily values are political and social beliefs that hold the Nuclear family to be the essential ethical and moral unit of society. The phrase has different meanings in different cultures...
. They believe that the United States was founded as a
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
nation, believe that
abortionThe abortion debate refers to discussion and controversy surrounding the moral and legal status of abortion. The two main groups involved in the abortion debate are the pro-choice movement, and the pro-life movement. Each movement has, with varying results, sought to influence public opinion and...
is wrong, may favor teacher-led
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
prayerSchool prayer in its common usage refers to state-approved prayer by students in state schools. Depending on the country and the type of school, organized prayer may be required, permitted, or proscribed...
in state schools, define marriage as between one man and one woman, and desire regulation of the public media to reduce profanity and sexual references. They strongly oppose the normalization of
homosexualityHomosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
.
NeoconservatismNeoconservatism is a political philosophy that emerged in the United States of America, and which supports using American economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and human rights to other countries...
— A modern form of conservatism that supports a more assertive foreign policy, aimed at promoting
democracyDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
abroad.
NeoconservatismNeoconservatism is a political philosophy that emerged in the United States of America, and which supports using American economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and human rights to other countries...
was first described by a group of disaffected liberals, and thus
Irving KristolIrving Kristol was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism"...
, usually credited as its intellectual progenitor, defined a
neoconservative as "a liberal who was mugged by reality." Although originally regarded as an approach to domestic policy (the founding instrument of the movement, Kristol's
The Public InterestThe Public Interest was a quarterly public policy journal founded by established New York intellectuals Daniel Bell and Irving Kristol in 1965. It was a leading journal on political economy and culture, aimed at a readership of journalists, scholars, and policy makers...
periodical, did not even cover foreign affairs), through the influence of figures like
Dick CheneyRichard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
,
Robert KaganRobert Kagan is an American historian and foreign policy commentator.-Early life and education:Kagan graduated from Yale University in 1980. He later earned a master's degree from the John F...
,
Richard PerleRichard Norman Perle is an American political advisor and lobbyist who worked for the Reagan administration as an assistant Secretary of Defense and worked on the Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee from 1987 to 2004...
, Kenneth Adelman and (Irving's son) Bill Kristol, it has become most famous for its association with the foreign policy of the
George W. BushGeorge Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
administration. Many of the nation's most prominent and influential conservatives during the two terms of the Bush administration were considered "neoconservative" in their ideological orientation.
Small governmentA Small government is one which minimizes its own activities. In its "perfect" form, minarchism, the state confines itself to foreign policy, defense and law while leaving other activities to local government, companies and individuals....
conservatism — Small government conservatives look for a decreased role of the federal government. They follow
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
and
James MadisonJames Madison was an American politician and political philosopher who served as the fourth President of the United States , and was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States....
in their suspicion of a powerful federal government.
PaleoconservatismPaleoconservatism is a term for an anti-communist and anti-imperialist right-wing political philosophy in the United States stressing tradition, civil society and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton Williamson, Jr...
— Arising in the 1980s in reaction to
neoconservatismNeoconservatism is a political philosophy that emerged in the United States of America, and which supports using American economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and human rights to other countries...
, stresses tradition, especially
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
tradition and the importance to society of the traditional family. Some,
Samuel P. HuntingtonSamuel Phillips Huntington was an American political scientist who gained prominence through his Clash of Civilizations thesis of a post-Cold War new world order.-Biographical details:...
for example, argue that
multiracialThe terms multiracial and mixed-race describe people whose ancestries come from multiple races.-Definitions of multiraciality:While defining race is controversial and rejected by some specialists in human genetics,...
, multiethnic, and egalitarian states are inherently unstable.
PaleoconservativesPaleoconservatism is a term for an anti-communist and anti-imperialist right-wing political philosophy in the United States stressing tradition, civil society and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton Williamson, Jr...
are generally isolationist, and suspicious of foreign influence. The magazines
Chronicles and
American Conservative are generally considered to be
paleoconservativePaleoconservatism is a term for an anti-communist and anti-imperialist right-wing political philosophy in the United States stressing tradition, civil society and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton Williamson, Jr...
in nature.
Libertarian conservatismLibertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism , includes political ideologies which meld libertarianism and conservativism...
or
FusionismFusionism is an American political term for the combination or "fusion" of libertarians and traditional conservatives as well as social conservatives in the American conservative movement...
— Emphasizes a strict interpretation of the
ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States...
, particularly with regard to federal power.
Libertarian conservatismLibertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism , includes political ideologies which meld libertarianism and conservativism...
is constituted by a broad, even conflicted, coalition including pro-business social moderates, those favoring classic states' rights, individual liberty activists, and people concerned over single issues. This mode of thinking tends to espouse
laissez-faireThe general meaning of Laissez-faire is to allow events to take their own course, or to let people do what they choose. The term is a French phrase literally meaning "let it be" or "leave it alone"....
economics and a disdain for and distrust of the federal government.
Libertarian conservatives'Libertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism , includes political ideologies which meld libertarianism and conservativism...
emphasis on personal freedom often leads them to adopt social positions contrary to those of
ChristianChristianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as presented by the revelations in the New Testament....
conservatives. The
libertarianLibertarianism is a term adopted by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which advocate the maximization of individual liberty and the minimization or even abolition of the state...
branch of conservatism may have similar disputes that isolationist
paleoconservativesPaleoconservatism is a term for an anti-communist and anti-imperialist right-wing political philosophy in the United States stressing tradition, civil society and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton Williamson, Jr...
would with
neoconservativesNeoconservatism is a political philosophy that emerged in the United States of America, and which supports using American economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and human rights to other countries...
. However
libertarian conservativesLibertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism , includes political ideologies which meld libertarianism and conservativism...
may be more militarily interventionist or support a greater degree of military strength than other
libertariansLibertarianism is a term adopted by a broad spectrum of political philosophies which advocate the maximization of individual liberty and the minimization or even abolition of the state...
. Contrarily strong preference for local government puts
libertarian conservativesLibertarian conservatism, also known as conservative libertarianism , includes political ideologies which meld libertarianism and conservativism...
in frequent opposition to
international governmentThe United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and the achieving of world peace...
.
Ideology and political philosophy
Classical conservatives tend to be anti-ideological, and some would even say anti-philosophical, promoting rather, as
Russell KirkRussell Kirk was an American political theorist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post-World War II conservative movement...
explains, a steady flow of "prescription and prejudice." Kirk's use of the word "prejudice" here is not intended to carry its contemporary pejorative connotation: a conservative himself, he believes that the inherited wisdom of the ages may be a better guide than apparently rational individual judgment.
In contrast to classical conservatism,
social conservatism and
fiscal conservatism are concerned with consequences as well as means.
There are two overlapping subgroups of social conservatives—the traditional and the religious. Traditional conservatives strongly support traditional codes of conduct, especially those they feel are threatened by social change. For example, traditional conservatives may oppose the use of female soldiers in combat. Religious conservatives focus on conducting society as prescribed by a religious authority or code. In the United States this translates into taking hard-line stances on moral issues, such as opposition to
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
and
homosexualityHomosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
. Some religious conservatives go so far as to support the use of government institutions to promote religiosity in public life.
Fiscal conservatives support limited government, limited taxation, and a balanced budget. Some admit the necessity of taxes, but hold that taxes should be low. A recent movement against the inheritance tax labels such a tax a death tax. Fiscal conservatives often argue that competition in the free market is more effective than the regulation of industry, with the exception of industries that exhibit market dominance or monopoly powers. For some this is a matter of principle, as it is for the libertarians and others influenced by thinkers such as
Ludwig von MisesLudwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian aristocrat, economist, philosopher, author and classical liberal who had a major influence on the modern libertarian movement and the Austrian School.-Early life:...
