Eric Giunta
Why all real centrists are conservatives
By Eric Giunta
I used to believe that being a part of the far-right meant that one had an affinity for fascist political philosophy; after six years of undergraduate education and a year of law school, and having lived most of my adult life under the Bush-II presidency, I've come to realize that in the eyes of the American intelligentsia (that unholy trinity of Academy, Arts, and Media), what constitutes far-right thinking is nothing other than adherence to the traditional principles of mainstream conservatism.
When asked to give an example of a prominent proponent of far-right thinking, the typical American graduate student will name Rush Limbaugh before Benito Mussolini, Ann Coulter before Adolf Hitler, and Sarah Palin before Augusto Pinochet.
I began collegiate studies identifying myself as a centrist, and as time went by grew to embrace the far-right nomination. But over the past few weeks I've begun to reflect anew on my convictions, and have come to a startling realization: I am centrist, and I am centrist because I am conservative!
However counterintuitive this declaration may seem, the truth of it is borne out by the facts. When I go through my beliefs, one-by-one, I find that they are shared by a broad consensus of the American people.
1. I believe in God, and am a practicing member of the Christian religion.
Whoa, what am I, some kind of a religious fanatic, even a nutter? Actually, I'm just a mainstream American, by all accounts. According to the most recent studies on the subject by Pew Forum, a mere ten percent of Americans identify as "atheist, agnostic, or secular unaffiliated." Okay, so I'm very mainstream in my belief in God.
Oh, and lookie here: according to that same study, almost eight out of every ten Americans identifies as a Christian! Can't get much more on the fringe than that, can we?!
Statistics for the world, provided by the CIA Factbook, show that I'm rather mainstream even on that scale. Turns out a mere two percent of the world is professed atheist, and a trifling twelve percent describe themselves as "non-religious," (whatever that means). Meanwhile, 86 percent of the world subscribes to some sort of religious belief system, and Christians hold a plurality, claiming just under a third of the world's population.
Religiosity is not only mainstream by today's standards; it is so historically. The great majority of men who have ever existed have been believers in a Deity and subscribers to some sort of religious faith, and this also holds true for most of the great men and women who have contributed to the building of human civilization: artists, philosophers, scientists, statesmen, sportsmen, humanitarians, etc.
It was religious people who abolished slavery, and invented science, the rule of law, and charity as we know it.
Whatever position one personally holds on the subject of religious faith, it is conservatives who are in the mainstream in professing and venerating it, and the irreligious who are on the fringes of civil society.
2. I believe the United States to be a Christian nation (not a Christian theocracy).
The Left may take exception to this, but exactly how way-out-there am I in saying this about a country whose vast majority of citizens profess the Christian religion, and always have? Even our current President has tacitly conceded that we "once were" a Christian country.
Incidentally, a recent study found that most Americans agree with me on this point, and that furthermore, most even believe teachers should be allowed to lead prayer in public schools!
And once again, history is on my side here. When radical secularists claim that most of the Founding Fathers were Deists, they are actually referring to a handful who have become household names. This is faulty for several reasons: first, it proves too much: most of our "Deist" Founders were very robust in that Deism, and did not try to impose their Deism on the country, quite unlike the atheist-imposing antics of secular religions like the ACLU. (It also ignores the fact that Enlightenment-era Deism owes much of its substance to its Christian antecedents.)
In any event, there are at least 204 men who would qualify for the title of "Founding Father," the vast majority of whom were professed Christians.
And as it so happens, the United States Supreme Court back in 1892 said that America was a Christian nation, and gave copious documentation of that fact.
It is not conservatives, but rather those who would deny this history and ignore the sentiments of the great majority of Americans, who are well outside the mainstream on this point.
3. I believe that innocent human life should not be murdered. Sticking forks in the necks of nine-month old unborn children is a bad thing.
Need I say more? The overwhelming majority of Americans belong to religious traditions which historically have regarded abortion as nothing less than infanticide, and it's simply a biological fact (not a philosophical assertion) that a conceptus is an individuated human substance: a human being at a more primitive stage of development but a human being nonetheless.
