The Death of Conservatism, Part 3

To understand why conservatism is dying, it is instructive to see how it came full bloom in the Gilded Age. This era is indelibly depicted in Age of Betrayal, a brilliant book by Atlantic Monthly senior editor Jack Beatty. Here is how the book's jacket captures the time:

"The Gilded Age in America, when an oligarchy of wealth triumphed over democracy, when dreams of freedom and equality died of their impossibility. Jay Gould, the 'Mesphisto of Wall Street,' never runs for office -- but he rules."

"This was his time (and John D. Rockefeller's and Andrew Carnegie's), and this was his country. At the end of the Civil War, with the rebellion put down and slavery ended, America belonged to Lincoln's "plain people." But "government of the people" and economic democracy were betrayed by political parties that fanned memories of the war to distract Americans from government of the corporation."

Beatty "gives us a fresh look at the 'revolution from above' of industrialization that forged modern America... Supreme Court justices turn the Fourteenth Amendment's promise of 'equal protection of the laws' to the freed slave into the shield of the corporate person.' The presidents of the Pennsylvania and Southern Pacific railroads engage in a bidding war for congressmen. A depression brought on by railroad speculation throws millions out of work, the hungry riot for bread in Buffalo, the homeless sleep on Chicago's streets, 'tramps are arrested, strikers are shot, and the nation's presidents avert their eyes."

"In the 1890s the Populist revolt from below challenges the revolution from above. Entrepreneurial capitalism ends in the early 1900s, as 1,800 giant firms are compacted into 157 behemoths. God instructs President McKinley to invade Cuba and seize the Philippines from Spain; turning from liberators to occupiers, U.S. troops slaughter and starve the (Roman Catholic) Filipinos in the name of 'Christianizing' them. In perpetrating this 'infamy,' William James cries out, 'We have puked up our traditions'--revealing how these sordid decades had remade us.

Beatty's book is "a passionate, gripping, often shocking history of wealth over commonwealth--thirty-five years of American history in which we see the reflection of today's gilded age."

I highly recommend it.

To be continued...

Comments

[GlockGal]

Richard, since you're recommending books now (and it's a great recommendation indeed), why not take a look at Savage Peace: Hope and Fear in America, 1919 by Ann Hagedorn? There's quite a lot in the book to (albeit almost inadvertently) suggest terrorism is cyclical in nature, with the past sharing a bit more with 9/11 than most people realize.

I'm very curious to see how this parallel fits into today's "death of conservatism," from your viewpoint.

Always glad you're blogging.

[KidSister]

Thanks dear brother for the book recommendation...

...exactly what I would have asked for, if I hadn't bonked my head into the cupboard!

Age of Betrayal: The Triumph of Money in America, 1865-1900 (Hardcover) by Jack Beatty
Available (New) at Amazon.com for third off regular price. There are also used copies available, but for only two dollars less.

Savage Peace is also available. The used price is a considerable savings.

Kind Regards y'all...

=^..^=

[TommyMcCarthy]

CONSERVATIVE: Disposed to preserving existing conditions and institutions and tending to oppose change....cautious....moderate...responsible


Do the people demonizing liberalism and wrapping themselves in the mantle of "conservatism" in any way resemble the definitions noted above? I think not.

The current crop; loosely allied under the newspeak term "neoconservative" are in fact radical colonial capitalist robber barons, with no allegiance to traditional American values, no respect for institutions of any kind, and completely irresposible in thier every word and deed: resembling nothing so much as selfish, greedy, spoiled children.

Mr. Belzer correctly points out that we have seen this before dring the "gilded age" when two decades of Republican dominance produced a completely polarized economy with vast fortunes for the few and scraps for the many, when the ruling class considered the public treasury thier own slush fund, the American military thier own private mercenaries, and the "rule of law" was available only to those who could purchase it from its owners, the corrupt legislatures, the phony executives and the paid for judiciary. Sounds farmiliar doesn't it?