, who believed that government intervention in the economy is inevitably wasteful and inherently corrupt and immoral. For others, "free market economics" simply represents the most efficient way to promote economic growth: they support it not based on some moral principle, but pragmatically, because it "works."
Most modern American fiscal conservatives accept some social spending programs not specifically delineated in the Constitution. As such, fiscal conservatism today exists somewhere between classical conservatism and contemporary consequentialist political philosophies.
Throughout much of the 20th century, one of the primary forces uniting the occasionally disparate strands of conservatism, and uniting conservatives with their liberal and
socialistSocialism refers to various theories of economic organization advocating public or direct worker ownership and administration of the means of production and allocation of resources, and a society characterized by equal access to resources for all individuals with a method of compensation based on...
opponents, was opposition to
communismCommunism is a socioeconomic structure and political ideology that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless society based on common ownership and control of the means of production and property in general. Karl Marx posited that communism would be the final stage in human...
, which was seen not only as an enemy of the traditional order, but also the enemy of western freedom and democracy. For example, in the 1980s, the United States government spent billions of dollars arming and supporting Islamic terrorists, because these terrorists were fighting communists.
Social conservatism and tradition
Social conservatismSocial conservatism is a political or moral ideology that believes government and/or society have a role in encouraging or enforcing traditional values or behaviors based on the belief that these are what keep people civilized and decent. A second meaning of the term social conservatism developed...
or "cultural conservatism" is generally dominated by defense of traditional social norms and values, of local customs and of societal evolution, rather than social upheaval, though the distinction is not absolute. Often based upon
religionA religion is a system of human thought which usually includes a set of narratives, symbols, beliefs and practices that give meaning to the practitioner's experiences of life through reference to a higher power, deity or deities, or ultimate truth...
, modern cultural conservatives, in contrast to "small-government" conservatives and "states-rights" advocates, increasingly turn to the federal government to overrule the states in order to preserve educational and moral standards.
Social conservatives emphasize traditional views of social units such as the
familyFamily denotes a group of people or animals affiliated by a consanguinity, affinity or co-residence...
,
churchA local church is a Christian religious organization made up of a congregation, its members and clergy. They are organized more or less formally, with constitutions and by-laws, maintain offices, sometimes seek non-profit corporate status in the United States and often have state or regional...
, or locale. Social conservatives would typically define family in terms of local histories and tastes. To the Protestant or
CatholicThe word Catholic is derived from the Greek adjective , meaning "universal". In the context of Christian ecclesiology, it has a rich history and several usages. For some, the term "Catholic Church" refers to the church in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, made up of the Latin Rite and the 22...
, social conservatism may entail support for defining
marriageMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
as between a man and a woman (thereby banning gay marriage) and laws placing restrictions on
abortionAn abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by the removal or expulsion from the uterus of a fetus or embryo. An abortion can occur spontaneously due to complications during pregnancy or can be induced, in humans and other species...
.
Conservative Protestants often advocate the teaching of
intelligent designIntelligent design is the assertion that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a modern form of the traditional teleological argument for the existence of God, but one which...
in the public schools, and believe that the theory of a God-created universe should be presented as a legitimate explanation for the world's creation. They often object when the schools teach a secular version of history, making the claim, for example, that all of America's Founding Fathers were Christian, and that America is thus founded on a Christian tradition.
From this same respect for local traditions comes the correlation between conservatism and patriotism. Conservatives, out of their respect for traditional, established institutions, tend to strongly identify with nationalist movements, existing governments, and its defenders: police, the military, and national poets, authors, and artists. Conservatives hold that military institutions embody admirable values like honor, duty, courage, and loyalty. Military institutions are independent sources of tradition and ritual pageantry that conservatives tend to admire.
Some conservatives want to use federal power to block state actions they disapprove of. Thus in the 21st century came support for the "No Child Left Behind" program, support for a constitutional amendment prohibiting
same-sex marriageSame-sex marriage is a term used to describe a legally or socially recognized marriage between two persons of the same biological sex or social gender. Other terms used to describe this type of recognition include gay marriage or gender-neutral marriage.Same-sex marriage is a civil rights,...
, support for federal laws overruling states that attempt to
legalize marijuanaSince the 20th century, most countries have enacted laws affecting the legality of cannabis regarding the cultivation, use, possession, or transfer of cannabis for recreational use. Many jurisdictions have lessened the penalties for possession of small quantities of cannabis, so that it is punished...
or
assisted suicideEuthanasia refers to the practice of ending a life in a painless manner. Many different forms of euthanasia can be distinguished, including animal euthanasia and human euthanasia, and within the latter, voluntary and involuntary euthanasia...
. The willingness to use federal power to intervene in state affairs is the negation of the old state's rights position.
Anti-intellectualismAnti-intellectualism describes a sentiment of hostility towards, or mistrust of, intellectuals and intellectual pursuits. This may be expressed in various ways, such as attacks on the merits of science, education, art, or literature....
has sometimes been a component of social conservatism, especially when intellectuals were seen in opposition to religion or as proponents of "progress." In the 1920s,
William Jennings BryanWilliam Jennings Bryan was the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States in 1896, 1900 and 1908, a lawyer, and the 41st United States Secretary of State under President Woodrow Wilson. One of the most popular speakers in American history, he was noted for a deep, commanding voice...
led the battle against
DarwinismDarwinism is a term used for various movements or concepts related to ideas of transmutation of species or evolution, including ideas with no connection to the work of Charles Darwin. The meaning of Darwinism has changed over time, and varies depending on who is using the term...
and
evolutionIn biology, evolution is change in the genetic material of a population of organisms from one generation to the next. Though changes produced in any one generation are normally small, differences accumulate with each generation and can, over time, cause substantial changes in the population, a...
, a battle which still goes on in some conservative circles today.
Fiscal conservatism
Fiscal conservatism is the economic and political policy that advocates restraint of governmental taxation and expenditures. Fiscal conservatives since the 19th century have argued that debt is a device to corrupt politics; they argue that big spending ruins the morals of the people, and that a national debt creates a dangerous class of speculators. The argument in favor of balanced budgets is often coupled with a belief that government welfare programs should be narrowly tailored and that tax rates should be low, which implies relatively small government institutions.
This belief in small government combines with fiscal conservatism to produce a broader
economic liberalism, which wishes to minimize government intervention in the economy. This amounts to support for
laissez-faireThe general meaning of Laissez-faire is to allow events to take their own course, or to let people do what they choose. The term is a French phrase literally meaning "let it be" or "leave it alone"....
economics. This
economic liberalism borrows from two schools of thought: the classical liberals' pragmatism and the libertarian's notion of "rights." The classical liberal maintains that free markets work best, while the libertarian contends that free markets are the only ethical markets.
The economic philosophy of conservatives in the United States tends to be more liberal allowing for more
economic freedomEconomic freedom is a term used in economic research and policy debates. As with freedom generally, there are various definitions, but no universally accepted concept of economic freedom...
.
Economic liberalismEconomic liberalism is the economic component of classical liberalism. It is the political and economic philosophy that supports and promotes the economic system of capitalism, in the laissez-faire sense...
can go well beyond
fiscal conservatism's concern for fiscal prudence, to a belief or principle that it is not prudent for governments to intervene in markets. It is also, sometimes, extended to a broader "
small governmentIn civics, minarchism refers to a political ideology which maintains that the state's only legitimate function is the protection of individuals from aggression...
