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Of RINOs and a Home for Conservatives
People like to toss around the accusation that this or that person is a “Republican in Name Only,” or a RINO. Generally, this means the person is not a conservative, at least in the eyes of the accuser. The accusation is meant to be an insult or an attempt to dismiss what the accused thinks.
I once heard Jonah Goldberg say that every conservative ought to be a RINO. What he meant was that one’s loyalty should be to conservative principles, not a political party. I agree with him.
Ronald Reagan used to say, “Somebody who agrees with me 80 percent of the time is a friend and ally, not a 20-percent traitor.” Sadly, today’s Republicans of all stripes, from establishment types to tea-partiers to Trump supporters, seem to think a 99-percent friend is a 100-percent enemy. As a consequence, the GOP’s continued existence as a national party is being openly debated. It’s been a long time since it’s happened in America, but political parties can and do die.
Spiritually, I am a Christian. Politically, I am a conservative. As long as the Republican Party remains the home of the conservative movement, I will remain a Republican. If, on the other hand, the GOP abandons conservatism and deems conservative principles to be unworth following, I will be faced with a choice.
It seems everyone has his own idea of what it means to be a conservative. This is not surprising, since conservatism is not a rigid ideology. One can be an economic conservative, a social conservative, a neoconservative, a paleoconservative, a Tea Party conservative, a country-club conservative, and so forth. All lay claim to certain aspects of conservative thought. When one faction gains dominance over the others, or when some flavors of conservatism reject the others, cracks appear in the conservative movement.
The great conservative thinker Russell Kirk identified ten principles of conservatism. These principles allow for many differences of opinion on policy and specific pieces of legislation. They should be used as a guide, not a bludgeon to drive people from the conservative movement:
- First, the conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order. That order is made for man, and man is made for it: human nature is a constant, and moral truths are permanent.
- Second, the conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity. It is old custom that enables people to live together peaceably; the destroyers of custom demolish more than they know or desire.
- Third, conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription. Conservatives sense that modern people are dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, able to see farther than their ancestors only because of the great stature of those who have preceded us in time.
- Fourth, conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence. Burke agrees with Plato that in the statesman, prudence is chief among virtues. Any public measure ought to be judged by its probable long-run consequences, not merely by temporary advantage or popularity.
- Fifth, conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety. They feel affection for the proliferating intricacy of long-established social institutions and modes of life, as distinguished from the narrowing uniformity and deadening egalitarianism of radical systems.
- Sixth, conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability. Human nature suffers irremediably from certain grave faults, the conservatives know.
- Seventh, conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked. Separate property from private possession, and Leviathan becomes master of all.
- Eighth, conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism. Although Americans have been attached strongly to privacy and private rights, they also have been a people conspicuous for a successful spirit of community.
- Ninth, the conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions. A state in which an individual or a small group are able to dominate the wills of their fellows without check is a despotism, whether it is called monarchical or aristocratic or democratic.
- Tenth, the thinking conservative understands that permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society. The conservative is not opposed to social improvement, although he doubts whether there is any such force as a mystical Progress, with a Roman P, at work in the world.
Whether because its leaders are unable or unwilling to adhere to conservative principles, or because its voters reject conservatism in favor of nationalism and populism, the Republican Party is at a crossroads. This election will decide the path forward, not only for our nation, but for the conservative movement and its current home within the GOP.
As a conservative, I hope my fellow Republicans remain faithful to conservative principles and reject anger and fear. I hope my fellow Republicans choose to put the Party back on its conservative foundation. Finally, I hope the Grand Old Party can remain my political home and the home to conservatives everywhere.
Published in Politics
Thank you. Great post. Much needed in the current political climate. I hope the editors will put this on the main feed.
I prefer the new term cuckservative. Because its not abuse if its true
[Editors’ Note: As stated here: “Folks, we do not use the word “cuckservative” here. To reiterate James’s comments, even if it weren’t for its associations with white nationalists, it’s an inherently ugly, sexually suggestive word. Future uses on Ricochet will be redacted.]
Great post. Thanks for this.
What evidence is there that your ten items are or have been core principles of the Republican Party this century?
If you look up RINO in the dictionary, Rob Long’s picture will be there.
Really? It’s an ugly, taunting word. Whenever it pops up in a tweet it’s either from a white nationalist or someone who’s happy them to have them on his side.
I do too.
The post is great summary of where we are.
Since when have Republicans espoused these virtues in recent memory? Republicans aren’t conservatives by and large. Trump showing up and crashing the party of conservative purity comes to no surprise and is only inevitable. I am a social, economic, and intellectual conservative and fall much in line with Kirk’s ten principles, but the continuous holier-than-thou ire directed at the many conservative Trump supporters is getting old. You can be a conservative and a Trump supporter. I know plenty in real life, not on Ricochet. The ship of ideological purity has sailed a long time ago.
Love this post!
There is the political philosophy of conservatism and the practice of governance. We expect our political leaders to adhere to the philosophy while practicing practical politics. Here is where modern conservative political leaders fail, the over promise and hardly ever deliver. It’s not so much that they fail, failure is endemic to the human condition. Its that they insist on painting abject surrender as being some type of responsible politics.
It is a nasty word, but I am not convinced that it carries the sort of racial connotations its detractors insist. I don’t use it, but I don’t think it is implicitly racist either. Rather, it means that one is preoccupied with virtue signaling and being PC: Jeb Bush calling illegal immigration “an act of love” is an example of being a “cuckservative.” It really is ridiculous, and true. Another example is the discontent with neoconservative interventionism, which aims to make savage civilizations a democracy instead of focusing on our own problems here at home. The term sprung out of people getting tired of having to apologize for nativist inclinations that exist to appease the Left. Conservatives that denounce the term are appealing to Leftists.