LIBERAL: Favoring proposals for reform; open to new ideas for progress; tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad minded; free of bigotry.

I quite proudly identify myself as a liberal, and I believe that 95% of Americans believe themselves to be possesed of the qualities contained in THIS definition. The O'Riellys, the Roves and the Limbaughs who would have us believe there is something wrong with that are just the latest incarnation of an age-old phenoenon known in my neighborhood as crooks and liars.

In the immortal words of James Carville:

WE'RE RIGHT; THEY'RE WRONG!!

Terrific post and comments by all........tm

[dadw5boys]

RON PAUL was there all along and the Conservatives thought they needed the Religious Right to win the White House. All they needed to do was back Ron PAUL and his message would have won the whole country over.

[Snakeback]

I can imagine the White house breakfast banter:

"Look at this honey, they're arguing about the meaning of the word "conservative" over at HuffPo this moprning."

"Wonderful, let them argue. How about they argue about the meaning of religion next, then argue about gays, then argue about deficits, then argue about their candidates,and so on...'

"Mah-ve- lous, dear, simply mah-ve-lous. We've got them so distracted, they now make up their own distractions."

"Ingenious. Pass the free-trade coffee and sugar, please!"

[outnow]

Conservatives once campaigned on pledges of fiscal prudence. They were trusted to raise the revenue to pay the bills for social programs the liberals had enacted. They hated the New Deal but they balanced the budget. JFK even praised Robert A> Taft in Profiles in Courage.

"The conservatism that defined itself in reaction to the New Deal is dead," declared George F. Will.

In Conscience of a Conservative, Barry Goldwater declared federal aid to education to be unconstitutional because it invariably means federal control.

From Ronald Reagan's presidency forward, the imperial presidency has grown. Conservatives were historically suspicious of power being concentrated in one man. By 1995, Newt Gingrich had determined that the only way to combat spending was to take back the Presidency at all costs.

Judge Alito embraced the Unitary Executive concept in a speech to the Federalist Society in 2000. Congress has now become a body incapable of oversight or meaningful deliberation as the President has amassed more power.

The Republican agenda has proven itself to be an agenda of special interests whose primary aim is to maintain power at any cost. This is conservatives biggest failure - a moral one.The greed and hubris of its unbridled capitalistic underpinnings is its downfall. Every supposed principle of "conservatism" had proved to be based on authoritarian personality.

[godlessclif]

No discussion of the Gilded Age is complete without a discussion of the stock market crash and
monitary colapse on 1893. These new robber barons
bought up all the gold coins in the nations and caused a deflationary crisis. In the 1896 Presidential race William Jennings Bryan made the famous Cross of Gold speech. Senator John Sherman of Ohio was also a champion of the worker. When you hear about the Sherman Anti-Trust law, that was John. There was also a Sherman Silver Purchase act that put Silver Certificates in circulation to amke it easier for the worker and small businessman, but President McKinley repealed that law to help his rich friends.

As you may recall some patriot killed McKinley.

[outnow]

Indeed, the Robber Barons are back with the demise of the enforcement of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Enforcement declined under Ronald Reagan so that acquisitions and divestitures became as means a consolidating corporate power. Deregulation of energy was the main thrust of George W. Bush's governorship in Texas. This allowed Enron to rise up and manipulate the energy market because of the protections of the New Deal's Utility Company Law were abolished.

The New Deal, however, was not a revolution but the means of preventing one. President Harding continued the National Council on Foreign Trade set up by Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan who had stated to his corpoarate audiences, "My house is your house...," meaning that oversees commercial expansion was viewed as a means of avoiding social conflict at home. Overseas expansion of the American corporate system was regarded as a means of economic recovery at home. This policy was enforced by Gunboat Diplomacy.

Nobody could have foreseen that the Open Door policy set us on the long road to the Age of Terror as the U.S. undertook to make major drastic changes in other societies that were often agrarian and neofeudal.