" philosophy. Economic liberalism is associated with free-market, or
laissez-faireThe general meaning of Laissez-faire is to allow events to take their own course, or to let people do what they choose. The term is a French phrase literally meaning "let it be" or "leave it alone"....
economics.
Economic liberalism, insofar as it is
ideological, owes its creation to the "classical liberal" tradition, in the vein of
Adam SmithAdam Smith was a Scottish moral philosopher and a pioneer of political economy. One of the key figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, Smith is the author of The Theory of Moral Sentiments and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations...
, Friedrich A. Hayek,
Milton FriedmanMilton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and public intellectual, and a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics...
, and
Ludwig von MisesLudwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian aristocrat, economist, philosopher, author and classical liberal who had a major influence on the modern libertarian movement and the Austrian School.-Early life:...
.
Classical liberals and
libertarians support free markets on moral, ideological grounds: principles of individual liberty morally dictate support for free markets. Supporters of the moral grounds for free markets include
Ayn RandAyn Rand , was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
and
Ludwig von MisesLudwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian aristocrat, economist, philosopher, author and classical liberal who had a major influence on the modern libertarian movement and the Austrian School.-Early life:...
. The liberal tradition is suspicious of government authority, and prefers individual choice, and hence tends to see capitalist economics as the preferable means of achieving economic ends.
Modern conservatives, on the other hand, derive support for free markets from practical grounds. Free markets, they argue, are the most productive markets. Thus the modern conservative supports free markets not out of necessity, but out of expedience. The support is not moral or ideological, but driven on the Burkean notion of prescription: what works best is what is right.
Another reason why conservatives support a smaller role for the government in the economy is the belief in the importance of the
civil societyCivil society is composed of the totality of voluntary civic and social organizations and institutions that form the basis of a functioning society as opposed to the force-backed structures of a state and commercial institutions of the market.-Definition:There are myriad definitions of civil...
. As noted by
Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America and The Old Regime and the Revolution...
, a bigger role of the government in the economy will make people feel less responsible for the society. The responsibilities must then be taken over by the government, requiring higher taxes. In his book
Democracy in AmericaDe la démocratie en Amérique is a classic French text by Alexis de Tocqueville on the United States in the 1830s and its strengths and weaknesses. A literal translation of its title is On Democracy in America, but the usual translation of the title is simply Democracy in America...
, De Tocqueville describes this as "soft oppression."
It must be noted that while classical liberals and modern conservatives reached free markets through different means historically, to-date the lines have blurred. Rarely will a politician claim that free markets are "simply more productive" or "simply the right thing to do" but a combination of both. This blurring is very much a product of the merging of the classical liberal and modern conservative positions under the "umbrella" of the conservative movement.
The archetypal free-market conservative administrations of the late 20th century—the
Margaret ThatcherMargaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher LG, OM, PC, FRS served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She is the only woman to have held either post....
government in the UK and the
Ronald ReaganRonald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
government in the U.S. -- both held the unfettered operation of the market to be the cornerstone of contemporary modern conservatism (this philosophy is sometimes called
neoliberalismNeoliberalism is a synonym of classical economic liberalism. The term was coined in 1938 at the Colloque Walter Lippmann by the German sociologist and economist Alexander Rüstow, one of the fathers of Social market economy. The label is referring to a redefinition of classical liberalism,...
). To that end, Thatcher privatized industries and Reagan cut the maximum capital gains tax from 98% to 20%, though in his second term he raised it back up to 28%. Contrary to the neoliberal ideal, Reagan increased government spending from about 700 billion in his first year in office to about 900 billion in his last year.
Electoral politics
See also: Dixiecrats, Southern strategyIn American politics, the Southern strategy refers to a purported Republican method of winning Southern states in the latter decades of the 20th century and first decade of the 21st century by exploiting opposition among the segregationist South to desegregation and Civil Rights, and the cultural...
, Solid SouthSolid South refers to the electoral support of the Southern United States for the Democratic Party candidates for nearly a century from 1877, the end of the Reconstruction, to 1964, during the middle of the Civil Rights era....
, Contract with AmericaThe Contract with America was a document released by the United States Republican Party during the 1994 Congressional election campaign. Written by Larry Hunter who was aided by...
In the United States, the
Republican PartyThe Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the Grand Old Party or the GOP, despite being the younger of the two major parties. In the U.S...
is generally considered to be the party of conservatism. This has been the case since the 1960s, when the conservative wing of that party consolidated its hold, causing it to shift permanently to the right of the
Democratic PartyThe Democratic Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. It is the oldest political party in continuous operation in the United States and it is one of the oldest parties in the world. In the U.S...
. The most dramatic realignment was the white South, which moved from 3-1 Democratic to 3-1 Republican between 1960 and 2000.
In addition, some United States libertarians, in the
Libertarian PartyThe Libertarian Party is a United States political party founded on December 11, 1971.In the 30 states where voters can register by party there are over 200,000 voters registered with the Libertarian Party, making it one of the largest of America's alternative political parties...
and even some in the Republican Party, see themselves as conservative, even though they advocate significant economic and social changes – for instance, further dismantling the welfare system or liberalizing drug policy. They see these as conservative policies because they conform to the spirit of individual liberty that they consider to be a traditional American value.
On the other end of the scale, some Americans see themselves as conservative while not being supporters of free market policies. These people generally favor protectionist trade policies and government intervention in the market to preserve American jobs. Many of these conservatives were originally supporters of
neoliberalismNeoliberalism is a synonym of classical economic liberalism. The term was coined in 1938 at the Colloque Walter Lippmann by the German sociologist and economist Alexander Rüstow, one of the fathers of Social market economy. The label is referring to a redefinition of classical liberalism,...
who changed their stance after perceiving that countries such as
ChinaChina is a cultural region, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
were benefiting from that system at the expense of American production. However, despite their support for protectionism, they still tend to favor other elements of free market philosophy, such as low taxes, limited government and balanced budgets.
Geography
Geographically the
SouthThe Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, Down South, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive region in the southeastern and south-central United States...
, the
western MidwestThe West North Central States form one of the nine geographic divisions within the United States that are officially recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau....
, the
Rocky Mountain statesThe Mountain States form one of the nine geographic divisions of the United States that are officially recognized by the United States Census Bureau....
, and
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
are conservative strongholds. However, this is primarily because of the higher proportion of rural and exurban areas in those states. The majority of people who live in rural areas and a smaller majority of those living in the "
exurbsA commuter town is an urban community that is primarily residential, from which most of the workforce commute out to earn their livelihood. Many commuter towns act as suburbs of a nearby metropolis that workers travel to daily, and many suburbs are commuter towns...
" or suburbs of a metropolitan area, tend to be conservative and vote Republican. People who live in the urban cores of large metropolitan areas tend to be liberal and vote Democratic. Thus, within each state, there is a division between urban, suburban, exurban, and rural areas.
Contemporary Burkean conservatism
In western Europe conservatism is generally associated with the following views, as noted by the conservative author
Russell KirkRussell Kirk was an American political theorist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post-World War II conservative movement...
in his 1953 book,
The Conservative Mind, and (during the late 18th century) by the British political philosopher
Edmund BurkeEdmund Burke PC was an Anglo-Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher who, after relocating to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a member of the Whig party. He is mainly remembered for his opposition to the French Revolution...
:
- "Belief in a transcendent order, or body of natural law, which rules society as well as conscience."
