I grew up in a small town in southern Virginia, in the 1940s and 50s, under conservative governance - city, county and state. They were Democrats at the time; didn’t become Republicans until much later. We had long sense been split into two groups: quality folks, who counted for something, on the right side of the tracks and trashy folks, who didn’t, on the wrong side. Conservatism has certain meanness.
Emerson wrote in “The Conservative View” that “the position conservatism is set to defend is the state of things, good and bad. The position of liberalism is the best possible state of things” and “that each is a good half, but an impossible whole.”
To illustrate this point, I ask the question, in the twentieth century, other than Prohibition, which was clearly a conservative group accomplishment, what have conservatives, as a group, actually done? We know what they have apposed: women’s right to vote, trashy folks exercising theirs; Social Security; Medicare; Medicaid; minimum wage; unemployment insurance; Workman’s Comp; collective bargaining; public education; civil rights; the end of segregation in the south; affirmative action; listing of ingredients on food and drugs; installation of ramps and enlarging of doorways, so those of us confined to wheel chairs can get into public places; a bathroom stall large enough to use the facilities when they do; seat belts in the car; and a woman’s right to choose.
In the upcoming election season, through all the flag waving, name calling and distractions; before you sashay into another voting booth you might want to know the answer to the question.