Will the real conservatives please stand up?

Church history and theology are among my interests, particularly the Reformation and subsequent Protestant movements (yes, there have been and continue to be many). One thing that I think contributed to the endlessly multiplying number of denominations within Christianity is the calcification of the issues that the original Reformers brought to the fore. Issues that were meant to serve as correctives to a Roman pontificate stuck in a medieval mindset -- issues like sola scriptura (the belief that the Bible is the only inerrant authority in the life of the believer) and justification through faith -- became articles themselves in the belief structure of the heirs of the original Reformers. As a consequence, entire new churches and denominations were erected to protect the new articles of belief, rather than those original grievances serving as correctives to transform the original church from the inside out.

A similar phenomenon has happened to the modern-day conservative movement in America. What was a dynamic movement with a particular aim took hold of the means and fossilized them into the end goals themselves. Witness: the original goal of the American conservative movement was to preserve the Constitution of the United States. Means to this end were to push for smaller, more responsive government, protect the economic interests of small business and the middle-class, defend and expand civil liberties, work for lower taxes and fiscal responsibility, and commit to peace through a strong military.

Now the heirs of these great conservative founders have taken *some* of these means and calcified them into hardened, transcendent principles: lower taxes, even during a period of war and record government growth; strong military (what happened to the peace part) that we use to beat the rest of the world into submission to our will (or at least go down trying); protection of big corporate interests rather than small business and the middle-class worker. No sign of smaller government, fiscal responsibility, commitment to civil liberties. Rather, the opposite - all power is to be consolidated into the hands of the President at the expense of civil liberties, congressional prerogatives and responsibilities, and the Constitution. Insufferable! The greatest defenders of the Constitution have transformed themselves into its greatest threat!!

That's irony enough to make George Lucas himself proud.

The parallels and similarities between the heirs of the Reformation and the heirs of the American conservative movement are too much to be coincidental. This must speak to a tendency within our human nature. Kelly has asked the question well: "What is a good citizen to do when the irrationality of politics and partisanship drown out the rationality of the issues at hand? When a group is more interested in besting their opponents than doing the right thing or whitewashing their own failures to save face, how can we in good faith give them our undivided loyalty?

Why does it seem like the root of the problem for any political party (or any movement in general) is when they become so certain that they have all the answers that they no longer need to listen to criticism or feedback from those with whom they disagree. It goes beyond hubris and into self-delusion."

Conservatives indeed! In the tradition of socialism, communism, and every other traditionalist movement that sought to empower the Government at the expense of the people. The conservative movement of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan that sought to preserve the Constitution of the United States, conservatism that was really an extension of eighteenth-century Enlightenment liberalism that sought to empower the people, has been swept aside by modern disciples of expanding presidential power at any and all cost.

And I want nothing of it!