- "Affection for the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence, as opposed to the narrowing uniformity, egalitarianism, and utilitarian aims of most radical systems;"
- "Persuasion that freedom and property are closely linked: separate property from private possession, and the Leviathan becomes master of all."
- "Faith in prescription and distrust of 'sophisters, calculators, and economists' who would reconstruct society upon abstract designs."
- "Recognition that change may not be salutary reform: hasty innovation may be a devouring conflagration, rather than a torch of progress."
Courts
One stream of conservatism exemplified by
William Howard TaftWilliam Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the 10th Chief Justice of the United States....
extols independent judges as experts in fairness and the final arbiters of the Constitution. However, another more critical variant of conservatism condemns "judicial activism: that is, judges using their decisions to control policy. This position goes back to Jefferson's vehement attacks on federal judges and to
Abraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through its greatest internal crisis, the American Civil War, preserving the Union and ending slavery...
's attacks on the
Dred ScottDred Scott , was a slave in the United States who sued unsuccessfully in St. Louis, Missouri for his freedom in the infamous Dred Scott v. Sandford case of 1857...
decision of 1857. In 1910
Theodore RooseveltTheodore Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States. He is well remembered for his energetic persona, his range of interests and achievements, his model of masculinity, and his "cowboy" image. He was a leader of the Republican Party and founder of the short-lived Bull Moose Party...
broke with most of his lawyer friends and called for popular votes that could overturn unwelcome decisions by state courts. President
Franklin D. RooseveltFranklin Delano Roosevelt , the only U.S. President elected to more than two terms, was a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
did not attack the
Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court of the United States is the highest judicial body in the United States, and leads the federal judiciary. It consists of the Chief Justice of the United States and eight Associate Justices, who are nominated by the President and confirmed with the "advice and consent" of the Senate...
directly in 1937, but ignited a firestorm of protest by a proposal to add seven new justices. The
Warren CourtThe Warren Court refers to the Supreme Court of the United States between 1953 and 1969, when Earl Warren served as Chief Justice. Marking some of the most dramatic changes in judicial power and philosophy in the history of the American judiciary, the Court expanded civil rights and liberties,...
of the 1960s came under conservative attack for decisions regarding redistricting, desegregation, and the rights of those accused of crimes.
A more recent variant that emerged in the 1970s is "
originalismIn the context of United States constitutional interpretation, originalism is a family of theories central to all of which is the proposition that the Constitution has a fixed and knowable meaning, which was established at the time of its drafting. A neologism, "originalism" is a formalist theory...
", the assertion that the
United States ConstitutionThe Constitution of the United States of America is the supreme law of the United States. It is the foundation and source of the legal authority underlying the existence of the United States of America and the federal government of the United States...
should be interpreted to the maximum extent possible in the light of what it meant when it was adopted. Originalism should not be confused with a similar conservative ideology,
strict constructionismStrict constructionism refers to a particular legal philosophy of judicial interpretation that limits or restricts judicial interpretation. In the United States the phrase is also commonly used more loosely as a generic term for conservatism among the judiciary.- Strict sense of the term :Strict...
, which deals with the interpretation of the Constitution as written, but not necessarily within the context of the time when it was adopted. In modern times, originalism has been advocated by U.S. Supreme Court justice
Antonin Scaliais an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan having previously served on the D.C. Circuit and in the Nixon and Ford administrations, and teaching law at the Universities of Virginia and Chicago...
, former U.S. federal judge
Robert BorkRobert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
and other conservative jurists.
Language
In the late 20th century conservatives found new ways to use language and the media to support their goals and to shape the vocabulary of political discourse. Thus the use of "Democrat" as an adjective, as in "Democrat Party" was used first in the 1930s by Republicans to criticize large urban Democratic machines. Republican leader
Harold StassenHarold Edward Stassen was the 25th Governor of Minnesota from 1939 to 1943. After service in World War II, from 1948 to 1953 he was president of the University of Pennsylvania...
stated in 1940, "I emphasized that the party controlled in large measure at that time by Hague in New Jersey, Pendergast in Missouri and Kelly Nash in Chicago should not be called a 'Democratic Party.' It should be called the 'Democrat party.'" [Safire 1994] In 1947 Senator
Robert A. TaftRobert Alphonso Taft , of the Taft political family of Cincinnati, was a Republican United States Senator and a prominent conservative statesman...
said, "Nor can we expect any other policy from any Democrat Party or any Democrat President under present day conditions. They cannot possibly win an election solely through the support of the
solid SouthSolid South refers to the electoral support of the Southern United States for the Democratic Party candidates for nearly a century from 1877, the end of the Reconstruction, to 1964, during the middle of the Civil Rights era....
, and yet their political strategists believe the Southern Democrat Party will not break away no matter how radical the allies imposed upon it." [
Taft Papers 3:313]. The use of "Democrat" as an adjective is standard practice in Republican national platforms (since 1948), and was a standard practice in the White House in 2001-2008, for press releases and speeches.
Radio
Conservatives gained a major new communications medium with the advent of
talk radioTalk radio is a radio format containing discussion about topical issues. Most shows are regularly hosted by a single individual, and often feature interviews with a number of different guests. Talk radio typically includes an element of listener participation, usually by broadcasting live...
in the 1990s.
Rush LimbaughRush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio host and conservative political commentator. Limbaugh rose to prominence during the 1990s as host of a nationally-syndicated talk-radio show, The Rush Limbaugh Show...
proved there was a huge nationwide audience for specific and heated discussions of current events from a conservative viewpoint. Major hosts who describe themselves as either conservative or libertarian include:
Glenn BeckGlenn Lee Beck is an American talk radio and television host, conservative political commentator, author, and entrepreneur. He hosts the nationally syndicated Glenn Beck Program on Premiere Radio Networks, while also hosting the Glenn Beck Show every weekday on the Fox News Channel...
,
Michael PeroutkaMichael Anthony Peroutka is a Maryland lawyer, the founder of the Institute on the Constitution. He once held a position in the United States Department of Health and Human Services and was the Constitution Party candidate for president in 2004. He is co-host of The American View radio...
,
Jim QuinnJim Quinn is an American radio talk show host based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His program, The War Room with Quinn and Rose, is aired on 12 stations across the U.S. and is also heard on XM Satellite Radio Channel 158 from 6 - 9 a.m...
,
Dennis MillerDennis Miller is a 5-time Emmy winning American stand-up comedian, political commentator, actor, sports commentator, and television and radio personality. He is known for his ability to improvise critical assessments laced with pop culture references...
,
Ben FergusonBen Ferguson is an American radio host and conservative political commentator. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Ben Ferguson Show, formerly aired throughout the United States on Radio America and is now syndicated by ICON Radio Network, of which Ben is the founder and owner...
,
Lars LarsonLars Larson is an American conservative talk radio show host based in Oregon. Larson hosts a national talk radio show, which as of 2009 is syndicated by Compass Media Networks...
,
Sean HannitySean Patrick Hannity is an American radio and television host, author, and conservative political commentator. His nationally syndicated radio program, The Sean Hannity Show, airs throughout the United States on Citadel Media...
,
G. Gordon LiddyGeorge Gordon Battle Liddy was the chief operative for the White House Plumbers unit that existed during several years of Richard Nixon's Presidency. Along with E. Howard Hunt, Liddy masterminded the first break-in of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate building in 1972...
,
Laura IngrahamLaura Anne Ingraham is an American radio host, author, and political commentator. Her nationally-syndicated talk show, The Laura Ingraham Show, airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network...
