Conservatism as a Racket

Somebody has to discuss the collapse of Conservativism in America. I guess it has to be me.

The August 2008 issue of Harper's arrived today. On its front cover is a lead story entitled "The Wrecking Crew: How a Gang of Right-Wing Con Men Destroyed Washington and Made a Killing." The essay reminded me of the late, great Albert Jay Nock (1872-1945), whose autobiography Memoirs of A Superfluous Man sums up what has happened to Conservatism in America. Nock outlines a three-step process for how a movement disintegrates into a racket. Here they are:

• 1) A hero comes up with a winning movement, often at great personal expense.
• 2) It takes off and draws others to it. However, as the movement gains more and more follows Gresham's Law - "good money drives out bad money" - kicks in. More and more people join the movement to cash in on it. They have no idea how and why it started. All they know is that people are throwing money at it; they want some of it. These are second and third-rate hacks; soon they dominate the movement and begin to suffocate, persecute, and eliminate the original heroic elements that kicked off the winning movement in the first place! The movement is now in effect a racket.
• 3) The second and third-rate team however lacks the creative imagination to adjust the movement to changes in the environment around it. They keep doing the same thing over and over. As a result the "Law of Diminishing Returns" kicks in. Atrophy begins, and what was once a dynamic, creative movement begins to dysfunction, becomes a cliche, and runs out of gas. It is now mindless "stand up, sit down, shout, shout, shout, shout."

Nock's three steps from heroic to racket easily applies to Conservatism in America. Heroic individuals like Russell Kirk (1918-1994) rekindled Conservatism in America after World War II, often at personal expense. As Conservatism began to get traction in the marketplace, it attracted persons who little cared or knew about its essence. All they understood is they could ride it to the financial trough. Political hacks mouthing Conservative platitudes were no better than con men who exploited the trust of others. This is exactly what has happened to Conservatism in America today. Men like Kirk who believed in frugal, limited government are not welcome in what passes for Conservative political circles today. One of the results is $9,3 trillion in federal debt - and rising - in 2008. The result may be that the Republican Party that replaced the exhausted Whig Party in 1855 may very well collapse for the reasons Nock cites. It talks Conservative, but it no longer walks Conservative. The disconnect cannot last. Perhaps it will be replaced by a new label waiting to hatch out there. Meanwhile, some of us still remember the heroic days and seek to conserve the bedrock "Permanent Things" for replanting in days ahead.