The Gulf War in 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003 can be seen as the product of the interlocking business and political elites. This is economic Manifest Destiny writ large - with plenty of "blowback." The neocons are bent on world domination whatever the cost.

[CarmanK]

Ben Franklin is crying. The brand of economics ascribed to by the neocons and free traders is so dehumanizing and depraved. Human beings are an asset, much like lumber and cotton. I remember an interview on TV with the Secretary of State George Schultz, saying that Ronald Reagan never wanted to hurt people with his policies. Reaganomics, no matter how misguided, was at least meant to enrich people from the top, down. Schultz was more realistic about the ramifications of the Reagan economic policies. The neocons aren't conservatives, they are internationalist robber barons.

[zjr909]

I'm afraid, Mr. Belzer, that the reports of conservatism's death, like those of Mark Twain's a century ago, have been "highly exaggerated." Though I'm a non-believer, sometimes there's nothing better than the Bible to quote; and it says "The poor will always be among you." And, as long as they are, that means conservatism is alive and well and carrying our its prime directive to enrich a few at the expense of the many. And the reason that will never change is not because of the rich; but, I'm afraid, because of the middle-class, which identifies with the rich (who have at least a hundred times as much) instead of the poor (who they have maybe four times more than). So, really, the thing that will always be "among you" is the human tendency to feel just a little bit better than the next guy. Conservatism will die when the last human standing has fallen.

[mrcontinental]

Well said.

They make a few grand in the markets and suddenly it's open season on the have nots who obviously have a poor work ethic or they too would have a 40 foot boat and a timeshare and be living the american dream. Sad.

[WorkingClass]

Conservatives made the term "liberal" meaningless by demonizing liberals. They made the term "conservative" meaningless just by being themselves.

[seewhy]

i read sinclair lewis's 'babbit' for the first time. hilarious... he could be talking about the suburban republicans of today, with very few changes. the same lovingly-fractured domestic scenes, prudish put-ons, frustrations, ill-gotten gains and strange bedfellows.
every time i hear chomsky talking on the radio, he wonders why people express outrage at the current adventures in imperialism -- since it's not particularly different than what we've been doing for a long time.

[loril]

So true! I read Babbit a couple of years ago and was struck by how little has changed since the early 1920s. I would recommend Sinclair Lewis as a primer for anyone who wants more insight into what is happening in today's world. (Also "It Can't Happen Here" -- both the original title by Lewis and the new Joe Conason title of the same name)

[outnow]

When corporations were given rights of a citizen under the 14th Amendment in the Santa Clara case, the railroad attorneys paved the way for the corporations to run our government. To this day they do so without having a soul, just a bottom line for the shareholders - making a profit is their god.

We need to take back our government from corporate political contributions that buy our politicians on the sewer on the Potomac.

Great post.

[baylaw73]

Damn straight!

[darker]

Conservatism? WHAT CONSERVATISM??

"Conservatism" is a hijacked word used as a smokescreen for unrestricted greed, liberal Bush-Cheney DEFICITS,
limitless INVASION to install Big Oil in Middle East for future profits, shoveling Taxpayer dollars as fast as Bush-Cheney can into pockets of rich corporate welfare queens -- "loyalists".

Is THAT supposed to be "conservatism"?
No. It's ARMED ROBBERY.

[BillZBubb]

Bush IS conservatism. You can try to run from him, but it won't work. The deficits aren't liberal, they are conservative as well. The liberals didn't run up this kind of deficits.

Liberals at least take the political hit for raising revenues to pay for their programs. It is the conservative who believes fairy tales about tax cuts always creating more revenue.

Conservative government is armed robbery--it always has been.

[Pyrum]

Bush is NEOconservatism. A true conservative values small government, balanced budget and no pre-emptive war.

[Halsey]

Even Mr. "Conservative" Barry Goldwater is turning in his grave... and Lincoln...has left the building..