,
Mike ChurchMike Church is a radio talk show host, and singer/songwriter. In 2006 Church was named to Askmen.com's list of the "Top Ten Shock Jocks in America . He has been called the "American Badass of Talk Radio" and has been called the "The King Dude" by legions of loyal listeners since 2001...
,
Mark LevinMark Reed Levin is an American radio host, lawyer, author, and political commentator who served in the Reagan administration. He is the host of The Mark Levin Show, a top-rated, nationally-syndicated talk show that airs throughout the United States, and the President of Landmark Legal Foundation....
,
Michael SavageMichael Alan Weiner , better known by his pseudonym Michael Savage, is a U.S. radio host, author, and political commentator. He is the host of The Savage Nation, a nationally syndicated talk-radio show that airs throughout the United States on Talk Radio Network...
,
Larry ElderLaurence Allen "Larry" Elder is an American, libertarian radio and television personality. His radio program The Larry Elder Show was heard on talk radio 790 KABC in Los Angeles, California from 1994 to 2008, and was syndicated on ABC Radio Networks from 2002 to 2007.-Career:While he was a lawyer...
,
Kim PetersonKim Peterson is a US television and radio journalist. From 1992 through 2006, he hosted a radio talk show on WGST-AM in Atlanta, GA. A United States Marine, he served in the Vietnam War. Before becoming a radio host, Peterson was a television anchor in Chicago and New Orleans.Peterson was on...
,
Neal BoortzNeal A. Boortz, Jr. is an American radio host, author, and political commentator. His nationally-syndicated talk show, The Neal Boortz Show, airs throughout the United States on Jones Radio Networks. It is ranked seventh in overall listeners, with 4.25+ million per week...
,
Michael ReaganMichael Edward Reagan is an American radio host and Republican strategist. His nationally-syndicated radio show, The Michael Reagan Talk Show, airs on stations throughout the United States on American Family Radio, after a long stint on Radio America...
,
Jason LewisJason Lewis is an American radio talk show host and Conservative political commentator. His show is currently syndicated nationally on Premiere Radio Networks. His radio show was previously broadcast locally for 10 years on KSTP-AM in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metropolitan area of Minnesota, until...
and
Ken HamblinKen Loronzo Hamblin II , the self-titled Black Avenger, was host of the Ken Hamblin Show which was syndicated nationally on Entertainment Radio Networks...
. The
Salem Radio NetworkSalem Radio Network is a United States-based radio network that specializes in syndicated Christian talk, music, and secular news/talk programming...
syndicates a group of religiously-oriented Republican activists, including Evangelical Christian
Hugh HewittHugh Hewitt is an American radio talk show host with the Salem Radio Network and author. An outspoken socially conservative, evangelical Christian, he comments on society, politics, and his perception of media bias in the United States.Hewitt is also a law professor at Chapman University School of...
, and Jewish conservatives
Dennis PragerDennis Prager is an American syndicated radio talk show host, columnist, author, ethicist, and public speaker. He is noted for conservative political views frequently based in religious faith and for his critique of secularism in the 20th century.-Biography:Raised as Orthodox Jews, the Prager...
and
Michael MedvedMichael Medved is a American radio program host and is a conservative political commentator, film critic, and author. His Seattle-based nationally-syndicated talk show, The Michael Medved Show, airs throughout the United States on Salem Radio Network.According to Talkers' Magazine, The Michael...
. One popular Jewish conservative,
Dr. Laura SchlessingerLaura Catherine Schlessinger is an American radio host, author, and socially conservative commentator. Once a professional counselor, Schlessinger offers advice to callers every day on The Dr...
, offers parental and personal advice, but is an outspoken critic of social and political issues. Libertarians such as
Neal BoortzNeal A. Boortz, Jr. is an American radio host, author, and political commentator. His nationally-syndicated talk show, The Neal Boortz Show, airs throughout the United States on Jones Radio Networks. It is ranked seventh in overall listeners, with 4.25+ million per week...
(based in Atlanta), and
Mark DavisMark Davis is an American radio host, newspaper columnist, and political commentator. His local talk show, The Mark Davis Show, airs on weekdays from 8:30 AM to 11 AM on WBAP in the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex, and his popular column is published in The Dallas Morning News...
(based in Ft. Worth and Dallas, Texas) reach large local audiences.
Art BellArthur W. "Art" Bell, III is an American broadcaster and author, known primarily as one of the founders and original host of the paranormal-themed radio program Coast to Coast AM. He also created and formerly hosted its companion show, Dreamland. Semi-retired from Coast to Coast AM since 2003, he...
held some Libertarian views before his talk show adapted a new paranormal format. Many of these hosts also publish books, write newspaper columns, appear on television, and give public lectures (Limbaugh was a pioneer of this model of multi-media punditry). At a rarer level, University of Chicago psychology professor Milt Rosenberg has been hosting a talk show "Extension 720" on WGN radio in Chicago since the 1970s. Talk radio provided an immediacy and a high degree of emotionalism that seldom is reached on television or in magazines. Pew researchers found in 2004 that 17% of the public regularly listens to talk radio. This audience is mostly male, middle-aged, well-educated and conservative. Among those who regularly listen to talk radio, 41% are Republicans and 28% are Democrats. Moreover, 45% describe themselves as conservatives, compared with 18% who say they are liberal.
Political movements
Contemporary political conservatism — the actual politics of people and parties professing to be conservative — in most
westernThe Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term that can have multiple meanings depending on its context...
democraticDemocracy is a system of government in which either the actual governing is carried out by the people governed , or the power to do so is granted by them...
countries is an amalgam of social and institutional conservatism, generally combined with fiscal conservatism, and usually containing elements of broader economic conservatism as well. As with liberalism, it is a pragmatic and protean politics, opportunistic at times, rooted more in a tradition than in any formal set of principles.
Thinkers and leaders
Some notable figures in the history of conservatism in the United States are:
Politicians
- President George Washington
George Washington was the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War and served as the first President of the United States of America...
(1732–1799)
- President John Adams
John Adams was an American politician and the second President of the United States , after being the first Vice President for two terms. He is regarded as one of the most influential Founding Fathers of the United States.Adams came to prominence in the early stages of the American Revolution...
(1735–1826)
- President Grover Cleveland
Stephen Grover Cleveland was both the 22nd and 24th President of the United States. Cleveland is the only President to serve two non-consecutive terms and therefore is the only individual to be counted twice in the numbering of the presidents...
(1837–1908)
- President William McKinley
William McKinley Jr. was the 25th President of the United States, and the last veteran of the American Civil War to be elected to the office....
(1843–1901)
- President Calvin Coolidge
John Calvin Coolidge, Jr. was the 30th President of the United States . A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the...
(1872–1933)
- President Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was a five-star general in the United States Army and the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. During the Second World War, he served as Supreme Commander of the Allied forces in Europe, with responsibility for planning and supervising the...
(1890–1969)
- President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States and the 33rd Governor of California .Born in Tampico, Illinois, Reagan moved to Los Angeles, California in the 1930s...
(1911–2004)
- President George W. Bush
George Walker Bush was the 43rd President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 and the 46th Governor of Texas from 1995 to 2000....
(1946–)
- Vice President Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States from 2001 to 2009 in the administration of George W. Bush....
(1941–)
- Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton was the first United States Secretary of the Treasury, a Founding Father, economist, and political philosopher...
(1755–1804)
- Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich
Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich is an American politician who served as the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999. In 1995, Time magazine selected him as the Person of the Year for his role in leading the Republican Revolution in the House, ending 40 years of the...
