Some of the feedback I received following yesterdays article about rejecting compromise and holding true to our conservative conscience has been both encouraging and sad. I was encouraged to see that there is still a remnant who have decided to hold true to what is right but saddened to see the growing number of those all too willing to do a little evil now for a supposed good later.
Sadder still is how this latter group has abandoned conservative values to embrace compromising and capitulating conservative cons like Trump and the GOP, all the while claiming to do so in the name of conservatism.
Clearly, conservatism is on its last legs, and it will be destroyed unless we insist on a return to our values.
One comment I received on my Facebook page came from a follower who decided to stop following me because “strident conservative” would never say anything bad about the “good news” that Trump spoke at the March for Life. Besides ignoring the information I provided about the billions of taxpayer dollars Trump and the GOP have given to Planned Parenthood to finance a record number of murdered unborn babies, this follower had clearly bought into the lie that Trumpism and conservatism are simpatico.
Of course, nothing could be further from the truth.
The root word of conservative is conserve. Conservatives are supposed to work to conserve the principle that our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are given to us by God, not government. Additionally, conservatives work to conserve the Constitution that protects and guarantees these rights.
And since these rights come from God and not the government, conservatives have the added responsibility of conserving morality. As John Adams once said, “Our Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Even before the Age of Trump, there to were those who tried to “modify” conservatism to fit their non-conservative agenda. Social conservative. Fiscal conservative. Christian conservative. These and many other variations were created in an attempt to carve a niche out of the conservative movement without actually taking a stand for conservative values.
This approach to what I have come to call “conservative relativism” is how conservative values have been hijacked by Trumpism, and it’s been foundational to the strategy of Republican “leaders” like Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump to wipe out conservatives within the party.
Unless we reject these putrid peddlers of pretend conservatism, genuine conservatism will die, and with it . . . so will America.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative.
Follow the Strident Conservative on Twitter and Facebook.
Subscribe to receive podcasts of radio commentaries: iTunes | Stitcher | Tune In | RSS
2 comments for “‘Conservative Relativism’ is destroying conservatism in America”