Boomer Bust: An Appeal from the New Conservatives to the Old

Populist Justice: Murder of Marie Louise of Savoy During the September Massacres

Dear Boomers,

One of the biggest disgraces of your generation’s 25-year reign is your flirtation with populism. This scourge is bubbling up again across Europe and America, and some of you (both on the political left and right) are encouraging it. History shows that stirring up popular emotions may serve short-term political goals, but ultimately they unleash the uncontrollable demon of mob violence. 

Three deficiencies allow populism to seduce you. First, you became lazy. Russell Kirk notes that “…one arrives at principle through comprehension of nature and history…”, but you find principle by path of least resistance: cable news, social media, and party platitudes. Second, you are consumed with anger—at Obama, illegal immigrants, the establishment, political correctness—and some of that anger is legitimate--but it softens you for manipulation. Third, you lack humility. Humility sharpens your understanding of the boundaries of your knowledge and what is knowable. Without it, you cannot learn.

Your deficiencies make you easy prey for “sophisters, calculators, economists” and demagogues. They use you for their financial and political ends. But there is a method to fortify yourselves against demagogues: reading about histories and great statesmen. These readings will cure your lack of humility by revealing your ignorance. They will inoculate your mind against anger and laziness manipulated to someone else’s ends.

One such conservative statesmen was Edmund Burke. He was an Irishman born to a Catholic mother and a Protestant father. Burke served in the British House of Commons during a tumultuous period of political realignment across Europe and America. The American and French Revolutions were the defining events of his time. If a man’s enemies offer any clue to his convictions, Burke’s enemies included Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Karl Marx.

Burke’s writings on the French Revolution form the foundation of modern conservative political thought (and, ironically, classical liberalism—more on this later). His most famous essay, “Reflections on the Revolution in France”, sparked intense interest and controversy, but in it Burke put forward core conservative principles. Speaking to a British population suffering from injustice, he warned his fellow countrymen not to follow France's path. France abandoned its virtue and would inevitably descend into mob violence. In contrast, Burke supported the American Revolution as an evolution and continuation of a just order.

Burke’s party (the Whigs) and the British public rejected him over his opposition to the French Revolution. The Whigs needed more votes after losing an election and courted supporters of the French Revolution. Burke thought the Whigs sold out for political reasons. Over time, however, Burke was vindicated. What France’s wealthy demagogues instigated as a populist movement to “drain the swamp” and free the people from a corrupt establishment devolved into the Reign of Terror and a totalitarian bloodbath. The ensuing chaos led to the rise of Napoleon—himself responsible for an additional six million deaths—and a further 50 years of revolutions and counter-revolutions.

Burke's Principles of Conservatism and their Application

Hopefully you are beginning to grasp the dangers of populism. If you do, you must do more than just reject it. You must rediscover and fight for our principles. One caveat: as a statesman, Burke never designed a comprehensive political philosophy. Instead, he always focused on the tangible and practical application of government’s actions on the people he served. We will also focus on the practical application of our principles.

Conservatism’s first principle is the sanctity of human life under natural law. Burke's reading of the new French Constitution confirmed his worst fears. Abandoning natural law, the French Constitution's supreme basis of law was the general public will. Without a check on popular will, the State had authority to define arbitrarily the relative values of human life. If you fell out of favor with public opinion, you could receive the guillotine.

The practical application of this principle causes significant controversy with the Jacobins’ heirs. They mainlined the belief that popular sentiment can define human life. This radical change facilitated history's worst revolutionary regimes (Nazis, Soviets, Maoists). Their mass murdering required flexible definitions of human (or sub-human) life. But it also led to less obvious problems. The fierce debate over whether the pre-born are considered human is one example. Additional examples include policy debates associated with the elderly, refugees, illegal immigrants, criminals, and the poor. One can detect an ugly assumption concerning the relative value of these lives in the debates.

Conservatism’s second principle is that just and ordered liberty is humanity’s birthright, but must arise through a deliberate process (unlike, say, your invasion of Iraq). Burke did not begrudge the French their liberty--he questioned the justice and process by which it came about. The French Revolution destroyed the established order and emphasized a selfish and disconnected liberty. Unordered liberty subjugates individuals to the whims of the mob.

