Harvey Mansfield, writing for City Journal:
Our parties, as liberal and conservative, oppose each other over progress in the drive toward ever-greater equality. In defending progress, as we saw in the last issue, liberals run into the difficulty that equality seems impossible to define and heedless in its never-ending motion. (See “Our Parties, Part One,” Winter 2015.) Liberalism claims to be more rational than custom, tradition, and common sense; but liberalism, or progressivism, relies on simpleminded principles and unthinking passion. It suffers from faults that it fails to acknowledge—the clumsiness of administering its programs, their cost, and its lack of prudence in dealing with foreign enemies (as opposed to its skill in defeating conservatives at home). Conservatives, for their part, face the difficulty of countering the impression that progress is inevitable and irreversible, and so of generally playing defense and reacting to their opponents’ initiatives. They have the faults of progressivism to work against but have enjoyed more success in electing conservatives than in reversing so-called progress. If liberals are the party of government, conservatives are the party of responsible government, their responsibility often being manfully to make the best of a bad situation.
Liberals have the advantage in the battle over progress because they call for more democracy in a democratic country, while conservatives find themselves stuck with defending inequality. And the liberals’ advantage isn’t confined to this point. Liberals also say that they are cruising on the tide of History, the winning side, as well as fighting on the side of justice, the right side—thus claiming credit for both greater power and greater morality. With the entitlements they favor, they appeal to citizens’ desire to live securely when young or old or poor—thus satisfying conservative instincts and attaching people to liberal programs. That fusion, bringing the spirit of conservatism to the support of liberal innovation, leaves the party of conservatism to defend the liberal status quo. Or conservatives can attack the status quo and try to reform or revolutionize it, either going slow with reform or seeking to return to an older, better day. If they go slow, they must accept and take responsibility for improving the liberal status quo; if, refusing this responsibility, they try to go back to some better time in the past, which serves as a standard (the “Republican Revolution”), they may frighten the country—and also themselves. Moreover, it probably is not possible to make just one of these choices and stick with it. Reformers will find themselves in need of a standard or principle with which to resist the liberals; revolutionaries will find it necessary, at some point, to moderate their views in order to win.
The way to understand this dilemma—since it probably is inescapable—is to consider more frankly the objection to liberal progress toward ever-greater equality. This objection, in practice, amounts to the defense of inequality by conservatives or Republicans. Democrats are the inclusive party: their drive toward equality seeks to include as equal all those presently considered unequal, those who lack security and are, in one way or another—by incapacity, lack of virtue, or bad luck—vulnerable. Republicans are the exclusive party: they believe that, while all share equality of rights, some people are better than others and deserve to be honored or rewarded for this. I call them the party of virtue, though they do not make that claim themselves. They would probably speak of “values” rather than of virtue, fearing the prudish connotation of that lovely antique word. They would also probably call themselves the party of liberty and reject the boastful claim of being more virtuous, so invidious in a democracy. But they want not any liberty but the virtuous use of liberty—liberty used to the end of supporting and honoring virtue, as opposed to lazy or licentious liberty.
Liberals have the advantage in the battle over progress because they call for more democracy in a democratic country, while conservatives find themselves stuck with defending inequality. And the liberals’ advantage isn’t confined to this point. Liberals also say that they are cruising on the tide of History, the winning side, as well as fighting on the side of justice, the right side—thus claiming credit for both greater power and greater morality. With the entitlements they favor, they appeal to citizens’ desire to live securely when young or old or poor—thus satisfying conservative instincts and attaching people to liberal programs. That fusion, bringing the spirit of conservatism to the support of liberal innovation, leaves the party of conservatism to defend the liberal status quo. Or conservatives can attack the status quo and try to reform or revolutionize it, either going slow with reform or seeking to return to an older, better day. If they go slow, they must accept and take responsibility for improving the liberal status quo; if, refusing this responsibility, they try to go back to some better time in the past, which serves as a standard (the “Republican Revolution”), they may frighten the country—and also themselves. Moreover, it probably is not possible to make just one of these choices and stick with it. Reformers will find themselves in need of a standard or principle with which to resist the liberals; revolutionaries will find it necessary, at some point, to moderate their views in order to win.
The way to understand this dilemma—since it probably is inescapable—is to consider more frankly the objection to liberal progress toward ever-greater equality. This objection, in practice, amounts to the defense of inequality by conservatives or Republicans. Democrats are the inclusive party: their drive toward equality seeks to include as equal all those presently considered unequal, those who lack security and are, in one way or another—by incapacity, lack of virtue, or bad luck—vulnerable. Republicans are the exclusive party: they believe that, while all share equality of rights, some people are better than others and deserve to be honored or rewarded for this. I call them the party of virtue, though they do not make that claim themselves. They would probably speak of “values” rather than of virtue, fearing the prudish connotation of that lovely antique word. They would also probably call themselves the party of liberty and reject the boastful claim of being more virtuous, so invidious in a democracy. But they want not any liberty but the virtuous use of liberty—liberty used to the end of supporting and honoring virtue, as opposed to lazy or licentious liberty.
Whole thing here.