It is actually so-called "pro-choicers" who try to impose their personal religious beliefs on society by insisting on an arbitrary distinction between "human life" and "personhood," as if the two were not in fact concomitant, if not coterminous.
Thankfully, most Americans today identify as pro-life, and in any event a belief can hardly be considered fringe when at least half of the population has always subscribed to it.
By contrast, among how many self-identified pro-choicers is it mainstream to advocate for partial-birth abortion, late-term abortion, opposition to parental consent laws (heck, opposition to parental notification laws), opposition to informed consent, forced taxpayer subsidization of abortion, etc? Of the pro-choicers I know, very few of them adhere to the Democratic Party's advocacy for each of these, and once again the stats bear me out.
On the pro-life issue, doctrinaire conservatives are a lot closer to the American mainstream than the pro-choice lobby or the Democratic Party.
4. I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. The natural life-mate of any mammalian male is a female of that same species.
Just where the heck do I get this from, nature or somethin'?!
This one is so easy even a child can understand it. No, literally: children can and do understand this. Don't believe me? Leave a girl to her own devices, to play House or Barbies. Still don't believe me? Take a look at the doodled masterpiece behind your son's seat on the school bus.
Once again, conservatives are on the side of the historical mainstream. There has literally never been a civilization on the face of the planet that has ever sanctioned the solemnization of homogenital unions. Nope, never; this in spite of all the differences which have existed in marriage rites and set-ups: societies can't seem to agree on the ceremonial minutiae, age requirements, how many wives to permit, etc. But they are all unanimous (or were until eight years ago) that marriage was only between a man and a woman.
And this consensus by and large still holds today. Most countries in the world do not perform or recognize same-sex marriages. Closer to home, most of the United States do not recognize gay marriage, and every State that has submitted this to a popular vote has banned it — even California!
Once again, conservatives are middle-of-the-road on a controversial social issue — which actually is not all that controversial.
5. I believe that people should be allowed to keep most of what they earn. I believe that countries, like people, cannot afford to spend money they do not have.
Whoa, baby! Here we go — I am such a right-wing fascist, aren't I? As the popular Tea Party demonstrations have, well, demonstrated, I guess I'm quite mainstream here too!
6. I believe that government which is closest to its people is better able to gauge that people's needs than a far-flung bureaucracy operating out of Washington, DC.
One of the ways the Left tries to discredit conservatives is by confusing us with libertarians. The vast majority of conservatives do not advocate doctrinaire laissez-faire libertarianism. As believers in an objective moral order, we're happy to concede, and even to promote, social responsibilities alongside personal responsibility, solidarity alongside subsidiarity.
We don't, however, equate society with government, at least not government alone. We draw concentric circles around the individual. Society begins first with that individual; whatever he cannot provide for himself should be assisted by his immediate relations, then by his extended family, then by friends, then by local intermediate institutions (especially churches and local charities), then municipal government, then county government, then state government, and finally, as a last resort, the Feds, in a manner not inconsistent with the rule of law (namely, the United States Constitution).
Is any of this radical, let alone extreme? Everyone I have ever suggested this model to has told me they found it sensible (yes, even my colleagues).
And by the looks of it, Americans aren't pleased with President Obama's big-government solutions to our problems. Score one more for the conservatives.
Conclusion
As will be apparent, it has not been the object of this survey to demonstrate the objective validity of any of the six principles I have outlined above. This really ought not to disturb any Leftist, since most of them are dogmatic or functional relativists — but I digress!
I have endeavored to make one point and one point alone: If one really wants to embrace a philosophy of mainstream, centrist common sense, he must, to one degree or another, embrace traditionalist conservatism.
By itself, this manifesto of mine cannot be a charter for a conservative resurgence in the American power structures. But if we are ever to restore this country to its moral and philosophical foundations, conservatives must start by countering Leftist propaganda which systematically portrays our deepest-held beliefs as fringe or extremist.
Before we can convince people our beliefs are true, we need to first show them they are respectable.
