The View Through the Windshield

Conservatism is not dead nor should it be. As a political philosophy it has much to recommend it but it seems to have been hijacked by an irrational minority of its adherents. Conservatism is not held only by Republicans but there are also some Democrats who are pretty conservative although not quite so many. In the past Conservatism has been led by many of the New Englanders who held to vestiges of that Puritan Ethic that led them to a progressive social policy and a more conservative fiscal policy. These are qualities not lacking in today's GOP but are currently being drowned out by the din from the extreme elements of the party which has had the effect of forcing candidates running on the Republican ticket to cater to that extreme in order to be nominated. It is a very vocal group. I think, and many others also, that the GOP will have to return to those roots in order to once again become a majority party.

Progressives should not be overconfident at the results of this election. What we can take away is that the red states are very red and that the blue states are very blue. Not too many are in the category where it is possible for the state to fall one direction or the other. As many of the talking heads said, the nation is changing in a demographic sense and the GOP has failed to keep up. That will not last forever nor should it. It may cause a great sense of disquiet that our country is becoming more diverse but this is not the first time. However, it is the first time that the demographics are being changed by people of color and that is a challenge we must move past. This will no longer be a nation ruled by old white guys. Tuesday night revealed the power of women and minorities and it is not just a blip on the screen, it is the wave of the future.

If one peers into the characteristics of the vote it will be revealed that there are pockets of diversity all over the place and they are going to grow. That is the nature of our country and it is from that that our strength blossoms and is shown for the world to see. It is a beacon to the world that there is a place where people can live together without fear and in peace even if we sometimes allow that light to grow dim.

The path for our country has always been in the center. We do not drift too far from it. The Democratic Party is certainly not the party of the old line liberals that came to be after the Depression and World War II. This party has had to make some painful adjustments to that reality and the Republican Party is, for a while, in the wilderness that the Democrats stumbled through during the '70s and '80s. What we can infer from looking at the past half century or so is that the American people are not, as a rule, too crazy. We would rather things go along (as my algebra teacher used to say) just like baby bear's soup.

But growing pains are difficult. We see it in our children and we see in in our societies. Perhaps it is natural and part of our human nature to look in the rear view mirror and long for what we perceive as more peaceful and rational times. Usually close examination will reveal that to be an illusion. It is a truism that growth is preceded by discord. As a species we will not venture into the unknown unless driven. Altruism as a virtue is not an enduring characteristic of our nature.

This election in a sense has rejected the reactionary nature of the GOP. Regardless of how I feel, the GOP should have been able to win this election. A President that has led over such a period of anemic growth and with so little on which to campaign should not have been able to be reelected as a matter of politics and his campaign team recognized that. It has been one of the most amazing efforts by a campaign team I have ever seen and that is a position I have held from the beginning of this campaign. But we shouldn't give too much of the credit to the politics of the moment. The campaign was only able to move the electorate a small amount in some key areas but they knew that and that was their goal. In a greater sense it is the beginning of a rejection of some of the extreme elements of the GOP. It is a foretelling of a growing society that is being forced to deal with the diversity of its people. We can't hold back that diversity and remain the country of the ideals we espouse. If we love our country and what it means to us and the world we must embrace that diversity and allow it to cook in the great melting pot and become that thing that is uniquely American and that the rest of the world looks to with envy.

Left and Right can only be understood as it relates to the current state of society. What many call extreme left is a great deal to the right of what it used to be. Temporarily, the extreme right holds sway over the GOP but it too will return to a more centrist policy or go the way of the Whigs and other political parties of the past. Change is the only constant. The GOP will not return to power by being more conservative just as the Democratic party will not hold power by being more liberal. Those extremes serve to define the balance in the center. It is not an exact or unchanging center but more of a moving target. Back and forth. It is the beauty of this messy exercise in self-rule. Anything to clean it up will only result in less freedom.

Allow argument and controversy but it is imperative that we remove the cancer of money from our system. Whatever means is used to do so may not appeal to all of us but it is a disease that must be excised.

That is my take on the victory of the center and a philosophical view of the future. I would like to hear your thoughts on the subject.