This book is not written with the idea of adding to or improving on the
Conservative philosophy. Or of “bringing it up to date.” The ancient
and tested truths that guided our Republic through its early days
will do equally well for us. The challenge to Conservatives today is
quite simply to demonstrate the bearing of a proven philosophy on the
problems of our own time.
I should explain the considerations that led me to join in this
effort. I am a politician, a United States Senator. As such, I have
had an opportunity to learn something about the political instincts
of the American people, I have crossed the length and breadth of
this great land hundreds of times and talked with tens of thousands
of people, with Democrats and Republicans, with farmers and laborers
and businessmen. I find that America is fundamentally a Conservative
nation. The preponderant judgment of the American people, especially
of the young people, is that the radical, or Liberal, approach has not
worked and is not working. They yearn for a return to Conservative
principles.
At the same time, I have been in a position to observe first hand how
Conservatism is faring in Washington. And it is all too clear that in
spite of a Conservative revival among the people the radical ideas that
were promoted by the New and Fair Deals under the guise of Liberalism
still dominate the councils of our national government.
In a country where it is now generally understood and proclaimed that
the people’s welfare depends on individual self reliance rather than
on state paternalism, Congress annually deliberates over whether the
_increase_ in government welfarism should be small or large.
In a country where it is now generally understood and proclaimed that
the federal government spends too much, Congress annually deliberates
over whether to raise the federal budget by a few billion dollars or by
many billion.
In a country where it is now generally understood and proclaimed that
individual liberty depends on decentralized government, Congress
annually deliberates over whether vigorous or halting steps should be
taken to bring state government into line with federal policy.
In a country where it is now generally understood and proclaimed
that Communism is an enemy bound to destroy us, Congress annually
deliberates over means of “co-existing” with the Soviet Union.
And so the question arises: Why have American people been unable to
translate their views into appropriate political action? Why should the
nation’s underlying allegiance to Conservative principles have failed
to produce corresponding deeds in Washington?
I do not blame my brethren in government, all of whom
work hard and conscientiously at their jobs. I blame
Conservatives--ourselves--myself. Our failure, as one Conservative
writer has put it, is the failure of the Conservative demonstration.
Though we Conservatives are deeply persuaded that our society
is ailing, and know that Conservatism holds the key to national
salvation--and feel sure the country agrees with us--we seem unable
to demonstrate the practical relevance of Conservative principles to
the needs of the day. We sit by impotently while Congress seeks to
improvise solutions to problems that are not the real problems facing
the country, while the government attempts to assuage imagined concerns
and ignores the real concerns and real needs of the people.
Perhaps we suffer from an over-sensitivity to the judgments of those
who rule the mass communications media. We are daily consigned by
“enlightened” commentators to political oblivion: Conservatism, we
are told, is out-of-date. The charge is preposterous and we ought
boldly to say so. The laws of God, and of nature, have no dateline.
The principles on which the Conservative political position is based
have been established by a process that has nothing to do with the
social, economic and political landscape that changes from decade to
decade and from century to century. These principles are derived from
the nature of man, and from the truths that God has revealed about His
creation. Circumstances do change. So do the problems that are shaped
by circumstances. But the principles that govern the solution of the
problems do not. To suggest that the Conservative philosophy is out of
date is akin to saying that the Golden Rule, or the Ten Commandments or
Aristotle’s _Politics_ are out of date. The Conservative approach is
nothing more or less than an attempt to apply the wisdom and experience
and the revealed truths of the past to the problems of today. The
challenge is not to find new or different truths, but to learn how to
apply established truths to the problems of the contemporary world. My
hope is that one more Conservative voice will be helpful in meeting
this challenge.
This book is an attempt to bridge the gap between theory and practice.
I shall draw upon my speeches, the radio and television broadcasts and
the notes I have made over the years in the hope of doing what one is
often unable to do in the course of a harried day’s work on the Senate
floor: to show the connection between Conservative principles so widely
espoused, and Conservative action, so generally neglected.