The practical application of this principle also remains a source of intense debate. Burke acknowledged that unselfish and ordered liberty demands limitations on individuals. In this context, we should consider the 2nd amendment issue. Our just and ordered liberty already establishes restrictions on access to certain classes of weapons. You are not allowed to possess ballistic missiles or tanks or nuclear weapons, for example. But how do you compare your desire for other classes of weapons against the public’s right to life?  Spare me the pretense of countering government tyranny—that’s why you have a national guard. If you think your AR-15 will save you from an angry Uncle Sam, look up footage of drone-launched hellfire missiles. (This point of view makes me liberal because I’m conservative—see how confusing this is?)

Conservatism’s third principle requires significant humility and thus might be the most difficult for you. It emphasizes the importance of continuity over innovation in political affairs. Our obligation is to build upon humanity’s collective wisdom, accumulated across millennia, to conserve our species. New ideas should be vetted against this collective wisdom instead of pursuing radical new ideas and innovations in politics--these things are very dangerous. In fact, inventions, abstractions, metaphysical politics, and ideologies pose a fatal threat to life and liberty.

The practical application of this principle is two-fold. First, we must oppose leaders who seek to make radical changes or innovate in affairs of state.  Social grievances must be addressed; however, they must be addressed by modifying and building upon the established order and not overturning and destroying it. Second, democratic governance requires especially pious and consecrated leaders due to statesmen’s extraordinary power and trust. They must understand ancient ideas and evolution of thought that brought humanity to where it is. They must also understand how easy it is to lose everything. 

Recalled to Life

It is not too late. Burke can recall you to conservatism. Find in Burke your inner prudence and moderation—traits incompatible with the passions of populism.  Learn to overcome your laziness to see the obverse of an issue. Replace your anger with ambition and cure your lack of humility with learning.

You must rediscover your convictions. Doing so will bring consistency to your viewpoints and will allow you to transcend partisan platitudes. Burke took unpopular stands against his party for the sake of his principles. Life, liberty, and continuity must factor into your voting habits, social media posts, dinner conversations with friends, and political debates with others. Leave hypocrisy for others.

You also need to know the details. Burke did. No more maudlin sloganeering. For example, please stop complaining about abstractions like an unspecified failure to adhere to constitutional principles you probably do not understand (few do). Instead, learn the details (like what is the 21st amendment or what does Article II cover?). Then you will see through those seeking to manipulate you.

You also must understand that conservatism and liberalism need each other. As Burke wrote, the clash between reasoned liberalism and conservatism creates “…a reciprocal struggle of discordant powers [that] draws out the harmony of the universe.” This leads to compromise, which naturally begets moderation and prudence. Burke influenced classical liberalism. American liberal historian Richard Hofstadter lamented that he found Burke deep in the minds of American liberals such as Woodrow Wilson.

Finally, continuity does not mean stasis. As Kirk says, “Society must progress and prudent change is the means of social preservation.” It would behoove you, studying Burke, to no longer confuse ends and means.  Limited government, executive orders, laws and regulations, and even the U.S. Constitution itself—these must be allowed to change and evolve.  They are simply means for achieving society’s ends: life, ordered liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 

America’s founding fathers, whom you profess to adore, rejected populism. They established republican governance to protect individuals from the will of the people. They knew that populism is dangerous to individual life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Our government, whose constitution frames these ends in natural law, is the crown jewel of your inheritance. If you continue to squander it, you will condemn your children to a world of tyranny and death.

Many young people, minorities, and women detest conservatism. Older, white conservatives are dying off. Given the importance of both liberalism and conservatism for guiding social progress, a shrinking generation of new conservatives will all but guarantee revolution. We must avert this outcome. Communicating our views in a rational and logical way helps others see the importance of principled conservativism. But we must stand up in the face of political pressures. We must be brave and speak truth to power. Winston Churchill said, “Some men change their party for the sake of their principles; others their principles for the sake of their party.” Edmund Burke did not compromise his principles and neither should you.