The Losing Side of History

The modern American conservative movement cannot get beyond the Cold War, even though it has been dead and buried for 18 years. The current state of the Republican party only makes sense in a context of the Cold War. This has become a sort of cliche on the Left in America and yet it does have merit.

Now, to start, we have to define a few terms. Communism means collective ownership of land, property, and machinery, as used in the Soviet Union and other Communist states. This entire philosophy, economic and social, is pretty much gone, as even nominally Communist states such as China and Cuba have now invested heavily in private industry and privatization schemes. What Communism does not mean is wealth redistribution, large government, higher taxes, or any of the above. These were traits of the Soviet Union to be sure, but were a byproduct of that regime and not specifically traits of Communism.

The American conservative movement does deserve recognition for opposing the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. But their continued insistance at looking at the world and the country through this prism has led to many grave mistakes and incorrect assumptions.

First, the typical modern conservative looks at everything as black or white. There is no gray area since during the Cold War you opposed the Soviet Union or you did not. Everything, every subject tends to be seen in either/or combinations. Either you are for abortion or against it. Either you are for higher taxes or against them. Nuances of disagreement or different solutions are not allowed.

This means that if you supported anything that was anti-conservative, you also were anti-American, pro-Soviet, anti-freedom, and so forth.

They defined themselves only in relation to the USSR. If the USSR was atheist, the American conservative would be Christian and would become even more Christian to show the godless anti-American Communists his opposition. If the USSR was for more government control in all areas of life, the American conservative would be against all government control in all areas of life. See how this works?

Because the current conflicts within the Republican party make no sense until you realize that the social conservative evangelical Christians and the pro-corporation libertarian economists have no reason to be on the same side unless they are opposing the USSR.

There is also no understanding of the difference between socialism and communism among American conservatives. Remember, everything not capitalist is automatically evil and anti-American, so can be safely dismissed as one opposing philosophy, even though there is a whole range of thought about individual sectors of the economy from capitalism to socialism with varying degrees of government regulation in between. Any regulation to the modern conservative is bad, because it is more government, and more government is bad because more government = USSR.

This is why some feverishly called Barack Obama a Communist even though absolutely nothing in his programs or proposals is remotely Communist, or even Socialist. Indeed, the policies of George W. Bush are more socialist than Obama's.

Conservatives perversely and blissfully ignore the history of their own thought and theory. Since they hate Communism, they love Christianity, which leads to opposing the idea of global warming (government regulation bad, idea that humans can destroy nature bad since nature was created by God), opposing evolution, opposing all forms of abortion, and opposing government funded stem cell research. Even an anti-science tinge has crept into conservative politics, fueled by the embracing of all things Christian even if illogical. This is also why conservatives can claim to be libertarians and oppose gay marriage in the same breath.

Again, this only makes sense looking through a Cold War, anti-Soviet lens.

Conservatives believe America to be a totally and wholly unique nation, probably due to God's will, but this is supported by evidence that America was the chief opponent of the USSR during the Cold War. American decisions are therefore better for everyone and the world would be a better place if everyone aped America. America ostensibly is democratic, and uniquely so in the world, so the rest of the world should likewise be democratic.

Combining a black/white mentality with the idea of America as unique in the world and the desire for global democracy America-style, and then throw in opposition to all regimes ever supported by the USSR and you get the precise mentality needed to invade Iraq in 2003.

Now, you might say, so what?

The so what is in the details. Consider the following quotes:

Jeane Kirkpatrick stated in 1979 (http://aei.org/publications/filter.all,pubID.25258/pub_detail.asp) that some dictatorships are good and wonderful things, as long as they oppose communism.

Rush Limbaugh hates Nelson Mandela, because in his view, Mandela was backed by communists. He restated this again as late as 2007 (http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/?p=1223). Never mind that Mandela was trying to overthrow a racist dictatorship that Limbaugh loved and supported because they were pro-American and anti-communist. Indeed, in 1993, the day Mandela received the Nobel Peace Prize, he was trashed by Limbaugh.

Limbaugh praised then-Senator Strom Thurmond for calling a gay soldier "not normal" in 1993 (http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1895). In 1994, he stated "When a gay person turns his back on you, it is anything but an insult ; it's an invitation."

Conservatives hated Mikhail Gorbachev from the outset because they feared his perestroika and glasnost were smokescreens. Remember, anything Soviet is automatically evil. President George H.W. Bush even told the Ukrainians to not try to become independent of the USSR, to great dismay of freedom-lovers everywhere.

Conservative ideas stemming from the Cold War have led them down a garden path of philosophy that is no longer relevant to their party, their movement, the country, or anything else. It has blinded them and it is worth remembering that conservatives used to despise gays, atheists, and agnostics, and supported dictatorships and assassinations as late as the 1990s. So when a conservative tells you you are a communist or socialist for opposing them or claims that conservatism has always been on the side of freedom, it is past time to call them on it.