Guest Column: Tilting right, to society’s detriment

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on February 16, 2019.

Where have all the moderate conservatives gone?

This is a relevant and urgent question for Canadians. Our lives are deeply affected by American politics, which have lurched to the outer edges of radical conservatism and threaten the foundations of democratic institutions world-wide. The Tea-Republican-Trump Party has succeeded in erasing our collective memory of what conservatism once stood for, giving us in its place a credo of cultism, white supremacy and corporate capitalism.

The transformation of conservative politics over the past decade has been dramatic and tends in one direction, extremism. A recent conversation between two men, overheard in a local coffee spot, reflects what has happened to the public perception of right wing politics:

First man: “I don’t think it’s fair to say that all conservatives are racists.”

Second man: “Well no, I’ll give you that. But why is it that so many racists seem to support the Republican party?”

The current hot mess of American politics threatens to cripple conservatism as a credible force for many decades. Our society, in order for democracy to survive, needs conservative moderates who are willing to do their duty and re-establish a commitment to community. Brute force individualism, the lifeblood of dictators, must be resisted.

Racism, corruption and brazen criminality are the personal trademarks of Mr. Trump and he has debased his party and government in his quest to cripple American democratic institutions. His ease with lying is legendary. As a role model, he poses a threat to this generation of children, if only because he teaches them that selfishness and greed are virtues. He sows chaos, so that he can step in and apply his brand of authority to fill the void he has created. We find ourselves in the Age of Venality, where truth, decency and fair play are consumer items.

How has this happened? How did America, once considered a model of democracy, fall so far? For the answer we have to travel back to 1961 when President Dwight Eisenhower issued a call to duty, which his fellow Republicans promptly decided to ignore. In his farewell speech as he left the presidency he said, “We must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military’s industrial complex.”

Eisenhower worried about the endless appetite of special interest groups such as the military economy and corporate capitalism. He was alarmed by the anti-democratic tendencies in his own party, saying “Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history.” He could not foresee the success of the current slash and burn conservatives.

Conservatives ignored his moderate advice and tilted right, far right. Today they embrace totalitarianism, showing a slavish adulation for tough guys, political dictators and corporate capitalists like Trump. Their political ideals shifted away from a sense of duty to the democratic project, to an attack on taxation, regulations and fair voting processes. No longer do they urge us to love one another. They call us instead to worship at the altar of individual greed and domination.

Eisenhower’s failed warning marked the decline of moderate conservatism in the United States. A stream of politicians, including Nixon, Reagan and the Bush family, worked hard to ensure that the military and the business world would serve each other, to the increasing impoverishment of the poor and middle classes. Entire American cities and counties now rely heavily on military spending as part of their local economies, to the detriment of education, health care and other social investments.

In Canada, we too have seen a tilting of our political landscape to the extreme right, where politicians consistently ignore the concerns of the majority. They reject environmental issues and minority rights. They attack taxation, which is a direct way for citizens to invest in their democracy. We see their views championed by people like Ford and Kenney, with the support of Rebel Media and the Fraser Institute and their rich donors. Gone are the days when Peter Lougheed stood at the head of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative Party. His moderate conservatism would not be welcome in the ranks of the UCP.

Where are you, moderate conservatives, when we need you most? We miss the voices who used to defend fiscal responsibility that was for the benefit of everyone, not just the wealthy and powerful. You need to respond. Step up and do your duty, because time is running out.

Lyle Weis is a published author of books and a freelance teacher, as well as a student of history and supporter of democracy.