Conservatism isn't dead yet, but its world is under siege
LAWRENCE MARTIN
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
March 3, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST
This week marks the first anniversary of Conrad Black's incarceration in a Florida prison. Judging from reports of his comportment, it's admirable how he's holding up. The former newspaper baron could have crumbled in the face of such debasement. But he has shown fortitude.
So much of his conservative world is under siege. The National Post, the newspaper Mr. Black founded a decade ago, is hobbled, demonstrably un-national, struggling to survive. The fleet of newspapers that he bought and that, with the Post, helped change the face of Canadian journalism are now part of a CanWest Global empire in dire financial condition. The conservative creed he undergirded with his baroque forays is threatened in Canada and reeling in America.
Writing in the Post, one of the editors lamented on the weekend that "Conservatism, as we know it, is dead." Many starboard voices south of the border offer similar sentiments. In their dire thoughts, they forget about the cycles, how the teeter-totter of time is likely to relieve them of their perceived perdition.
Down cycles aren't necessarily doom cycles, but what is worrisome for Conservatives is the assault on their catechism that this great recession has occasioned. Tory declines under Kim Campbell, John Diefenbaker and others were driven by leadership woes and party disunity. Under Stephen Harper, it is not that, but rather the apparent undermining of party precepts. The last time, in the 1930s, that conservative economics were so repudiated, there followed nearly 22 consecutive years of Liberal rule in Canada and 20 uninterrupted years of Democratic power in Washington.
Today's conservatives, confronted with sweeping U.S. liberal tides, are vulnerable on several fronts. They were the foremost promoters of the deregulation trend that stoked this crash. They were, beginning with Ronald Reagan but chiefly under George W. Bush, authors of burgeoning debts and deficits that helped do the same. The Chrétien/Martin Liberals and the Clinton Democrats stamped out the deficit-spending folly that was once common to their parties.
Republicans and conservative cousins are war enthusiasts, and their most recent wars, fraudulently conceived and badly executed in one instance, endless in another, have won few converts.
Canadian Conservatives find themselves on the wrong side of the leftish green revolution. The right had to be slowly dragged into acknowledging the danger of inaction. While the Liberals squandered an opportunity to address the problem, they never thought of it as a socialist scheme.
Then there's the matter of inspiration. The most heralded of leaders - Lincoln, Laurier, Roosevelt, Churchill, Kennedy, Trudeau, Reagan - shared one trait: They were exemplary communicators. In word power, liberals have someone in Barack Obama, who is cut from the same cloth. On neither side of the border do conservatives have anyone of silver-tongued talent.
Conservatism isn't dead but, with the public sector swooping in like a bird of prey, it is in the grip of a crisis it has seldom seen. Canadian Conservatives don't deserve to be tagged with the miscarriages of the Bush administration. But many of their basic beliefs didn't widely differ. It was perhaps why they were reluctant to take issue with him.
Their challenge is to redefine Canadian conservatism before it's fully tarnished by the U.S. brand. Becoming overnight Liberals won't do because, given the choice, people will vote for the real thing. A couple of decades ago, when the Liberals faced identity problems, they moved away from economic nationalism and from welfare-state deficit financing. When the opportunity struck, with the recession of that time, they were ready to pounce.
Some years later, Conrad Black was heavily instrumental in moving conservative causes to the forefront. His newspapers reframed the national debate and promoted the unification of the conservative parties. But with Mr. Black now discredited, with the conservative philosophy discredited, with conservative media properties in trouble, a rethink has to begin.
Lest conservatism be imprisoned with him, Lord Black might do his party a service by penning one of his Brobdingnagian tomes explaining a few things: how the right lost its way, how he and other kings of commerce became so inexcusably engrossed in greed. And how, most important, conservatism can be reborn.
LAWRENCE MARTIN
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
March 3, 2009 at 12:00 AM EST
This week marks the first anniversary of Conrad Black's incarceration in a Florida prison. Judging from reports of his comportment, it's admirable how he's holding up. The former newspaper baron could have crumbled in the face of such debasement. But he has shown fortitude.
So much of his conservative world is under siege. The National Post, the newspaper Mr. Black founded a decade ago, is hobbled, demonstrably un-national, struggling to survive. The fleet of newspapers that he bought and that, with the Post, helped change the face of Canadian journalism are now part of a CanWest Global empire in dire financial condition. The conservative creed he undergirded with his baroque forays is threatened in Canada and reeling in America.
Writing in the Post, one of the editors lamented on the weekend that "Conservatism, as we know it, is dead." Many starboard voices south of the border offer similar sentiments. In their dire thoughts, they forget about the cycles, how the teeter-totter of time is likely to relieve them of their perceived perdition.
Down cycles aren't necessarily doom cycles, but what is worrisome for Conservatives is the assault on their catechism that this great recession has occasioned. Tory declines under Kim Campbell, John Diefenbaker and others were driven by leadership woes and party disunity. Under Stephen Harper, it is not that, but rather the apparent undermining of party precepts. The last time, in the 1930s, that conservative economics were so repudiated, there followed nearly 22 consecutive years of Liberal rule in Canada and 20 uninterrupted years of Democratic power in Washington.
Today's conservatives, confronted with sweeping U.S. liberal tides, are vulnerable on several fronts. They were the foremost promoters of the deregulation trend that stoked this crash. They were, beginning with Ronald Reagan but chiefly under George W. Bush, authors of burgeoning debts and deficits that helped do the same. The Chrétien/Martin Liberals and the Clinton Democrats stamped out the deficit-spending folly that was once common to their parties.
Republicans and conservative cousins are war enthusiasts, and their most recent wars, fraudulently conceived and badly executed in one instance, endless in another, have won few converts.
Canadian Conservatives find themselves on the wrong side of the leftish green revolution. The right had to be slowly dragged into acknowledging the danger of inaction. While the Liberals squandered an opportunity to address the problem, they never thought of it as a socialist scheme.
Then there's the matter of inspiration. The most heralded of leaders - Lincoln, Laurier, Roosevelt, Churchill, Kennedy, Trudeau, Reagan - shared one trait: They were exemplary communicators. In word power, liberals have someone in Barack Obama, who is cut from the same cloth. On neither side of the border do conservatives have anyone of silver-tongued talent.
Conservatism isn't dead but, with the public sector swooping in like a bird of prey, it is in the grip of a crisis it has seldom seen. Canadian Conservatives don't deserve to be tagged with the miscarriages of the Bush administration. But many of their basic beliefs didn't widely differ. It was perhaps why they were reluctant to take issue with him.
Their challenge is to redefine Canadian conservatism before it's fully tarnished by the U.S. brand. Becoming overnight Liberals won't do because, given the choice, people will vote for the real thing. A couple of decades ago, when the Liberals faced identity problems, they moved away from economic nationalism and from welfare-state deficit financing. When the opportunity struck, with the recession of that time, they were ready to pounce.
Some years later, Conrad Black was heavily instrumental in moving conservative causes to the forefront. His newspapers reframed the national debate and promoted the unification of the conservative parties. But with Mr. Black now discredited, with the conservative philosophy discredited, with conservative media properties in trouble, a rethink has to begin.
Lest conservatism be imprisoned with him, Lord Black might do his party a service by penning one of his Brobdingnagian tomes explaining a few things: how the right lost its way, how he and other kings of commerce became so inexcusably engrossed in greed. And how, most important, conservatism can be reborn.
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