“The enemy of freedom is unrestrained power, and the champions of freedom will fight against the concentration of power wherever they find it.”
Introduction
“The challenge to Conservatives today is quite simply to demonstrate the bearing of a proven philosophy on the problems of our own time.”
- This is not about bringing Conservatism up to date — that is inherently contradictory.
The country now debates annually how much to…
- Increase the reach of the nanny state (rather than reduce it)
- Increase the budget by billions (rather than shrink it)
- Increase federal oversight into state actions (and thus violate the Constitution by taking on federal responsibilities illegally)
Conservatism is applying tested truths from the past to the present
The Conservative is interested in applying “the accumulated wisdom and experience of history, and he is not too proud to learn from the great minds of the past.”
“To suggest that the Conservative philosophy is out of date is akin to saying that the Golden Rule or the ten Commandments or Aristotle’s Politics are out of date. The conservative approach is nothing more or less than an attempt to apply the wisdom and experience and the revealed truths of the past to the problems of today.”
“In a country where it is now generally understood and proclaimed that individual liberty depends on decentralized government, congress annually deliberates over whether vigorous or halting steps should be taken to bring state government into line with federal policy.”
Freedom is impossible with a big government
“Man’s political freedom is illusory if he is dependent for his economic needs on the state.”
“The Conservative looks upon politics as the art of achieving the maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the maintenance of social order.”
- That’s it. Social order — that is the role of government.
“The Conservative’s first concern will always be: are we maximizing freedom?”
“Throughout history, government has proven to be the chief instrument for thwarting man’s liberty.”
“That’s what the Constitution is: a system of restraints against the natural tendency of government to expand in the direction of absolutism.”
“The government takes six percent of most payrolls in SOcial Security Taxes and thus compels milllions of individuals to postpone until later years teh enjoyment of wealth they might otherwise enjoy today.”
Government should be “default small”
There has been a tonal shift in America where the government has evolved from a small government seeking bigger responsibility but assuming it has no power to a government that assumes it has ultimate power and is merely debating how and when to use it.
“The first principle of totalitarianism: that the State is competent to do all things and is limited in what it actually does only by the will of those who control the State.”
“The Constitution is an instrument, above all, for limiting the functions of government.”
- The Constitution gave a select few responsibilities to the federal government: the rest all belongs to the states.
How to measure the size of your government
There are a number of ways in which the power of government can be measured.
One is the size of its financial operations. Federal spending is now approaching a hundred billion dollars a year (compared with three and one-half billion, less than three decades ago).
Another is the scope of its activities. A study recently conducted by the Chicago Tribune showed that the federal government is now the “biggest land owner, property manager, renter, mover, and hauler, medical clinician, lender, insurer, mortgage broker, employer, debtor, taxer, and spender in all of history.”
Still another is the portion of peoples’ earnings the government appropriates for its own use: nearly a third of earnings are taken every year in the form of taxes.”
Democracy can be dangerous, and America is not a direct democracy for a reason
The Constitution deliberately sets up a Representative Democracy in the United States, to limit the influence of the people in the actions of government. This prevents rapid backlash and mob mentality from taking over the legislative process.
“The Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, probably the most clairvoyant political observer of modern times, saw the danger when he visited this country in the 1830’s. Even then he foresaw decay for a society that tended to put more emphasis on its democracy than on its republicanism.”
States’ Rights
The Constitution is a limiting agent. It is intended to limit the power of the federal government and give as much leeway as possible to the states. The federal government should be concerned with safety — both defense and internal stability. It should not be involved in welfare programs, safety net programs, or education. Those should be left to the States.
“The Tenth Amendment is not a “general assumption,” but a prohibitory rule of law. The Tenth Amendment recognizes the States’ jurisdiction in certain areas. States’ Rights means that the States have a right to act or not to act as they see fit, in the areas reserved to them.”
- In response to federal involvement in agriculture, education, and urban renewal programs: “The federal government had no business entering these fields in the first place, and thus had no business taking upon itself the prerogative of judging the States’ performance”
- And later: “The intentions of the founding fathers in this matter are beyond any doubt: no powers regarding education were given to the federal government.“
Federal government matching State funding is a one-way street; no sane State legislator will ever divorse from “free money” from the federal government.
- “Once the federal government has offered matching funds, it is unlikely, as a practical matter, that a member of a State Legislature will turn down his State’s fair share of revenue collected from all of the States. Understandably, many legislators feel that to refuse aid would be political suicide. This is an indirect form of coercion, but it is effective nonetheless.”
