Kinds of Conservativism
A lot of people say they are “conservative”. Always remember to ask which kind of conservative. Not all forms of conservativism are compatible with American public life. These past few months have really made this clear to a purely American Constitutional Conservative like this writer.
Religious Conservativism is a far different way of life than American Constitutional Conservativism. The greatest rift here, by my measure, is abortion politics. An American Constitutional Conservative would be wholly satisfied with a call to “leave it to the States”; a true American Constitutional Conservative holds the Constitution - including the 9th and 10th amendments thereto - in extremely high esteem. A Religious Conservative could make banning abortion his life’s work.
President Jefferson had this to say about it: “Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man & his god… the legitimate powers of government reach actions only and not opinions… I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.”
We can see that the effect of American Conservativism is to uphold a man’s right to worship whatever he may worship and that this worship should affect none of that man’s social duties. In other words, one can have whatever religious tendencies one wishes without intending to write those tendencies as law. I can complete any and all civic or social tasks without the enactment of religion.
Once we get past the founding, despotism lies but a short journey ahead. Continuing with the currently ripe abortion issue we can see this both ways. On one hand, we mandate “abortion is medicine”; this disenfranchises the set of surgeons who prescribe to religion. On the other hand, we mandate “abortion is murder”; this disenfranchises the set of persons who believe in a childless existence. Either way, someone lives a despotic life crushed under the weight of faction.
In a purely American Constitutional Conservative vision, we would have abortion pushed down to the lowest level away from Federal hands. A people who would choose abortion could choose to live somewhere whose doctors believe it to be medicine. A people who would choose life could choose to live somewhere whose doctors believe abortion to be murder. This idealism - in either case - would be left to the people and their representatives, not to the Feds.
We do, in this nation have professional licensing of doctors at the State and local levels, should it not be the case that the abortion question also be answered by these same licensing professionals?