If there was ever an election for conservative political cynics to drown in their misery, this was the one. On one side, the Democrats nominated arguably the most liberal candidate in modern history whose empty rhetoric was somehow resonating with the middle-class. On the other side, the GOP nominated the bellicose McCain, a political liberal on immigration, the role of government, campaign finance, and touting a neoconservative foreign policy far more aggressive and ambitious than Bush II’s. So given the poor choices in front of voters, it would seem difficult to discern any major mandates bestowed upon President-elect Obama. But for several reasons, it seems clear that Americans have as a whole rejected the principles that America was once based upon in favor of “progress” towards the complete welfare-warfare state.
From the conservative perspective, there seems little hope. If any election was ripe for a successful third-party conservative, 2008 was that election. Yet the presumptive conservative alternatives–Baldwin and Barr–did not reach 1% combined. Far from playing spoiler, they were a footnote, destined to be quickly forgotten. Indeed, the oft-ignored and maligned Nader won more than the two candidates combined, and that was in an election with a popular liberal candidate running for the Democrats. For those traditionalists still left that feel conservatism in its purist forms offers hope for the United States, it is nearly impossible to feel anything but disappointment and shame in the nomination of a Wilsonian-liberal and the ignoring of the one principled conservative in the primary race, Ron Paul.
But beyond this election being yet another defeat for the Old Right, the response Americans had to Obama’s campaign and his subsequent election says a lot about the direction our country is headed. The thing that for so long made America a special nation was not its willingness to go abroad and slay imaginary dragons in the name of freedom, as Limbaugh and O’Reilly would lead you to believe. America was special because, in a world teetering on the brink of economic collectivism, cultural degradation, irreligious evangelism, and hell-bent on the eradication of national sovereignty, America was different. The “city on a hill” was not one meant to dominate foreign lands or collectivize it’s enterprise under an all-powerful state. It was meant to be a land that valued individual liberty above all else, and to stand athwart tyranny by being a shining beacon to the rest of the world.
The country that placed supreme worth in the possession of private property; the country that valued voluntary community over involuntary collectivism; the country that protected its citizens and stayed out of foreign quarrels; the country that was sickened by European society’s rejection of European tradition in favor of decrepit multiculturalism and materialism; the fading light of this America, my America, grows ever dimmer with the approach of this new administration. Suffice it to say, things look bleak.
But there are strands of light. If you look hard enough you will find them. They can be found in micro-breweries, independent baseball and softball leagues, small family farmer’s markets, local music scenes, independent publishing companies, and Church groups full of the brave faithful that pray hard for peace in our time of endless conflict. I’ve felt the unique and special nature of the small in small hardcore clubs in Philly, a 60 man fraternity at a school of 10,000, and privately owned Christmas-tree farms in New Jersey. That is our America, and as Bill Kauffman has said, “Their side is bombs and tanks and television. How can we lose?”
“The patriot never under any circumstances boasts of the largeness of his country, but always, and of necessity, boasts of the smallness of it.”
-G.K. Chesterton
In an era of big government and big business and big wars, let’s not forget that small is still beautiful.