(1943–)
- Senator John Randolph of Roanoke
John Randolph , known as John Randolph of Roanoke, was a leader in Congress from Virginia and spokesman for the "Old Republican" or "Quids" faction of the Democratic-Republican Party that wanted to restrict the role of the federal government.-Biography:He was born at Cawsons, Virginia , he was the...
(1773–1833)
- Secretary of State Daniel Webster
Daniel Webster was a leading American statesman during the nation's Antebellum Period. He first rose to regional prominence through his defense of New England shipping interests...
(1782–1852)
- Senator Henry Clay
Henry Clay, Sr. was a nineteenth-century American statesman and orator who represented Kentucky in both the House of Representatives and Senate. He served as Secretary of State from 1825 to 1829....
(1777–1852)
- Senator Robert A. Taft (1889–1953)
- Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
(1908–1957)
- Senator Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. He was also a Major General in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He was known as "Mr...
(1909–1998)
- Senator Jesse Helms
Jesse Alexander Helms, Jr. was a five-term Republican United States Senator from North Carolina who served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 1995 to 2001...
(1921–2008)
Jurists
- Chief Justice William Howard Taft
William Howard Taft was the 27th President of the United States and later the 10th Chief Justice of the United States....
(1857-1930)
- Chief Justice William Rehnquist
William Hubbs Rehnquist was an American lawyer, jurist, and a political figure who served as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States and later as the Chief Justice of the United States. Considered a conservative, Rehnquist favored a federalism under which the states...
(1924–2005)
- Justice Antonin Scalia
is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was appointed in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan having previously served on the D.C. Circuit and in the Nixon and Ford administrations, and teaching law at the Universities of Virginia and Chicago...
(1936–)
- Justice Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, having served since 1991. Justice Thomas is the second African American to serve on the nation's highest court, after Justice Thurgood Marshall, whom he succeeded.Thomas grew up in Georgia, and graduated from...
(1948–)
- Judge Robert Bork
Robert Heron Bork is an American legal scholar who has advocated the judicial philosophy of originalism. Bork formerly served as Solicitor General, acting Attorney General, and judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit...
(1927–)
Intellectuals & Economists
- William Graham Sumner
William Graham Sumner was an American academic and professor at Yale College. For many years he had a reputation as one of the most influential teachers there. He was a polymath with numerous books and essays on American history, economic history, political theory, sociology, and anthropology...
(1840–1910)
- Albert Jay Nock
Albert Jay Nock was an influential American libertarian author, educational theorist, and social critic of the early and middle 20th century.- Life and work :...
(1873–1945)
- H. L. Mencken
Henry Louis "H. L." Mencken , was an American journalist, essayist, magazine editor, satirist, acerbic critic of American life and culture, and a student of American English...
(1880–1956)
- Ludwig von Mises
Ludwig Heinrich Edler von Mises was an Austrian aristocrat, economist, philosopher, author and classical liberal who had a major influence on the modern libertarian movement and the Austrian School.-Early life:...
(1881–1973)
- Milton Friedman
Milton Friedman was an American economist, statistician and public intellectual, and a recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics...
(1912–2006)
- F. A. Hayek (1899–1992)
- George J. Stigler (1911–1991)
- Russell Kirk
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post-World War II conservative movement...
(1918–1994)
- Irving Kristol
Irving Kristol was an American columnist, journalist, and writer who was dubbed the "godfather of neoconservatism"...
(1920–2009)
- William F. Buckley, Jr.
William Frank Buckley, Jr. was an American conservative author and commentator. He founded the political magazine National Review in 1955, hosted 1429 episodes of the television show Firing Line from 1966 until 1999, and was a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist...
(1925–2008)
- Samuel P. Huntington
Samuel Phillips Huntington was an American political scientist who gained prominence through his Clash of Civilizations thesis of a post-Cold War new world order.-Biographical details:...
(1927–2008)
- Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell , is an American economist, social commentator, and author of dozens of books. He often writes from an economically laissez-faire perspective. He is currently a senior fellow of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In 1990, he won the Francis Boyer Award, presented by the...
(1930–)
Popular writers, activists and commentators
- Ayn Rand
Ayn Rand , was a Russian-American novelist, philosopher, playwright, and screenwriter. She is known for her best-selling novels and for developing a philosophical system she called Objectivism....
(1905–1982)
- Booker T. Washington
Booker Taliaferro Washington was an American educator, orator, author, presidential advisor, and the dominant leader of the nation's African-American community from the 1890s to his death. Born into slavery and freed by the Civil War in 1865, he led the new Tuskegee Institute, then a teachers'...
(1856–1915)
- William Faulkner
William Faulkner was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter.Most of Faulkner's works are set in his native state...
(1897–1962)
- Phyllis Schlafly
Phyllis McAlpin Stewart Schlafly is an American conservative political activist and constitutional attorney known for her opposition to feminism and the Equal Rights Amendment. Her bestselling book, A Choice, Not An Echo, was published in 1964 from her home in Alton, Illinois, across the...
(1924–)
- Pat Robertson
Marion Gordon "Pat" Robertson is a televangelist from the United States. He is the founder of numerous organizations and corporations, including the American Center for Law and Justice , the Christian Broadcasting Network , the Christian Coalition, Flying Hospital, International Family...
(1930–)
- Jerry Falwell
Jerry Lamon Falwell, Sr. was an American evangelical Christian pastor, televangelist, and a conservative commentator. He was the founding pastor of the Thomas Road Baptist Church, a megachurch in Lynchburg, Virginia...
(1933–2007)
- Pat Buchanan
Patrick Joseph "Pat" Buchanan is an American conservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior advisor to American presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought the...
(1938–)
- William Bennett
William John Bennett is an American conservative pundit, politician, and political theorist. He served as United States Secretary of Education from 1985 to 1988. He also held the post of Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy under George H. W...
(1943–)
- Neal Boortz
Neal A. Boortz, Jr. is an American radio host, author, and political commentator. His nationally-syndicated talk show, The Neal Boortz Show, airs throughout the United States on Jones Radio Networks. It is ranked seventh in overall listeners, with 4.25+ million per week...
(1945–)
- Laura Schlessinger
Laura Catherine Schlessinger is an American radio host, author, and socially conservative commentator. Once a professional counselor, Schlessinger offers advice to callers every day on The Dr...
(1947–)
- Rush Limbaugh
Rush Hudson Limbaugh III is an American radio host and conservative political commentator. Limbaugh rose to prominence during the 1990s as host of a nationally-syndicated talk-radio show, The Rush Limbaugh Show...
(1951–)
- Bill Kristol (1952–)
- Glenn Beck
Glenn Lee Beck is an American talk radio and television host, conservative political commentator, author, and entrepreneur. He hosts the nationally syndicated Glenn Beck Program on Premiere Radio Networks, while also hosting the Glenn Beck Show every weekday on the Fox News Channel...
(1964–)
Think-tanks
- The Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
- The Hoover Institution
The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace is a public policy think tank and library founded in 1919 by then-future U.S. president Herbert Hoover....
- The Acton Institute
- The Rockford Institute
Rockford Institute is a conservative think-tank associated with Paleoconservatism, based in Rockford, Illinois. It was founded by Rockford College President Dr. in 1976 as a response to American social changes of the 1960s. It is known for the John Randolph Club, and publishes Chronicles: A...
Magazines & Publications
- National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine and web site, founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955 and based in New York City...
- Policy Review
Policy Review is one of America's leading conservative journals. It was founded by the Heritage Foundation and was for many years the foundation's flagship publication...
