What is a Conservative ?

A Closer Look at “The Way Forward”
By Dr. Lucas J. Mather, Ph.D.

Did conservatives end slavery ? It depends on what you mean by “conservative.”

Did Republicans end slavery ? Yes. I’m a Republican.

When I say I’m a Republican, one might assume I mean “conservative.” But what does it mean to be a conservative ?

Depending on who your interlocutor is, they might assume it’s a laundry list of positions taken on controversial issues such as abortion, firearm confiscation, the definition of voter suppression, security of the southern border, what percentage of the federal budget should continue to constitute entitlement transfer payments, the definition of marriage, grade inflation, etc.

But such a piecemeal approach to defining what a conservative is is in direct tension what the word itself seems to imply. One first stab at defining a little more precisely what a conservative is is to look at the word itself: within it is the word “conserve.” What are we conserving, and why?

Stay with me, here: One first stab at what we are conserving and why is “the status quo.”
But in 1854, when our Republican Party was founded, slavery existed . Slavery was the status quo in the United States. There was quite a strong movement to keep it and to expand it. Their Democratic Party, founded much earlier than our Republican Party, was the major party pushing to protect slavery. The Republican Party rose up in 1854 to counter this because we were not happy with the status quo.

But of course, I’m not happy with the status quo on a number of issues the Democrats are wrong on, not just slavery. My Republican anti-Slavery position is similar in key respects to my pro-Second Amendment beliefs. For example, five Republicans on the US Supreme Court applied the Republican Fourteenth Amendment against the Democrat City of Chicago in the 2010 case McDonald v. Chicago.¹ In that case, the Democrat City of Chicago (the president’s home town at the time) told a black man, Otis McDonald, that he had to wait for the police to protect him when his life or property was in danger. The police are his bodyguards. That was the position of the Democratic Party in Chicago and the Democrats on the US Supreme Court at the time. Black man, you need to use the police to protect you. Don’t worry, we will protect you.

That was code for : You are hereby a criminal if you protect you.
(Slaves were also forbidden to protect themselves or their own property).

That was the status quo in Chicago when Barack O’bama was elected president. And he was fine with that. But of course, he’s a Democrat.

Republicans were not fine with that status quo. That was not “the way forward,” as some people are fond of talking.

Not only do I disagree with the Democratic status quo in 1854, 1861, and 2010, I disagree with the status quo on abortion, on border security, on the percentage of the federal budget that goes to transfer payments, on grade inflation on Democrat indoctrination plantations we call “college campuses,” etc.

In that sense, I am not a conservative. But I am a Republican.

Which is why I often say, I’m not a conservative. I’m a Republican. Conservatives didn’t end slavery. Republicans did. Conservatives didn’t slap down the police power of the City in McDonald v. Chicago, decriminalizing Otis McDonald’s right to self-defense in that Democrat-run town. Republicans did.

Sometimes, Democrats get things right. The best illustration of getting it right for me is Mr. Peckham’s majority opinion in Lochner v. New York (1905)². He had the right result and the Republicans in dissent had the wrong result. Mr. Peckham overturned the status quo, struck it down, because the status quo criminalized innocent conduct, much like the City of Chicago had criminalized Otis McDonald’s innocent conduct. Criminalizing innocent conduct is always wrong.

If someone says to you that we need to “move forward,” consider what that means. “Forward” means moving toward whatever direction you happen to be facing. It depends, essentially, on which way you’re facing. Right ? If a cliff is right in front of you and you’re obsessed with “moving forward”, well , you’ll move toward the cliff, simply because that’s the direction you are facing.

How do you know you’re facing the “right” direction ? You have to think about that before you start moving, if possible.

One answer to that question is the most shallow: the right direction is the way I want to go. From the position you’re in, you want to go the way you’re facing, which is forward. Look at that view. From where you are, you can’t see the cliff until you’re right up on it and it’s too late. Then, “the way forward” for someone falling off a cliff is the ground rushing up on you at 123 miles per hour.

How do you know you’re facing the “right” direction ? You need to look around. The right way may be behind you. It may not even be what you want. We don’t always want the best things in the moment. We don’t always want what is right. Slave-holders and abortion providers have a conflict between what they own and do and what is right. The way they’re facing is the wrong way.

If you turn to what is right, that way you’re facing is the way forward. True progress depends on getting that right, not just in labeling what you want (or the way you’re facing in the status quo) “progress.” Reality doesn’t work that way.

A conservative in the best sense of the term in the present context is distinguished from a “progressive” not by wanting the status quo or not wanting to “move forward,” but by carefully reflecting first on whether we are facing the right direction. Lack of reflection on the way you’re facing (in the status quo) is characteristic of the fool. The conservative in this best sense of the term is obsessed with right. “The heart of the wise inclines to the right, the heart of the fool to the left.”³ In this sense, I am a conservative. And in that sense you’ll find the best Republicans and occasionally, even some Democrats.

As you face the new year, ask yourself: are we facing the right direction ? Are you ? Think carefully about that first before you get too excited about “moving forward.”

1 McDonald v. Chicago, 561 U.S. 742 (2010).
2 Lochner v. New York, 198 U.S. 45 (1905).
3 The Holy Bible, Ecclesiastes chapter 10 verse 2 (NIV).

Copyright Lucas J. Mather, 2021
All Rights Reserved