There is an article that appeared in the 14 December 2008 edition of the Washington Times titled “How big-conservatism fails” got my attention today. The basis of the article is the ever re-occurring theme of late that so-called conservatives like George Bush and Bill Kristol erred by adopting the ideal of big centralized government.
Through the mist of utter BS we need to realize a fact straight away; you are not a “Conservative,” a big “C” Conservative if you support the ideal of big government.
One of the enduring tenets that Conservatives sustain is the belief in the principle of subsidiarity. The principle holds that nothing should be done by a larger and more complex organization that can be done as a well by a smaller and simpler organization. These smaller groups include local communities, private organizations, labor unions, churches, and the family.
While the principle was first articulated through the Catholic Church by Pope Leo XIII in the encyclical Rerum Novarum (1891) and re-applied in modern terms by Pope John Paul II in Centesimus Annus (1991), it was however realized and practiced first in the United States. Subsidiarity is the fundamental concept of the founding of American political thought.(1)
Russell Kirk advocated the principle of subsidiarity through much of his writing. We can see this clearly in two of his principles of conservatism, “to uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism,” and “the conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.”
Alexis de Tocqueville also warned against the all-powerful state , opposed to what Bush and Kristol now trumphant:
“For their happiness such a government willingly labors, but it chooses to be the sole agent and the only arbiter of that happiness; it provides for their security, foresees and supplies their necessities, facilitates their pleasures, manages their principal concerns, directs their industry, regulates the descent of property, and subdivides their inheritances: what remains, but to spare them all the care of thinking and all the trouble of living?”
No, I adamantly disagree with anyone that advocates that a one can be both a Conservative and an advocate of big centralized government. Can one be a socialist and advocate freedom of choice and small government?
There in lies the truth about those in the Republican Party and news media that have embraced, sponsored and advanced big government, they are not Conservative. They may seek to “conserve” big government intrusion in our lives, in that they are small “c” conservative, but they are not of the tradition of Conservativism. They are charlatans, liars, but not Conservative.
1. Lawrence P. Grayson, Subsidiarity and American Democracy.