The federal government can only grow, it cannot shrink. Thus it is imperative to be extremely careful about what roles are assigned to it, for they are rarely, if ever, taken away.
For the States model to work, States must be able to compete, otherwise they are little more than imaginary lines between swaths of land. Lower exit costs / switching costs are necessary to move between states and keep them accountable to their residents.
- “My view is that if State X possess the wealth to educate its children adequately, but has failed to utilize its wealth for that purpose, it is up to the people of State X to take remedial action through their local and state governments.”
Taxes and Spending
“We have been led to discount, and often to forget altogether, the bearing of taxation on the problem of individual freedom. We have been persuaded that the government has an unlimited claim on the wealth of the people, and that the only pertinent question is what portion of its claim the government should exercise.”
- Government should be default small and default broke
Any dollar taken in taxes is a dollar the individual cannot spend to further their own ambitions. Thus, taxation is directly at odds with personal freedom.
- “One of the foremost precepts of the natural law is man’s right ot the possession and the use of his property. And a man’s earnings are his property as much as his land and the house in which he lives.”
- “Taxes, visible and invisible, take approximately 32% of [the average family man’s] earnings. This means that one-third, or seven whole days, of his monthly labor goes for taxes. The average American is therefore working one-third of the time for the government.”
Goldwater portrays progressive tax as punishing success.
- “I believe it is contrary to the natural right to property to which we have just alluded — and is therefore immoral — to deny to the man whose labor has produced more abundant fruit than that of his neighbor the opportunity of enjoying the abundance he has created.”
- “The graduated tax is a confiscatory tax. Its effect, and to a large extent its aim, is to bring down all men to a common level.”
Republicans like to talk of cutting taxes, but not enough of cutting spending. However, spending cuts must come before tax cuts in order to avoid deficit spending and inflation.
“The only way to curtain spending substantially is to eliminate the programs on which excess spending is consumed. The government must begin to withdraw from a whole series of programs that are outside its constitutional mandate—from social welfare programs, education, public power, agriculture, public housing, urban renewal, and all other activities that can be better performed by lower levels of government.”
Money is not free
There is a common misconception that money from the federal government is “free”. While the money does not come from the States’ coffers, it still comes from the individual taxpayer. It is only “free” from the perspective of the State legislator; they would be wasting the individual taxpayer’s money anyway.
“The federal government has no funds except those it extracts from the taxpayers who reside in the various States. The money that the federal government pays to State X for education has been taken from the citizens of State X in federal taxes and comes back to them minus the Washington brokerage fee.”
About freeloaders: “There will always be some men, of course, who will try to sponge off others; but let us not express our contempt for some men by denying freedom of choice to all men.“
Individualism and differences are necessary and natural
“The Conservative believes that man is, in part, an economic, animal creature; but that he is also a spiritual creature with spiritual needs… Conservatism therefore looks upon the enhancement of man’s spiritual nature as the primary concern of political philosophy.”
Individualism is key to human flourishing. Government should be a force to allow maximum freedom and individualism.
“Only a philosophy that takes into account the essential differences between men and accordingly makes provision for developing the different potentialities of each man can claim to be in accord with Nature.”
Free Markets
Federal government involvement in farm subsidies has perverted market incentives for farmers, leading to massive amounts of wasted food, high food prices, limiting farmers’ freedoms, and a reduction in farmers’ quality of life.
- “The only way to persuade farmers to enter other fields of endeavor is to stop paying inefficient farmers for produce that cannot be sold at free market prices. Is this a cruel solution? Is it heartless to permit the natural laws of economics to determine how many farmers there shall be in the same way that those laws determine how many bankers or druggists or watchmakers there shall be?”
- “Most farmers want to stand on their own two feet. They are prepared to take their chances in the free market. They have a more intimate knowledge than most of us the consequences of unlimited government power, and so, it would seem, a greater interest than most in returning agriculture to freedom and economic sanity.”
Unions are necessary to counteract big consolidated corporations, but they must be reformed in a few major ways.
- As corporations have grown massive throughout the 20th century, the individual worker is at a distinct disadvantage about the terms of their employment. The employer can dictate the terms freely and the individual must submit to it unless they are able to associate with others in order to bargain.
- “Unions can be an instrument for achieving economic justice for the working man. Moreover, they are an alternative to, and thus discourage State Socialism. Most important of all, they are an expression of freedom. Trade unions properly conceived is an expression of man’s inalienable right to associate with other men for the achievement of legitimate objectives.”
