The GOP primary process is largely over, as months before many Republican voters have an opportunity to cast their votes, John McCain has essentially been crowned the nominee. This is not the beginning of an unraveling of the conservative movement; it is more the culmination of many years of philosophical neglect.
We have heard many conservatives complain that the GOP has “forgetten its principles.” More specificallly, the complaint is that Republican officeholders have drifted from Constitutional principles in particular, or from conservative principles in general. If you were to ask such people for examples, it would be a fair assumption you would hear about failure to keep to such orthodoxies as low taxes, reduced government spending, gun rights, etc.
But these are not principles. They are policy statements. Even in the Constitution we find little in the way of principles. Fundamentally, the Constitution is an instruction manual for running the United States of America. It has been largely ignored in many ways, but this is not the same as abandoning principles.
If we seek principles, especially those from the Founding Fathers, in a concise document, we can, however, easily find them. They are in the Declaration of Independence. For anyone looking for a refresher course of what American governance is supposed to be, here it is:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
There are some of the fundamental principles which underlie American conservatism. When we conservatives oppose affirmative action, we do so not out of malice, but because we believe that all men are indeed created equal, and treating them otherwise is unjust. When we oppose burdensome government regulation, we do so because we recognize that such regulations limit the rights of the people to pursue happiness. When we approach the problem of the day optimistically, we do so because of our belief, shared with Thomas Jefferson, in American exceptionalism.
These are the principles forgotten by our elected officials, and by us, from time to time. When we forget what basis we build upon for our policy ideas, we lose sight of the real goal: Jefferson’s “best hope,” or Ronald Reagan’s “shining city upon a hill.” A place where citizens can achieve great accomplishmets, not because the government somehow pushes them, but because government gets out of the way, and allows for the necessary liberty as a precondition to greatness.
This may sound overly simplistic, but ask yourselves: when was the last time you heard the GOP leadership speak of such things?
Whether conservatism still has a place in the GOP is debateable, but whereever it resurfaces, these are the values which will return it to its rightful prominence in the American political debate.