Whither Conservatism?

I often finding myself defending NRO and Jonah Goldberg from various factions on the right; whether paleoconservatives or libertarians. Personally, I think deep down Jonah is dead on conservative without the need for a label. His Goldberg File today on conservatism is further proof.

In typical Jonah fashion he meanders a bit in getting to his point, that technological upheaval is challenging conservatism. He uses the debate over what to do about spam as a jumping off point to discuss the future of conservatism. First he sets out the differences between conservatism and other perspectives:

The world is not divided solely between the narrowly defined, profit-driven free market and The State. There are countless other institutions that have a voice in a free society ? in our shorthand, we call this “the culture.” There was a time when churches, guilds, associations, communities, universities, schools, journalists, and just-plain decent people were given a bit more space to police and regulate society. It seems to me that a conservative ? as opposed to a libertarian or a liberal ? should not have an inordinate fear of the state or an inordinate love of the unregulated free market. This requires conservatives to prefer nuance and balance over On-Off-switch arguments. There are dials to be tweaked. A little more government here. A lot less there. An increased role for the culture everywhere.

This may seem obvious to some but it is increasingly less obvious to those on the right; especially politicians. After laying out the tension in politics on the right today, he moves in for the kill:

Well, conservatism faces a moment of truth. Libertarianism is gaining in popularity and so is a government-friendly form of conservatism of which Caldwell’s spam article is a minor example. A new and interesting magazine called The New Atlantis seems to be trying to carve out the space for the government to stop the more offensive aspects of biotechnology while libertarians increasingly take the position that all new technology is always good no matter what the consequences. What both branches of the Right share is the view that it is government and government alone that has the power and/or the right to stop change we as a society don’t like. This is a disturbing development because it reveals that much of the Right has grown blind to the organic society championed by both Hayek and Burke. If the Right comes around to the position that only the government has the authority or the ability to solve a real social problem and that a real social problem is defined as any problem the government can solve, then we are in big trouble. It would signal that conservatives have given up on trying to improve the culture and uphold the authority of tradition. In short, it means that conservatives will have given up on conservatism.

Jonah has hit the nail on the head. The reason there is so much tension within “conservatism” broadly construed is that it is being stretched to thin. Both Libertarianism and big government conservatism in full bloom cease to be conservatism. I have posted before on why I prefer a prefix free label. But it is hard to hold the center sometimes because fights amongst those closest often get ugly. The paleos are particularly bitter about being shoved aside for libertarians and liberal writers and probably with some good reason. But it is also crucial to not take everything personally and to try and create and cultivate a workable and practicable conservatism. That is what is so frustrating about this whole neocon debate. The left uses it as a conspiracy theory battering ram to try and discredit and thwart the Bush administration. There are many in the paleo camp who seem content to piggy back on this ridiculous charge. Everyone seems to paint with too large a brush these days; with accusations of disloyalty and hidden agendas flying every which way.

Contrary to these accusations, there is a middle and pragmatic conservative ground that embraces neither libertarianism nor liberalism outright. Finding this consensus will not be easy but as Jonah notes, it is important.