Columnist Jack Davies challenges the conservative movement to defend core principles against Donald Trump.
There are bitter weeds in the GOP. This election signifies the end of an era. The sun sets ignobly on the post-Cold War consensus. It ends not with a bang, but with a whimper characteristically symbolic of that age of civility: Jeb Bush’s concession thanking his supporters for the opportunity to "run for the greatest office in the face of the Earth." He also told them it is up to them to make opportunity common again, promote growth and get world events in the US’s direction again.
The failure of Jeb’s campaign shows the Republican party can no longer rely on the sacred triptych of guns, God and growth to carry them forward. Other establishment figures have been dropping like flies, such as Chris Christie, the centrist New Jersey governor who threw in the towel after a disappointing performance at the New Hampshire primary. The moderate alternative has faded, too, with the failure of former CEO Carly Fiorina and Libertarian favorite Rand Paul. This election is a political realignment: The work of William F. Buckley, Jr. in creating modern American conservatism from a fusion of the British tradition and classical liberalism has been scattered to the wind. It is task for the well-educated and concerned conservative to choose the battleground for the realignment, and the stakes could not be higher.
The task of conservatives is not to, per se, defend the status quo for the sake of defending the current state of affairs. Instead, they look back at the great spans of tradition, all of the acts of the great heroes and villains of society and the way people have acted in great and small ways to create present circumstances. They look at what makes a society great and what can be improved.
Noticing that each of our communities has a national story, they harken back to its precepts and then challenge people living in the present, the here and now, to live up to those transcendent sacred principles. As T.S Eliot said, the greatest task is to “redeem the time, redeem the dream.” The dream differs between nations and communities. That’s the greatness of conservatism: It recognizes true diversity, not diversity according to abstract principles of philosophy but diversity in how life is lived. That diversity is to be valued and preserved.
So what dream should we conservatives redeem? Well, in America, the ideas of democracy, liberty and opportunity! We need to sit down and think long and hard about ways to keep that dream alive, overcome current problems and provide a nation that lives up to its own image for all people. That perhaps involves considering points not usually brought up in American conservatism, such as the importance of history and reconciliation. The first task is to defeat a monstrous gnostic heresy antithetical to the precepts of classical conservatism that has, to our dismay, been sweeping the GOP.
The alternative view is the one of Donald Trump, the vision of an ideological strongman who stirs up hatred and exclusion in order to rally his followers. His view would redefine what America stands for in his own image, distributing our goods toward himself and others like him. In the moment of realignment, he choses the easy way out and shovels hatred on outsiders and the disadvantaged.
Trump draws America away from its core values; his world view ignores problems that exist now and focuses on a past that never existed. It is as damaging as the narratives of the post-modern left that rip away faith in the entire concepts of due process of law and faith in the freedoms of expression for the brief respite of safety. The first duty then of the true conservative, the heirs of Edmund Burke, is to oppose Trump’s vision with every available ounce of effort, to focus on the importance of our civil rights, as well as the diversity and value immigrants bring to our country.
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In the moment of realignment, we must, as a movement, defend our dying dream, bring it back to life, and use its powerful message to rally opposition to Trump’s attempt to rob us of our soul. The lamps may be going out, and the light may be fading, but those of us who value equal justice, personal freedom and the lovable old ways of humanity, seen in our many diverse cultures, will not go gently into the darkness.
Jack Davies is a sophomore studying philosophy and the Honors Tutorial College senator in Student Senate. What do you think of the GOP's realignment? Email him at jd814213@ohio.edu.
