Title & Author: The Conscience of a Conservative by Barry Goldwater
Genre: Nonfiction--Political Philosophy
My Rating: 9.5
Summed Up:
Concerned that many felt the need to apologize for conservative principles, Barry Goldwater
presents his defense of the philosophy. He states that conservatism takes into
account more than just the economic well-being of the individual, which is all that socialism addresses, but also understands that men have a spiritual side as well. This
spiritual side is the more important part of man’s nature and therefore should
take precedence over his material desires. To Goldwater, the conservative’s
first concern should always be, “Are we maximizing freedom?”
Each person
is a unique creature with individualized needs and wants, therefore, “to regard
man as a part of an undifferentiated mass is to consign him to ultimate
slavery.” Conservatism thus looks at politics as “the art of achieving the
maximum amount of freedom for individuals that is consistent with the
maintenance of social order.” Without such order, freedom is impossible. Only
if one’s freedoms are defended from interference by others, can freedom truly
exist.
Goldwater
warns about the federal government’s departure from its proper role and scope
as defined by the Constitution. Too many feel that the State can be whatever it
“needs” to be, regardless of the bounds placed upon it by the Constitution.
However, the Founding Fathers had a reason for endorsing limited government,
rather than a government big enough to attempt to handle every problem. This
reason? Government has, throughout history, proved to be the main agent thwarting
and reducing man’s liberty. In short, “Government represents power in the hands
of some men to control and regulate the lives of other men.”
If
government, however, stays within its bounds, it is actually conducive to
freedom by maintaining order, protecting the citizenry from foreign enemies,
and allowing a free exchange of goods. But, freedom depends on effective
restraints on the government since it is the natural tendency of men to take
more and more power. A look at the growth of the size of the federal government
proves this point. In 1960, the federal government was the “biggest land owner,
property manager, renter, mover and hauler, medical clinician, lender, insurer,
mortgage broker, employer, debtor, taxer, and spender in all history.”
In
regard to streamlining the federal behemoth, Goldwater said, “I have little
interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean
to reduce its size. I do undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend
freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to
inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones.”
An
important part of limiting federal power is a hearty defense of the rights of
the states. This is the cornerstone of the maintenance of the Republic. “States
rights means that the states have a right to act or not act, as they see fit.”
If a state fails to perform its duties, “recourse lies not with the federal
government, which is not sovereign, but with the people who are” and to whom
the duties are owed. For many of the current issues the federal government is
addressing, it had no business or right to enter those fields in the first
place since the Constitution states that anything not explicitly delegated to
the federal government remained under control of the states.
In
regard to civil rights, Goldwater sees no conflict between protecting states’
rights and true civil rights, i.e. rights that are protected by valid federal
laws. If a state’s law violates such a civil right, then the state law is null.
However, if a right is not explicitly stated in the Consitution, states are free to rule as they deem
appropriate. Even if we deem something wrong, we cannot force another state and
its citizens to adopt our values if it violates their rights as a state.
Rather, “Social and cultural change, however desirable, should not be effected
by the engines of national power. Let us, through persuasion and education,
seek to improve institutions we deem defective. But let us, in doing so,
respect the orderly processes of the law. Any other course enthrones tyrants
and dooms freedom.”
Goldwater
then applies the principles of freedom, both free markets and free individuals,
to agriculture, labor, taxation, welfare, and education. In short, the federal government
has no power to interfere in agriculture and should do away with all farm subsidies.
Additionally, no man should be forced to join a union or be punished by
choosing not to, and unions should only be allowed to address the company for
which it’s members work, rather than be political lobbyists for an entire
trade. In regard to taxation, the government does NOT have an unlimited claim
on the earnings of individuals because such a claim violates mans right to use
his prosperity as he sees fit, and Goldwater advocates a flat tax that claims
an equal percentage of each man’s wealth. For welfare, conservatives must
demonstrate that there is a difference between being concerned with those
problems and believing that the federal government is the solution to them.
Private charity is the best solution to the material needs of our neighbors
because “both the giver and the receiver understand that charity is the product
of the humanitarian impulses of the giver, not the due of the receiver,” thus
avoiding resentment on those who are taxed and entitlement among those who receive.
Finally, education is not a problem with quantity, but with quality and the
federal government has absolutely no right to be involved in education at all.
The
final chapter in the book is the longest, and addresses “the Soviet Menace.”
While the Cold War is thankfully over, and the enslaved peoples under the Iron
Curtain are free, many of the principles presented in this chapter apply
perfectly to our current battle with Islamic terrorism and the political movement
of Islamism. First, our goal should not be peace, but victory, and every aspect
of our foreign policy should address and further that goal. We must take the offensive,
and not sit passively by; we must make America economically strong; we must behave
like a great power in all our dealings with foreign countries; we should adopt
a discriminating foreign aid policy with aid given only to friendly
countries that are actively fighting, in our case, Islamsim (i.e. not Pakistan or Saudi Arabia). As Goldwater says, this may be hard counsel, but that is “because
it frankly acknowledges that war may be the price of freedom, and thus intrudes
on our national complacency.”
You can read my review of The Conscience of a Conservative here.
