Why Are You a Conservative?
06/26 02:35 PM
Brian Lamb asked me in a recent interview how I came to be a conservative. As one sometimes does in these situations, I rambled on about my adolescent interest in the Holocaust, explaining that my immersion in the history of that period cured me of any romantic notions about people being basically good.
That was okay as far as it went (as a realistic appraisal of human nature — neither overly pessimistic nor unduly rosy is part of the wisdom of conservatism), but I should have added that reading and studying history impressed upon me how fragile civilization is. Civilizations do rise and fall. And I fear that our civilization — by far the most humane, just, and inspiring in the history of the world — can be undermined by those who fail to appreciate and guard it. That’s the essence of my conservatism: wanting to conserve our precious liberty, comfort, efficiency, and essential justice. I don’t believe, as I think most liberals do, that you can batter away at the roots of a society and expect the trunk and branches to continue bearing fruit.
I love Stan Evans’s bon mot about this: He has reminisced about moving to Washington in the 1960s. Paraphrase: “I was a young, brash Barry Goldwater conservative. But in the intervening years, I’ve matured and grown and moved steadily to the right.” I too have “grown” since coming to Washington. I’ve gotten more right wing dammit.
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