There really aren’t many prominent CLs in public life. Rand Paul is as close to a pure CL politician as you can find in Washington, but even he has to make plenty of concessions to the Reactionary faction of the GOP to get re-elected. The Koch brothers are CLs, but their positions are motivated at least in part by self-interest. And then there is George Will.
Will has a new book out. I have not read it, but I have seen reviews and read an interview with him about it on Vox. The centerpiece of it seems to be a distinction between European and American conservatism. In a nutshell, Will contends that European conservatism is rooted in loathing of revolution and the desire to protect existing institutions, whereas American conservatism is based on a very different historical experience, and is focused on preventing tyranny at the federal level, not avoiding societal change.
There is something to his theory; colonists, by definition, were embracing change, not defending existing institutions, and the American Revolution was portrayed by many as a battle against an overreaching central authority. There are a number of weaknesses in the argument, however, including the following:
- Will, like many other members of the right, incorrectly views the Constitution as a device created to limit federal power. The Founding Fathers were hardly united on this point, but the purpose in ditching the Articles of Confederation was to strengthen the central authority, not to weaken it.
- Large corporations obviously didn’t exist at the time the Constitution was written. The Founding Fathers, with the possible exception of Hamilton, could not have foreseen the degree to which national and even multi-national corporations would dominate economic life in this country. A strong central government is the only institution that can keep them in check. Would Jefferson have abandoned his notions of limited federal power under the present circumstances? We can never know for sure, but I would say the answer is probably yes.
- There are plenty of European-style conservatives, who simply dislike all forms of change, in this country.
I don’t agree with the CLs about very much, but they have a certain intellectual integrity that one has to admire. Will can come off as a doddering old fool at times, but at least he hates Donald Trump, because he correctly views Trump as a threat to principled, limited government. At least give him credit for that.