McCain’s Kind of Conservatism
The New York Times published a fascinating article about John McCain’s kind of conservatism. He is, of course, more of a moderate than an ideological American conservative, but his moderation hangs more towards conservatism than liberalism, or even centrism. As such, it’s important and frugal to look at his governing philosophy from a conservative point of view.
With that I mean that it’s important to look at what McCain wants to do, and what his government philosophy is. It’s, we can say, conservative, but in what way, and to what degree?
Senator John McCain in a wide-ranging interview called for a government that is frugal but more active than many conservatives might prefer. He said government should play an important role in areas like addressing climate change, regulating campaign finance and taking care of “those in America who cannot take care of themselves.”
“I count myself as a conservative Republican, yet I view it to a large degree in the Theodore Roosevelt mold,” Mr. McCain said, referring to Roosevelt’s reputation for reform, environmentalism and tough foreign policy.
What’s partially fascinating about the above, what McCain calls the “Theodore Roosevelt” kind of conservative Republican, is that it’s all part of a wider debate among American conservatives about the role of government. For decades, American conservatives emphasized limited, small government. Their main goal was to make the government smaller. For decades, they considered many tasks the government had taken upon itself to be unconstitutional. Instead of simply trying to make these things work better, they wanted to dismantle the government; take those tasks away from it.
But a new - which is also a very old, see for instance the race between Rockefeller and Goldwater back in the 1960s - movement of conservatives says that time has changed so many things that conservatism has to change as well. Reagan and others have already made the government smaller - well, in some ways - and given more room to entrepreneurs, lowered taxes, etc., that conservatives now have to accept that modern Americans simply want their government to do more than they used to want. These conservatives basically argue that an active government does not necessarily have to be a bad government. Government, they argue, can be useful, and we should use it to do what Americans truly want us to do, while keeping in mind that the government should not become too big, and that we should try to find conservative solutions that leave room and freedom for individual citizens to live as they want.
It will be interesting to see where this goes; personally I believe that this movement is not necessarily bad. I have said many times that I favor health care for everyone, and a better education and a bigger role for the US Federal government in that regard. Then again, I’m a European conservative and my conservative ideology tells me that what is true and what works in my country, may not necessarily work in another country… but still. In Europe too, conservatism changed, and allowed the government to do more, albeit within certain borders. Perhaps the time has come that American conservatism will undergo the same transformation. If true, you can expect a bloody battle among conservatives in the coming years, at least among the grassroots.
Not exactly Theodore Roosevelt, TR didn’t support free trade.
Its also really useless to talk about what modern conservatives want or don’t want. Elections are determined by the center nowadays and all conservatives or liberals can do to win is try to sell their ideologies as centrist. The supposed fiscally-libertarian Republican party never actually existed. Reagan brought new ideas to politics, but he was never able to govern in any way that would please a purist conservative; he was elected and re-elected based on making the Republican party a big-tent party. The 94 Congress got elected on promising to fulfill Perot’s 1992 centrist platform.
Speaking of Perot, if anybody’s political views in modern politics have come close to TR, thats him. TR was called crazy by other politicians also. (As was Truman, who threatened to punch reporters lights out)