History Then & Now

Have you ever pondered who and what you are politically? Many associate and call themselves “conservative” or say “I am a Republican.” Yet, others say I have “conservative values.”  What it means today, may not mean what you think it does when you donned that mantle. This blog takes a look through time-at how we came to the meaning of Conservative in contemporary times. Written by Lewis Toland

What Is Conservatism?

When Robson Ranch residents attended high school, we read Shakespeare, perhaps Julius Caesar.   During my sophomore year, the dreaded Roman tale proved tedious until Mark Antony began his funeral oration to counter assassins:  

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;

I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

The evil that men do lives after them;

The good is oft interred with their bones (Julius Caesar III.ii.1-4).

Before he finishes, the murderers flee for their lives, their plans crushed by potent words.  The politically astute Antony connected me to Barry Goldwater’s campaign and Ronald Reagan’s captivating “A Time for Choosing”: “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth.”  Ideas matter, a point made in Proverbs: “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he” (23:7 KJV).  Our deeds originate from our thoughts.  Choosing our words shows who we are and thus our purpose.  What, though, do we mean when we claim to be “conservative”? 

Let us begin historically.  American historian John Lukacs clarifies what matters most: “The purpose of historical knowledge is more than accuracy; it is understanding.”  Neglecting it turns us into Humpty Dumpty: “A word means what I want it to,” thus distorting its reception.  Indifference to our origin invites confusion and divisiveness if we assume that we all believe the same thing.  Quite simply, we do not.  Let’s prefer clarity and consistency, thus treating others as we want them to treat us.  Knowing who we are and why we matter avoids the lure of a Pied Piper of Hamlin.  

Conservatism’s pedigree begins during the French Revolution.  After the American Revolution, Scotsman Edmund Burke warned that the French Revolution’s wild impulses would bring bloody chaos – which it did, the guillotine slaughtering 40,000.   The Jacobins misunderstood the American Revolution’s conservative principles of moral citizenry and restrained government.  John Adams advocated self-restraint and virtue, declaring: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” Although these two statesmen did not call themselves “conservative,” their perspectives laid the foundation for Republicans through Herbert Hoover.

The term rarely appeared in the nineteenth century, though Abraham Lincoln explained it at the Cooper Union in New York. “What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the point in controversy which was adopted by ‘our fathers who framed the Government under which we live.’" 

“Conservatism” lacks a precise definition agreeable among its various claimants, each assuming themselves to be right.  At least four categories emerge.  Some basic tensions characterize them: virtue or freedom, order or liberty, temperament or ideology, a timeless philosophy or a time-bound agenda, ends versus means, and a doctrine of conduct or a doctrine of means (Meyer 14).  Morality and stability remain central to traditionalists as represented by Russell Kirk from the 1950s.  For libertarians (Frederick Hayek’s The Road to Serfdom), individual freedom and limited government matter most.  To illustrate, traditionalists condemn extramarital sex and drug usage, but libertarians tend to regard them as matters of individual choice.  Paleoconservatives (Patrick Buchanan) prefer small government and isolationism as in Calvin Coolidge’s era.  Neoconservatives welcome overseas commitments and larger government.  These converts from communism and liberalism illustrate Irving Kristol’s definition of a conservative as “a liberal who’s been mugged by reality.”  Whether we can charitably respect each other remains unclear: the Left gains when our disagreements intensify into quarrels. 

Knowing that change is inevitable, Edmund Burke regarded conservatism as a way of life: respecting tradition while changing slowly and wisely.  His “little platoons” of local organizations and commitments served citizens well.  Memorably, he understood a pact among the dead, the living, and those yet to be born, a variant of loving thy neighbor as thyself.  Early in the twentieth century, G. K. Chesterton extended this concept: 

Tradition is only democracy extended through time; it may be defined as an extension of 

the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our 

ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and 

arrogant oligarchy of those who are merely walking about. All democrats object to men 

being disqualified by accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by 

accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man's opinion, even if he is 

our father.  (Orthodoxy, Chapter 4)

He affirms magnanimity as our touchstone, a far cry from our propensity – goaded by talk radio, websites, or social media – to react to an issue judging it against principle and history. 

Our loose, shifting coalitions do well to cultivate our roots – the American Revolution, Edmund Burke, Abraham Lincoln, Russell Kirk, William F. Buckley, Barry Goldwater, and Ronald Reagan – to name only a few.  Contexts changed.  For John Adams, character counts.  Our Whig predecessors valued infrastructure for an expanding nation.  Lincoln viewed the Constitution through the Declaration of Independence.   Congressional Republicans later in that century promoted industrialization.  However, the Great Depression soured voters on commerce and limited government.  After World War II, conservatives divided about overseas involvements, notably Vietnam.  Anti-communism, a key bond among conservative groups, diminished after the Berlin Wall fell.  “Culture war” issues such as abortion, declining marriage and birth rates, failing schools, intrusive bureaucracy, and illegal immigration arouse us since the Clinton years.  A question lingers: will history remember us for our reactions or our innovations?

Our world is complex and contradictory.  Do we yield to impulse or follow our principles?  Are they clear, and do we incarnate them graciously, practicing the Golden Rule?  Ben Franklin’s observation early in the American Revolution fits us against an enraged, vindictive Left: “If we do not hang together, we shall hang separately.”  Reagan advised, “If someone agrees with me 80% of the time, we can work together.”  Let us get our own house in order amid perilous times lest the need for another Mark Antony arises.   (Toland, Lewis, 2026). 

Brief Reading List

I read these books over the past couple of years, and a couple of dozen similar titles await while I also read about the American Revolution.  This list is chronological rather than alphabetical. Enjoy some summer reading! Lewis

Russell Kirk.  The Conservative Mind from Burke to Eliot (1953).

Russell Kirk.  Russell Kirk’s Concise Guide to Conservatism (1957) 

Frank S. Meyer, Ed.  What Is Conservatism (1964)

Charles W. Dunn & J. David Woodard.  The Conservative Tradition in America (1996)

George W. Carey, Ed.  Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative/Libertarian Debate (2004)

George H. Nash.  Reappraising the Right: The Past and Future of American Conservatism (2009)

Lee Edwards.  Just Right: A Life in Pursuit of Liberty (2017)

Matthew Continetti.  The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism (2023)  

Movie of the Month 

 In his essay What Is Conservatism?, Lewis Toland reminds us that the heart of conservatism is moral courage — the conviction to act rightly even when the world demands otherwise.

That same spirit shines through in Hacksaw Ridge, the true story of Army medic Desmond T. Doss, who refused to carry a weapon yet saved seventy‑five men under fire at Okinawa. His heroism embodies the Founders’ belief that liberty is sustained by conscience and mercy.

Join us for an evening on Thursday June 18^th from 6-8 pm in the Clubhouse for the movie-HACKSAW RIDGE that brings Toland’s words to life — a film that celebrates faith, duty, and the enduring strength of principle.

Hacksaw Ridge (2016, 139 minutes) 

Thursday, June 18 6-8 p.m. 

81 years ago, the Battle of Okinawa (1 April – 21 June 1945) prepared the way for massive bombing of Japan, which ended the war, our firebombs killing far more Japanese that our two atomic bombs did.  Army medic, a conscientious objector, Desmond T. Doss earned the Medal of Honor for rescuing 75 wounded soldiers.  This film celebrates our freedom of conscience and to show mercy, a gift from the Founders.