- “The natural function of a trade union and the one for which it was historically conceived is to represent those employees who want collective representation in bargaining with their employers over terms of their employment… this function is perverted the moment a union claims the right to represent employees who do not want representation or conducts activities that have nothing to do with the terms of employment.”
- “We have seen unions perform their natural function when three conditions are observed: association with the union is voluntary; the union confines its activities to collective bargaining; the bargaining is conducted with the employer of the workers concerned.”
Welfare is the first step to Socialism
Welfare is Socialism in disguise: instead of openly saying that the government should control all facets of business, instead give the government control of benefits and then create a need to fund those benefits, thus requiring higher taxes and increased control over output.
- “Socialism-through-Welfarism poses a far greater danger to freedom than Socialism-through-Nationalization precisely because it is more difficult to combat.”
- “Nationalization ran into popular opposition, but the collectivists feel sure that the Welfare State can be erected by the simple expedient of buying votes with promises of “free” federal benefits — “free” housing, “free” school aid, “free” hospitalization, “free” retirement pay, and so on…”
Do Conservatives have no concern or empathy for the unemployed or the sick? The answer is no, they do of course care.
- “But simple ‘no’ is not enough. I feel certain that Conservatism is through unless Conservatives can demonstrate and communicate the difference between being concerned with these problems and believing that the federal government is the proper agent for their solution.”
This issue highlights the fundamental different between the Left and Right — whether or not they trust government.The Left turns to government to solve their problems and trusts the system, wheresa the Right is skeptical and would prefer smaller local power or individual solutions.
- “Consider the consequences to the recipient of welfarism. For one thing, he mortgages himself to the federal government. In return for benefits—which, in the majority of cases, he pays for—he concedes to the government the ultimate in political power—the power to grant or withhold from him the necessities of life as the government sees fit.”
“The material and spiritual sides of man are intertwined; that it is impossible for the State to assume responsibility for one without intruding on the essential nature of the other; that if we take from a man the personal responsibility for caring for his material needs, we take from him also the will and the opportunity to be free.”
Education
Education should be handled by states, not by the federal government.
The issue is not spending; there is enough money. The issue is quality of education, which is increasingly low.
“Our ability to cope with the great crises that lie ahead will be enhanced in direct ratio as we recapture the lost art of learning.”
Different children are good at different things, and should be nurtured differently in order to maximize their success.
- “Subscribing to the egalitarian notion that every child must have the same education, we have neglected to provide an education system which will tax the talents and stir the ambitions of our best students and which will thus insure us the kind of leaders we will need in the future.”
- “The function of our schools is not to educate, or elevate, society; but rather to educate individuals and equip them with the knowledge that will enable them to take care of society’s needs.”
On schools becoming vehicles for politics instead of education: “In our anxiety to ‘improve’ the world and insure ‘progress’, we have permitted our schools to become laboratories for social and economic change according to the predilections of the professional educators.”
Be skeptical of government
Government can only grow, it cannot shrink.
Progress comes at the hands of exceptional individuals, not as a result of central planning.
“We are not guaranteed against unwise controls any more than we are guaranteed against unwise Congressmen.”
Goldwater’s critiques of Republicans
Goldwater seems almost as disappointed with Republicans of his day as he is with Democrats.
- “The Republican Party, to be sure, gives lip-service to States’ Rights… I regret to say that in actual practice, the Republican Party, like the Democratic Party, summons the coercive power of the federal government whenever national leaders conclude that the States are not performing satisfactorily”
The Soviet Union
The Soviets have a desire to win, even if the cost of winning means going to war — their desire is not for peace. They want complete world domination.
The US wants peace — but it should “not want the peace of surrender”.
We must have as much conviction in freedom as the Soviets have in Communism. We must believe that it is preferably to die than to not be free.
- “If we do that — if we tell ourselves that it is more important to avoid shooting than to keep our freedom — we are committed to a course that has only one terminal point: surrender.”
We should stop courting the leaders of enemy countries, and instead focus on courting their people.
- By providing aid to the leaders of communist countries, we are not making them likelier to see us as allies — instead, we are useful idiots, and we are bolstering their regimes through our aid.
- “We must realize that the captive peoples are our friends and potential allies—not their rulers. A truly offensive-minded strategy would recognize that the captive peoples are our strongest weapon in the war against Communism, and would encourage them to overthrow their captors.”
We must behave like a great power. Make it clear what can and cannot be negotiate. Do not grovel and make increasingly big concessions for peace. If necessary, go to war for what you believe.
- “We may not make foreign peoples love us — no nation has ever succeeded in that — but we can make them respect us. And respect is the stuff of which enduring friendships and firm alliances are made.