© Eric Giunta
I used to believe that being a part of the far-right meant that one had an affinity for fascist political philosophy; after six years of undergraduate education and a year of law school, and having lived most of my adult life under the Bush-II presidency, I've come to realize that in the eyes of the American intelligentsia (that unholy trinity of Academy, Arts, and Media), what constitutes far-right thinking is nothing other than adherence to the traditional principles of mainstream conservatism.
When asked to give an example of a prominent proponent of far-right thinking, the typical American graduate student will name Rush Limbaugh before Benito Mussolini, Ann Coulter before Adolf Hitler, and Sarah Palin before Augusto Pinochet.
I began collegiate studies identifying myself as a centrist, and as time went by grew to embrace the far-right nomination. But over the past few weeks I've begun to reflect anew on my convictions, and have come to a startling realization: I am centrist, and I am centrist because I am conservative!
However counterintuitive this declaration may seem, the truth of it is borne out by the facts. When I go through my beliefs, one-by-one, I find that they are shared by a broad consensus of the American people.
1. I believe in God, and am a practicing member of the Christian religion.
Whoa, what am I, some kind of a religious fanatic, even a nutter? Actually, I'm just a mainstream American, by all accounts. According to the most recent studies on the subject by Pew Forum, a mere ten percent of Americans identify as "atheist, agnostic, or secular unaffiliated." Okay, so I'm very mainstream in my belief in God.
Oh, and lookie here: according to that same study, almost eight out of every ten Americans identifies as a Christian! Can't get much more on the fringe than that, can we?!
Statistics for the world, provided by the CIA Factbook, show that I'm rather mainstream even on that scale. Turns out a mere two percent of the world is professed atheist, and a trifling twelve percent describe themselves as "non-religious," (whatever that means). Meanwhile, 86 percent of the world subscribes to some sort of religious belief system, and Christians hold a plurality, claiming just under a third of the world's population.
Religiosity is not only mainstream by today's standards; it is so historically. The great majority of men who have ever existed have been believers in a Deity and subscribers to some sort of religious faith, and this also holds true for most of the great men and women who have contributed to the building of human civilization: artists, philosophers, scientists, statesmen, sportsmen, humanitarians, etc.
It was religious people who abolished slavery, and invented science, the rule of law, and charity as we know it.
Whatever position one personally holds on the subject of religious faith, it is conservatives who are in the mainstream in professing and venerating it, and the irreligious who are on the fringes of civil society.
2. I believe the United States to be a Christian nation (not a Christian theocracy).
The Left may take exception to this, but exactly how way-out-there am I in saying this about a country whose vast majority of citizens profess the Christian religion, and always have? Even our current President has tacitly conceded that we "once were" a Christian country.
Incidentally, a recent study found that most Americans agree with me on this point, and that furthermore, most even believe teachers should be allowed to lead prayer in public schools!
And once again, history is on my side here. When radical secularists claim that most of the Founding Fathers were Deists, they are actually referring to a handful who have become household names. This is faulty for several reasons: first, it proves too much: most of our "Deist" Founders were very robust in that Deism, and did not try to impose their Deism on the country, quite unlike the atheist-imposing antics of secular religions like the ACLU. (It also ignores the fact that Enlightenment-era Deism owes much of its substance to its Christian antecedents.)
In any event, there are at least 204 men who would qualify for the title of "Founding Father," the vast majority of whom were professed Christians.
And as it so happens, the United States Supreme Court back in 1892 said that America was a Christian nation, and gave copious documentation of that fact.
It is not conservatives, but rather those who would deny this history and ignore the sentiments of the great majority of Americans, who are well outside the mainstream on this point.
3. I believe that innocent human life should not be murdered. Sticking forks in the necks of nine-month old unborn children is a bad thing.
Need I say more? The overwhelming majority of Americans belong to religious traditions which historically have regarded abortion as nothing less than infanticide, and it's simply a biological fact (not a philosophical assertion) that a conceptus is an individuated human substance: a human being at a more primitive stage of development but a human being nonetheless.
