Henry Olsen: The Fifty Years’ War
[Henry Olsen is vice president of the American Enterprise Institute.]
With primary season over, the stage is now set for an epic fall election. The massive electoral repudiation that increasingly looks likely for Democrats is not, however, why this vote will be historic. It will be historic because it is the most intense battle yet in the Fifty Years’ War between conservatives and liberals for possession of America’s political soul.
This war has been fought over what defines American freedom. Are Americans freer when they can pursue their dreams without government interference? Or are they freer when the government ensures that all their needs are provided for?
The American conservative movement was founded to oppose the latter definition. Bill Buckley’s famous line from the initial issue of National Review said it all: Conservatives “stand[] athwart history, yelling Stop.” The conservative movement has always been a fusion of different groups, often differing among themselves with respect to where they want the country to go. But it has always been united on one immutable principle: Liberalism must be stopped.
In the five-plus decades since Buckley’s immortal words, conservatives have never failed to win a national election when liberalism was on full display. Liberals have held the presidency and Congress with large majorities four times — 1964, 1976, 1992, and 2008. The first three times (and, it looks likely, the fourth time as well), conservatives soon thereafter won massive congressional victories. The first two times, conservatives also won the presidency. This evidence is clear — Americans do not endorse the rapid implementation of liberal ideals.
If Americans object to liberal policies, though, why have conservative landslides not created permanent conservative majorities? Why isn’t the center-right party the natural governing class in a center-right nation?..
Read entire article at National Review
With primary season over, the stage is now set for an epic fall election. The massive electoral repudiation that increasingly looks likely for Democrats is not, however, why this vote will be historic. It will be historic because it is the most intense battle yet in the Fifty Years’ War between conservatives and liberals for possession of America’s political soul.
This war has been fought over what defines American freedom. Are Americans freer when they can pursue their dreams without government interference? Or are they freer when the government ensures that all their needs are provided for?
The American conservative movement was founded to oppose the latter definition. Bill Buckley’s famous line from the initial issue of National Review said it all: Conservatives “stand[] athwart history, yelling Stop.” The conservative movement has always been a fusion of different groups, often differing among themselves with respect to where they want the country to go. But it has always been united on one immutable principle: Liberalism must be stopped.
In the five-plus decades since Buckley’s immortal words, conservatives have never failed to win a national election when liberalism was on full display. Liberals have held the presidency and Congress with large majorities four times — 1964, 1976, 1992, and 2008. The first three times (and, it looks likely, the fourth time as well), conservatives soon thereafter won massive congressional victories. The first two times, conservatives also won the presidency. This evidence is clear — Americans do not endorse the rapid implementation of liberal ideals.
If Americans object to liberal policies, though, why have conservative landslides not created permanent conservative majorities? Why isn’t the center-right party the natural governing class in a center-right nation?..