Matthew Continetti: The Evolution of Modern Conservatism (Neo And Otherwise)
[Matthew Continetti is a staff writer at the Weekly Standard.]
Believe it or not, I had never noticed the similarity between Saint Augustine, the 5th-century archbishop of Hippo, and Michael K. Deaver, the late-20th-century presidential adviser and media consultant. But both men are interested in conversion narratives -- stories about how people leave one set of beliefs for another. Saint Augustine's conversion, of course, was from paganism to Christianity. But conversions aren't always religious; they can be political, too.
Readers will find plenty of political conversion narratives in the pages of Deaver's new anthology, Why I Am a Reagan Conservative (Morrow, $24.95). Deaver asked more than 50 Republican politicians, writers and political activists what makes them conservative -- what brought them, in other words, to the Republican Party.
The answers contain some surprises. Author Michael Barone writes about his experiences in the summer of 1967 as an intern in the offices of Detroit's mayor, Jerome Cavanaugh, a liberal Democrat and a champion of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society. Barone had just finished his first year at Yale Law School and was "enamored of the idea that city governments could transform the lives of their poor residents." But the race riots that swept Detroit that summer shook Barone's faith in the ability of government programs to produce social harmony. "Whatever could be said for the liberal policies I favored," Barone writes, "they had not prevented the deadliest urban riot of the 1960s." You could argue that Detroit has never recovered from the '67 riot -- and neither has Michael Barone. By the late 1970s, he had cast most of his liberalism aside and embraced "low taxes and freer markets."
He isn't alone. Orrin G. Hatch, the senior senator from Utah, tells us he "used to be a union card-carrying Democrat" who spent his youth working "with metal lathers." But as he grew older and "saw the difference in the lives of people who counted on handouts" and "those who struggled to stay independent," Hatch replaced his "Democratic mantra" with a Republican one.
It's dismaying, however, that so many of Deaver's contributors have to fall back on clichés. Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman writes that he's a conservative because "I believe in freedom" -- as if liberals do not. Illinois Rep. Henry J. Hyde writes that he's a conservative because "I believe America is worth defending" -- as if liberals do not. Paul M. Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, writes that he's a conservative "because I want to live in a society that works well" -- again, as if liberals do not. ...
Read entire article at Wa Po
Believe it or not, I had never noticed the similarity between Saint Augustine, the 5th-century archbishop of Hippo, and Michael K. Deaver, the late-20th-century presidential adviser and media consultant. But both men are interested in conversion narratives -- stories about how people leave one set of beliefs for another. Saint Augustine's conversion, of course, was from paganism to Christianity. But conversions aren't always religious; they can be political, too.
Readers will find plenty of political conversion narratives in the pages of Deaver's new anthology, Why I Am a Reagan Conservative (Morrow, $24.95). Deaver asked more than 50 Republican politicians, writers and political activists what makes them conservative -- what brought them, in other words, to the Republican Party.
The answers contain some surprises. Author Michael Barone writes about his experiences in the summer of 1967 as an intern in the offices of Detroit's mayor, Jerome Cavanaugh, a liberal Democrat and a champion of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society. Barone had just finished his first year at Yale Law School and was "enamored of the idea that city governments could transform the lives of their poor residents." But the race riots that swept Detroit that summer shook Barone's faith in the ability of government programs to produce social harmony. "Whatever could be said for the liberal policies I favored," Barone writes, "they had not prevented the deadliest urban riot of the 1960s." You could argue that Detroit has never recovered from the '67 riot -- and neither has Michael Barone. By the late 1970s, he had cast most of his liberalism aside and embraced "low taxes and freer markets."
He isn't alone. Orrin G. Hatch, the senior senator from Utah, tells us he "used to be a union card-carrying Democrat" who spent his youth working "with metal lathers." But as he grew older and "saw the difference in the lives of people who counted on handouts" and "those who struggled to stay independent," Hatch replaced his "Democratic mantra" with a Republican one.
It's dismaying, however, that so many of Deaver's contributors have to fall back on clichés. Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman writes that he's a conservative because "I believe in freedom" -- as if liberals do not. Illinois Rep. Henry J. Hyde writes that he's a conservative because "I believe America is worth defending" -- as if liberals do not. Paul M. Weyrich, president of the Free Congress Foundation, writes that he's a conservative "because I want to live in a society that works well" -- again, as if liberals do not. ...