It is actually so-called "pro-choicers" who try to impose their personal religious beliefs on society by insisting on an arbitrary distinction between "human life" and "personhood," as if the two were not in fact concomitant, if not coterminous.
Thankfully, most Americans today identify as pro-life, and in any event a belief can hardly be considered fringe when at least half of the population has always subscribed to it.
By contrast, among how many self-identified pro-choicers is it mainstream to advocate for partial-birth abortion, late-term abortion, opposition to parental consent laws (heck, opposition to parental notification laws), opposition to informed consent, forced taxpayer subsidization of abortion, etc? Of the pro-choicers I know, very few of them adhere to the Democratic Party's advocacy for each of these, and once again the stats bear me out.
On the pro-life issue, doctrinaire conservatives are a lot closer to the American mainstream than the pro-choice lobby or the Democratic Party.
4. I believe marriage should be between a man and a woman. The natural life-mate of any mammalian male is a female of that same species.
Just where the heck do I get this from, nature or somethin'?!
This one is so easy even a child can understand it. No, literally: children can and do understand this. Don't believe me? Leave a girl to her own devices, to play House or Barbies. Still don't believe me? Take a look at the doodled masterpiece behind your son's seat on the school bus.
Once again, conservatives are on the side of the historical mainstream. There has literally never been a civilization on the face of the planet that has ever sanctioned the solemnization of homogenital unions. Nope, never; this in spite of all the differences which have existed in marriage rites and set-ups: societies can't seem to agree on the ceremonial minutiae, age requirements, how many wives to permit, etc. But they are all unanimous (or were until eight years ago) that marriage was only between a man and a woman.
And this consensus by and large still holds today. Most countries in the world do not perform or recognize same-sex marriages. Closer to home, most of the United States do not recognize gay marriage, and every State that has submitted this to a popular vote has banned it — even California!
Once again, conservatives are middle-of-the-road on a controversial social issue — which actually is not all that controversial.
5. I believe that people should be allowed to keep most of what they earn. I believe that countries, like people, cannot afford to spend money they do not have.
Whoa, baby! Here we go — I am such a right-wing fascist, aren't I? As the popular Tea Party demonstrations have, well, demonstrated, I guess I'm quite mainstream here too!
6. I believe that government which is closest to its people is better able to gauge that people's needs than a far-flung bureaucracy operating out of Washington, DC.
One of the ways the Left tries to discredit conservatives is by confusing us with libertarians. The vast majority of conservatives do not advocate doctrinaire laissez-faire libertarianism. As believers in an objective moral order, we're happy to concede, and even to promote, social responsibilities alongside personal responsibility, solidarity alongside subsidiarity.
We don't, however, equate society with government, at least not government alone. We draw concentric circles around the individual. Society begins first with that individual; whatever he cannot provide for himself should be assisted by his immediate relations, then by his extended family, then by friends, then by local intermediate institutions (especially churches and local charities), then municipal government, then county government, then state government, and finally, as a last resort, the Feds, in a manner not inconsistent with the rule of law (namely, the United States Constitution).
Is any of this radical, let alone extreme? Everyone I have ever suggested this model to has told me they found it sensible (yes, even my colleagues).
And by the looks of it, Americans aren't pleased with President Obama's big-government solutions to our problems. Score one more for the conservatives.
Conclusion
As will be apparent, it has not been the object of this survey to demonstrate the objective validity of any of the six principles I have outlined above. This really ought not to disturb any Leftist, since most of them are dogmatic or functional relativists — but I digress!
I have endeavored to make one point and one point alone: If one really wants to embrace a philosophy of mainstream, centrist common sense, he must, to one degree or another, embrace traditionalist conservatism.
By itself, this manifesto of mine cannot be a charter for a conservative resurgence in the American power structures. But if we are ever to restore this country to its moral and philosophical foundations, conservatives must start by countering Leftist propaganda which systematically portrays our deepest-held beliefs as fringe or extremist.
Before we can convince people our beliefs are true, we need to first show them they are respectable.
© Eric Giunta
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