- The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
- The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is a American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. It was founded by News Corporation and made its debut on September 18, 1995. Its current editors are founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes. The Weekly Standard produces The Daily Standard with...
See also
- Compassionate conservatism
Compassionate conservatism is a political philosophy that stresses using traditionally conservative techniques and concepts in order to improve the general welfare of society.-Origins of the term:...
- Common sense conservative
A common sense conservative is an advocate of conservative politics who adopts the rhetoric of "common sense" to frame his or her arguments. The term is almost always used to apply to domestic and fiscal policy...
- Constitution Party
The Constitution Party is a United States political party rooted in the paleoconservative movement. It was founded as the U.S. Taxpayers' Party in 1992. The party's official name was changed to the Constitution Party in 1999; however, some state affiliate parties are known under different names...
- FreedomWorks
FreedomWorks is a conservative non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., United States. FreedomWorks trains volunteer activists and wages campaigns to encourage them to mobilize, engage fellow citizens, and influence their political representatives...
- Liberalism in the United States
Liberalism in the United States is a broad political and philosophical mindset favoring individual liberty. According to Louis Hartz, it differs from liberalism in the rest of the world, because America never had a hereditary aristocracy and therefore never turned to socialism, as many European...
- Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism is a political philosophy that emerged in the United States of America, and which supports using American economic and military power to bring liberalism, democracy, and human rights to other countries...
- New Right
New Right is used in several countries as a descriptive term for various policies and/or groups that are right-wing. It has also been used to describe the emergence of Eastern European parties after the collapse of communism.-Australia:...
- Old Right
Old Right may refer to:* Old Right , the ideology and policies of the Conservative Party that predated the ideological shift led by former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher...
- Paleoconservatism
Paleoconservatism is a term for an anti-communist and anti-imperialist right-wing political philosophy in the United States stressing tradition, civil society and anti-federalism, along with religious, regional, national and Western identity. Chilton Williamson, Jr...
- Progressivism in the United States
In U.S. history, the term progressivism refers to a broadly-based reform movement that reached its height early in the 20th century, generally considered to be left wing in nature. The initial progressive movement arose as a response to the vast changes brought by the Industrial Revolution...
- Reactionary
Reactionary refers to any political or social movement or ideology that seeks a return to a previous state . The term originated in the French Revolution, to denote the counter-revolutionaries who wanted to restore the real or imagined conditions of the monarchical Ancien Régime...
- Reagan Doctrine
The Reagan Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the United States under the Reagan Administration to oppose the global influence of the Soviet Union during the final years of the Cold War...
foreign policy
- Religious right
The Christian right, also known as the Religious Right and the Evangelical Bloc, is a term used predominantly in the United States of America to describe a spectrum of right-wing Christian political and social movements and organizations characterized by their strong support of conservative social...
- Traditionalist conservatism
Traditionalist conservatism, also known as "traditional conservatism," "traditionalism," and Burkean conservatism is a political philosophy which emphasizes the need for the principles of natural law and transcendent moral order, tradition and custom, hierarchy and "Gemeinschaft" , and localism and...
- The Weekly Standard
The Weekly Standard is a American neoconservative opinion magazine published 48 times per year. It was founded by News Corporation and made its debut on September 18, 1995. Its current editors are founder William Kristol and Fred Barnes. The Weekly Standard produces The Daily Standard with...
magazine
- United States Republican Party
Organizations and publications
- The Heritage Foundation
The Heritage Foundation is an American think tank based in Washington, D.C.The foundation took a leading role in the conservative movement during the presidency of Ronald Reagan, whose policies drew significantly from Heritage's policy study Mandate for Leadership. Heritage has since continued to...
.
- American Enterprise Institute
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research is a conservative think tank founded in 1943. Its stated mission is "to defend the principles and improve the institutions of American freedom and democratic capitalism—limited government, private enterprise, individual liberty and...
- Manhattan Institute for Policy Research
- Project for a New American Century, neoconservative think tank.
- National Review
National Review is a biweekly magazine and web site, founded by the late author William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955 and based in New York City...
magazine, influential conservative political magazine.
- Policy Review
Policy Review is one of America's leading conservative journals. It was founded by the Heritage Foundation and was for many years the foundation's flagship publication...
magazine
- The American Spectator
The American Spectator is a conservative U.S. monthly magazine covering news and politics, edited by R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. and published by the non-profit American Spectator Foundation. From its founding in 1967 until the late 1980s, the small-circulation magazine featured the writings of authors...
magazine
- Townhall.com
Townhall.com is a web-based publication primarily dedicated to conservative United States politics. It was previously operated by the Heritage Foundation, but is now owned and operated by Salem Communications...
, conservative news, information, and commentary.
- Chronicles magazine
Chronicles is a U.S. monthly magazine published by the Rockford Institute. Its full current name is Chronicles: A Magazine of American Culture...
, a leading magazine of traditional conservative thought.
- First Things
First Things is a monthly ecumenical journal founded by Roman Catholic theologian Richard John Neuhaus, which is focused on creating a "religiously informed public philosophy for the ordering of society."-Founding:...
- City Journal
City Journal is a quarterly magazine, published by the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a free market think tank based out of New York City. Its current editor is Brian C. Anderson. Myron Magnet, its editor from 1994 to 2006, is now editor-at-large...
- The American Conservative
The American Conservative is a monthly U.S. opinion magazine founded in 2002 by Scott McConnell, Pat Buchanan, and Taki Theodoracopulos. The magazine is edited by McConnell and published by Ron Unz...
- Leadership Institute
The Leadership Institute was founded in 1979 by Morton C. Blackwell, and is a 501 non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia that teaches "political technology."...
, a training organization for conservative activists.
Primary sources
- Buckley, William F., Jr., ed. Up from Liberalism Stein and Day, (1958)
- Buckley, William F., Jr., ed. Did You Ever See a Dream Walking? American Conservative Thought in the 20th Century Bobbs-Merrill, (1970)
- Mark Gerson, ed., The Essential Neo-Conservative Reader (Perseus Publishing, (1997)) ISBN 0-201-15488-9
- Irving Kristol, Neoconservatism: the Autobiography of an Idea, ISBN 0-02-874021-1
- Gregory L. Schneider, ed. Conservatism in America Since 1930: A Reader (2003)
- Irwin Stelzer
Irwin M. Stelzer is a Jewish-American economist who is the U.S. economic and business columinst for The Sunday Times The Courier-Mail and a contributing editor of The Weekly Standard. He is also an occasional contributor to The Daily Telegraph. He resides in London and the United States...
ed. The NeoCon Reader (2005) ISBN 0-8021-4193-5
- Wolfe, Gregory. Right Minds: A Sourcebook of American Conservative Thought. Regnery, (1987)
Intellectual history
- Dunn, Charles W. and J. David Woodard; The Conservative Tradition in America Rowman & Littlefield, 1996
- Filler, Louis. Dictionary of American Conservatism Philosophical Library, (1987)
- Foner, Eric. "Radical Individualism in America: Revolution to Civil War," Literature of Liberty, vol. 1 no. 3, 1978 pp 1-31 online
- Bruce Frohnen et al. eds. American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia (2006) ISBN 1-932236-44-9, the most detailed reference
- Genovese, Eugene. The Southern Tradition: The Achievement and Limitations of an American Conservatism Harvard University Press, 1994
- Gottfried, Paul
Paul Edward Gottfried is a Jewish American Raffensperger Professor of Humanities at Elizabethtown College in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania, and a Guggenheim recipient...
. The Conservative Movement Twayne, 1993.
