The pollsters tell us that conservatives outnumber liberals two to one. Yet the liberals control our government . . . our schools . . . our churches. Why? Some blame the media. The unions. The radical professors. The fashionable minorities. Others point to the two major parties: if only the conservatives would all join one party and the liberals the other, then Americans would rally around the conservative banner. Traditionalist Craig Schiller thinks there is a deeper reason why the Right is making so little headway. Conservatives lack a coherent philosophy. How can you win if you don’t know what you’re fighting for? American conservatives are split into half a dozen philosophical camps. One group aims at restoring the Constitution. Another mans the ramparts for free enterprise. A third wants to defeat Communism. Still another works for a revival of religion. The esthetes hope to save Western culture. And the libertarians—at war with all the others—yearn to breathe the air of freedom unpolluted. What binds these groups together? What tenets do they share with European conservatism? Mr. Schiller believes he has found the common denominator. This book is the first serious attempt by an American to outline a body of conservative belief common to all times and places— from ancient Athens to medieval France to 20th-century America. Craig Schiller has not written another “my conservatism is better than your conservatism” tract. He seeks to unite. All legitimate conservatives, he says, reject moral relativism and “ideology” (the leftist notion that human nature can be molded like Silly Putty). On the positive side, conservatives embrace unchanging, eternal values. Within this framework there is room for a rich diversity of conservative traditions. Rabbi Schiller has some stern words for conservative intellectuals. Too often it seems they would rather rule people out of the movement than welcome them in. Too often they overlook the needs and aspirations of Mr. and Mrs. Average American. Conservatism will never win on the political battlefield, he reminds us, until it captures the hearts of the millions. And this important book points the way. in the last three chapters—perhaps the most exciting and surely the most controversial of the book—Mr. Schiller puts philosophy into practice. He shows that conservatives can build a commanding majority in America—but only if they stop trying to fight today’s wars with yesterday's weapons.
Tags: Politics, Conservatism
Date: Sun Jan 01 1978
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