The term sprung out of people getting tired of having to apologize for nativist inclinations we have on the Right, that appease the Left, as well as the often ridiculous adherence to anti-racism and political correctness. By definition, a “cuckservative” is someone who merely supplicates to Leftist virtue signaling, open borders, heavy emphasis on “bringing democracy” to everywhere but his home country. If that is nativist or nationalist, I don’t care.
Ditto.
I’ve been so upset by recent developments that I was planning a post on this topic. But now I don’t have to write it because you said it so well. We must stop holding others to our own narrow little demands of purity and see the big picture. The point is not whether the party has held to these principles lately or not. The point is that these are our guiding principles. We must stop this talk of third parties and splinter groups. I nearly died when I read right here on Ricochet the suggestion of forming a right-to-life party. I mean huh?? Can you imagine the Left splintering into the LGBTQ Party, the Climate Change Party, and the Vegans For Cis-Gendered Women? No! Are they smarter than we are? No! We are smarter, even if they claim the mantle of Intellectuals. We’re too smart for our own good. We’re so impressed with ourselves for being conversant on sugar subsides or ethanol that we shoot ourselves in the foot every time. Let’s stop outsmarting ourselves for once.
Thank you for posting. You have inspired me to attempt to hang on to my hope in the Republican party — it had begun to slip away.
I am going to use the list of conservative principles as a guide for my choice in the upcoming primary in Florida. Thanks again.
I feel this way too. The problem is it feels like more and more of the media is choosing Trump. I have no idea why. He offers nothing but hate.
I feel like I’m floating in an inner tube in the middle of the ocean as the ship gets smaller in the distance and the sharks circle me.
I could use a Coast Guard helicopter about now.
I disagree, it’s that you are convinced that somehow this great country became great by imposing one person’s will on others, and that compromise is abject surrender. Instead, compromise is the only way a pluralistic society can survive without civil war a constant.
You can never get 100% of what you want. EVER. Not now, not in the past. Not in the future, unless you plan on installing a dictator that wants EXACTLY what you want about EVERYTHING.
Although I understand the dissatisfaction, I wonder how much those who assert that the GOP has “abandoned conservative principles” have examined the past. Chuck Percy? Gerald Ford? Ed Brooke? Arlen Specter? Richard Nixon (yes)? Nelson Rockefeller? Howard Baker? Frankly, I could go on and use up my 250 words in about three minutes, but when did those party leaders espouse conservative principles?
The GOP may be short on “true” conservatism now, but it is more conservative than it has been. And it has the Tom Cotton’s and Ben Sasse’s of the world on board. The true irony here is that those who support Trump as the proverbial finger in the eye of the GOP will do little other than tilt the political balance leftward as Senate and House candidates–some of whom will be conservatives– drop by the wayside in ’16 to be replaced by Democrats.
You cannot call yourself a conservative and a trump supporter
You are doing it again!
Thanks. No one’s ever accused me of that before.
Why not? I know quite a few lifelong conservatives backing Trump.
Agreed. The fact that it seems rather inexplicable doesn’t mean that you can’t do it.
Why is the word cuckservative allowed here, but was redacted as a “vulgar” C of C violation when I used it on the thread commenting about the cancellation of Trump’s rally in Chicago last night? Is the violation against a real standard or is it up to the individual moderator’s subjective judgment? If the latter that would be very “liberal.”
Furthermore, Mr. Lileks, I can’t agree that the term is as reprehensible as you make out. It is effective, which to me is the reason some pundits such as Erick Erickson and Jonah Goldberg hate it so much and try to slander those who use it in a way reminiscent of the tactics of left-wingers.
When I want an example of an ugly, hateful, loaded label I think of Nazi, fascist and racist – all words regularly used to describe Donald Trump in the left-wing, liberal and conservative media – with complete immunity from the consequences. Compared to the political devil’s brew of Nazi, racist and fascist cuckservative seems like pretty small beer to me.
Indeed. I wish everybody wanted to dialogue on things like sugar subsidies, ethanol, what the role of the federal government should be etc. I don’t understand Trump supporters not understanding how shallow and nonsensical he is. Don’t you guys get it I want to say? He is an entertaining fool. During this insane election year, I have sometimes allowed myself to believe that Trump and his supporters are a greater threat to the Republic than liberals are. That is not right. Trump and his supporters love this country more than any liberal/progressive I know.
Yes, cuckservative (a word I just discovered a few moments ago), RINO, establishment Republican, these words are not as loaded as terms that have been used to describe Donald Trump by those very cuckservatives (I really don’t like that word) themselves. Yet – I am beginning to think that some of us (myself included) are too free with RINO and other labels when disagreeing with someone on our side. I have met part of the circular firing squad and it is me.
That is why it is so disheartening that they have fallen under the spell of a huckster and charlatan.
Whereupon you not only define it, but approve of its use, and employ it. So much for that.
We are all too familiar with the word, simply by how, when, and by whom it is employed.
What he said. It always pops up in tweets from “alt-right” types who add their suspicions that the object of their loathing is mating with a “mud” person or some such epithet. They love the sexual connotation as well. It’s just ugly.
Folks, we do not use the word “cuckservative” here. To reiterate James’s comments, even if it weren’t for its associations with white nationalists, it’s an inherently ugly, sexually suggestive word.
Future uses on Ricochet will be redacted.
I agree that it’s an inherently ugly and sexist word. But I’m pretty sure I heard Jonah use the short form “Cuck” on the GLoP podcast the other day. That’s better?