- Guttman, Allan. The Conservative Tradition in America Oxford University Press, 1967.
- Willmoore Kendall, and George W. Carey. "Towards a Definition of 'Conservatism." Journal of Politics 26 (May 1964): 406-22.
- Kirk, Russell
Russell Kirk was an American political theorist, historian, social critic, literary critic, and fiction author known for his influence on 20th century American conservatism. His 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, gave shape to the amorphous post-World War II conservative movement...
. The Conservative Mind. Regnery PublishingRegnery Publishing in Washington, D.C. is a publisher which specializes in conservative books characterized on their website as "contrary to those of 'mainstream' publishers in New York." Since 1993, Regnery Publishing has been a division of Eagle Publishing, which also owns the weekly magazine...
; 7th edition (2001): ISBN 0-89526-171-5
- Lora, Ronald. Conservative Minds in America Greenwood, 1976.
- Lowi, Theodore J. The End of the Republican Era (1995) online review
- Meyer, Frank S. ed. What Is Conservatism? 1964.
- Murphy, Paul V. The Rebuke of History: The Southern Agrarians and American Conservative Thought (2001)
- Nash, George. The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America Since 1945 (1978) influential history
- Nisbet, Robert A.
Robert Alexander Nisbet was an American conservative sociologist.-Life:...
Conservatism: Dream and Reality. University of Minnesota Press, 1986.
- Ribuffo, Leo P. 1983. The Old Christian Right: The Protestant Far Right from the Great Depression to the Cold War. Temple University Press.
- Rossiter, Clinton. Conservatism in America. 2nd ed. Harvard University Press, 1982.
- Melvin J. Thorne; American Conservative Thought since World War II: The Core Ideas Greenwood: 1990
- Peter Viereck; Conservatism: from John Adams to Churchill 1956, 1978
Political activity
- Hart, Jeffrey. The Making of the American Conservative Mind: The National Review and Its Times (2005)
- Lora, Ronald.; The Conservative Press in Twentieth-Century America Greenwood Press, 1999
- McDonald, Forrest. States' Rights and the Union: Imperium in Imperio, 1776-1876 (2002)
- Malsberger, John W. From Obstruction to Moderation: The Transformation of Senate Conservatism, 1938-1952 2000.
- Patterson, James. Congressional Conservatism and the New Deal: The Growth of the Conservative Coalition in Congress, 1933-39 (1967)
- Perlstein, Rick. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus (2004) on 1964
- Reinhard, David W.; Republican Right since 1945 University Press of Kentucky, 1983
- Shelley II, Mack C. The Permanent Majority: The Conservative Coalition in the United States Congress (1983)
- Wilensky, Norman N. Conservatives in the Progressive Era: The Taft Republicans of 1912 (1965).
Biographical
- H. Lee Cheek Jr.;Calhoun and Popular Rule: The Political Theory of the Disquisition and Discourse University of Missouri Press. 2001. Stresses Calhoun's Republicanism
- Crunden, Robert M. The Mind and Art of Albert Jay Nock (1964)
- Dierenfield, Bruce J. Keeper of the Rules: Congressman Howard W. Smith of Virginia (1987), leader of the Conservative coalition
The Conservative coalition, in the United States, was an unofficial Congressional coalition bringing together the conservative majority of the Republican Party and the conservative, mostly Southern, minority of the Democratic Party...
in Congress
- Fergurson, Ernest B. Hard Right: The Rise of Jesse Helms, 1986
- Fite, Gilbert. Richard B. Russell, Jr, Senator from Georgia (2002) leader of the Conservative coalition
The Conservative coalition, in the United States, was an unofficial Congressional coalition bringing together the conservative majority of the Republican Party and the conservative, mostly Southern, minority of the Democratic Party...
in Congress
- Goldberg, Robert Alan. Barry Goldwater (1995)
- Judis, John B. William F. Buckley, Jr.: Patron Saint of the Conservatives (1988)
- Kelly, Daniel. James Burnham and the Struggle for the World: A Life (2002)
- Patterson, James T. Mr. Republican: A Biography of Robert A. Taft (1972)
- Rodgers, Marion Elizabeth. Mencken: The American Iconoclast (2005)
- Federici , Michael P. Eric Voegelin: The Restoration of Order (2002)
- Pemberton, William E. Exit with Honor: The Life and Presidency of Ronald Reagan (1998)
- Smant, Kevin J. Principles and Heresies: Frank S. Meyer and the Shaping of the American Conservative Movement (2002) (ISBN 1-882926-72-2)
- Smith, Richard Norton. An Uncommon Man: The Triumph of Herbert Hoover (1994) strongest on 1933-64
- Tanenhaus, Sam
Sam Tanenhaus is an American author, historian and biographer.Tanenhaus received his B.A. in English from Grinnell College in 1977 and a M.A. in English Literature from Yale University in 1978. He is currently the editor of The New York Times Book Review and Week in Review...
. Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (1997) (ISBN 0-394-58559-3)
- Chambers, Whittaker
Whittaker Chambers born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker , was an American writer and editor. A Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent...
, Witness (1952), a memoir his Communist years
Recent politics
- John B. Bader; Taking the Initiative: Leadership Agendas in Congress and the "Contract with America" Georgetown University Press, (1996)
- Berkowitz, Peter . Varieties Of Conservatism In America (2004)
- Collins, Robert M. Transforming America: Politics and Culture During the Reagan Years, (Columbia University Press; 320 pages; 2007).
- Himmelstein, Jerome and J. A. McRae Jr., "'Social Conservatism, New Republicans and the 1980 Election'", Public Opinion Quarterly, 48 (1984), 595-605.
- Micklethwait, John, and Adrian Wooldridge. The Right Nation
The Right Nation is a book published in 2004 which charts the rise of the Republican Party in the United States since Barry Goldwater's defeat in 1964...
(2004)
- Geoffrey Nunberg, "Language and Politics"
- Rae; Nicol C. Conservative Reformers: The Republican Freshmen and the Lessons of the 104th Congress M. E. Sharpe, 1998
- Schoenwald; Jonathan . A Time for Choosing: The Rise of Modern American Conservatism (2002)
Neoconservatism
- List of prominent American neoconservatives, SourceWatch
- Bloom, Allan. The Closing of the American Mind (1988)
- Fukuyama, Francis. America at the Crossroads: Democracy, Power, and the Neoconservative Legacy (2007)
- Gerson, Mark. The Neoconservative Vision: From the Cold War to Culture Wars (1997)
- Halper, Stefan & Clarke, Jonathan, America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge University Press, 2004) ISBN 0-521-83834-7
- Stelzer, Irwin. Neo-conservatism (2004)
Critical views
- Bell, David. ed, The Radical Right. Doubleday 1963.
- Diamond, Sara. Roads to Dominion: Right-Wing Movements and Political Power in the United States. (1995)
- Huntington, Samuel P. "Conservatism as an Ideology." American Political Science Review 52 (June 1957): 454-73.
- Koopman; Douglas L. Hostile Takeover: The House Republican Party, 1980-1995 Rowman & Littlefield, 1996
- Lapham, Lewis H. "Tentacles of Rage" in Harper's, September 2004, p. 31-41.
- Coser Lewis A., and Irving Howe
Irving Howe was an American literary and social critic and a prominent figure of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Life and career:...
, eds. The New Conservatives: A Critique from the Left New American Library, 1976.
- Martin, William. 1996. With God on Our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America, New York: Broadway Books.
- Riebling, Mark, "Prospectus for a Critique of Conservative Reason."
External links