For a Conservative to Vote Republican this This Election for President is a Contradiction

Biden is the conservative candidate for President.

Is there a reason why Conservatives in the United States say they support small government? I have never seen this as particularly consistent or ideologically necessary. In fact, I see it as irrelevant to an objective definition of conservatism.  And sometimes counterproductive.

I think a neutral reading of U.S. history would suggest that an initial rebellion against the British government carried forward a fear of unrepresentative and distant authority. That, and the influence of European thinkers like John Locke.

Then as westward expansion first created relatively lawless (without established institutions and legitimate instruments of control) communities, the processes of consolidating civil authority were sources of conflict. 

Later expansion of organized economic power beyond local boundaries was met by a call for countervailing governing power beyond the local level, which, in turn, was opposed by many who benefited from a less regulated, more expansionist national economy. 

Thus, an association in the public mind between change and “more” government was created, as was a bias against the expansion of government. It has been this largely a trick of history that has imbued present day conservatives with a fear of government authority.  A traditional conservative might well view all authority as generally helpful in strengthening the rules, norms and expectations that provide stability (a true end goal of conservatism). 

This brings us to the underlying question. What in fact is “conservatism” as a political theory or a political movement?

What I have argued in other blogs is that politics is a persistent struggle to change (improve in most “changers” minds) society through incremental adjustment and radical breaks. Conservatives resist changes seen as destabilizing or self-serving.  Sometimes they call upon government authority. 

Viewed in this way, we are helped to see the present situation more clearly. The present status quo is anchored by a conservative government bureaucracy, whose norms, rules, histories, expertise, and “partnerships” with establish economic institutions, provide guardrails, checkpoints and roadblocks to moderate to radical change.

I will try to go more deeply into this in a subsequent blog, for this is not the whole story by any means. For the moment, however, this serves to interpret (for the Alices in the room at least) the “Through the Looking Glass” political world that seems to be unfolding this year.

Today it is government, as embodied in institutional memory, practical expertise and strong linkages to economic partners, that resists the radical changes implied in the statements of many of the forces that underlie the MAGA coalition as well as appeals for change from movements and theorists that seek to extend the progressive reforms of the last half century.

And they exert (they, the conservative bureaucrats in government) perhaps an even stronger stability bias at the international level.   

Yes, the world does seem upside down when voters who self-identified as Conservatives support a radical party and candidate. Biden is the stability candidate.