Since the revolution in national politics precipitated by the election of Donald Trump, many have reflected on conservatism’s record and legacy. Because Trump represents a new kind of populist, anti-establishment conservatism, there has been much lamentation over Reagan-style conservatism’s perceived decline.
This lamentation is appropriate; something important seems to have passed away, not least of which is civility and compassion in public discourse. But however much we may regret this, we must acknowledge an uncomfortable truth: Conservatism has systematically failed to conserve anything.
In line with its affirmation of constitutionally limited government, conservatism defended private property and individual initiative in the economy, as opposed to public ownership and state initiative. This was done not for the sake of “fetishizing” the free market, as some inappropriately say, but because political liberty and self-government cannot flourish without economic freedom.
Conservatives have advocated reining in government spending, cutting taxes, shutting down government programs, and returning control of vital public issues to state and local governments. How has it worked out?
In 1930, the government consumed roughly 10 percent of the nation’s economic output. About 7 percent was federal, with the remaining 3 percent state and local. By 2010, we see a very different pattern: The government consumes roughly 40 percent of the nation’s economic output, with 25 percent federal and 15 percent state and local. Not only has the absolute size of government increased, but the federal government has rapidly outgrown local and state governments. This is a complete inversion of the relationship advocated by conservatives.
What about the national debt? Conservatives rightly oppose excessive deficits, which over time result in a mountain of public debt. This puts future generations — our children and grandchildren — on the line for obligations that we couldn’t be bothered to meet. Little could be more anti-conservative than consuming posterity’s inheritance. But since the Reagan era, frequently with conservatives steering the ship of state, public debt as a percentage of GDP has exploded. In 1980, federal government debt was about 30 percent of GDP. Today it’s about 105 percent.
Thus we see on two important issues that conservative practice fails to live up to conservative rhetoric. Even if we concede much of this is due to progressives, the fact remains that organized political conservatism has proven powerless to stop them. Conservatism simply hasn’t worked.
But the problem is worse than this. Not only has conservatism failed to conserve, it has actively taken part in the squandering. Conservatives supported the expansion of military activity that resulted in the current Middle Eastern morass, with nothing to show for it except wasted life and wealth. Conservatives have also been no strangers to crony capitalism, handing out political favors to well-connected interest groups when doing so was in their political self-interest. And most troubling, conservatives have not even come up with the outlines of a feasible plan to restore fiscal sanity.
The election of Ronald Reagan as president in 1980, and his re-election in 1984, was supposed to constitute a national referendum on the managerial-administrative state. We were promised a return to limited, lawful government. We got some modest deregulation and marginal tax cuts. Worthwhile things, certainly, but hardly an impressive result given all the time and energy expended by conservatives within the Beltway.
It’s time to stop beating around the bush: Political conservatism has lost, both due to its honest failures and dishonest complicities.
I do not want to see Trump’s brand of conservatism become the new normal. Demagoguery always and everywhere is contrary to conservatism. But what came before it is not worth reviving.
On the other hand, the goal of liberty under law, of a government that respects the Constitution and the rights of the people, is always a worthwhile one. It’s time to look elsewhere than political conservatism to restore it.
Alexander William Salter is an assistant professor in the Rawls College of Business at Texas Tech University. He is also the Comparative Economics Research Fellow at TTU’s Free Market Institute.
