Why should we 'conserve' this America? Republicans, restore freedom, order instead

As Election Day draws nearer, politicos are focused on personalities, not policies. The news out of Washington, D.C., is all about latest polls, especially since the crazy Trump-Biden debate.

This sidelines people like yours truly, who view candidates as a necessary evil to enact positive changes to state and federal law. Once elected, those politicians often break those promises or prove incapable of leaping the legislative and bureaucratic hurdles.

The most successful leaders have a strong underlying ideology to guide them through the thousands of unknown decisions they’ll need to make during their term. This is rare these days. Most politicians only focus on gaining power, not what good they can do once they get it.

Coming of age in the 1980s, I was spoiled with strong conservative leaders. These days, few Republicans can even define the word.

Conservatives all over the place about what they want

What is the “conservative” position anymore? Some want tax cuts, others want to fight the wokies. Trump fans support high tariffs, free-marketeers want them kept low. America-firsters want all the troops back home, while internationalists see a need to intervene.

Where Reagan’s “three-legged stool” united defense, social, and economic conservatives, today each leg lies in splinters.

Turns out the 1980s were the exception, not the rule. Conservatives have usually disagreed about the term’s definition.

William F. Buckley framed it as opposing liberalism — “standing athwart history, yelling ‘Stop.’” A half-century earlier, G.K. Chesterton didn’t so much define the term as identify the action it requires:

"All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again; that is, you must be always having a revolution." [Orthodoxy, 1908]

We're at a place where there's not much to 'conserve'

Conservatism requires intentional, aggressive work. Daily, we must evaluate the endless stream of proposed changes, promote the few good ones and destroy the bad.

As Reagan put it, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it's never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not our by inheritance, it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. And those in world history who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again.”

Reagan proved prophetic. These days, conservatives spend a lot of time telling younger generations what it was once like to be free. We speak of lost liberties and wonder how best to restore them.

There’s no need for conservatism when there’s little left to conserve. Our southern border is shattered, violent crime menaces large cities, our military intervenes everywhere and wins nowhere.

Let's start by restoring freedom and constitutional order

The national debt is $34.8 trillion, more than 120% of our GDP. Unfunded liabilities are estimated to be $217 trillion.

Nearly a quarter of U.S. children live with one parent and no other adults, the highest rate in the world by far. Our national marriage rate is the lowest on record, even as we’ve loosened its millennia-old definition. As is our birth rate.

Just 47% of Americans are “very satisfied” with their personal lives, while a mere 19% are satisfied with the direction of the nation. Things … are not good.

Who wants to conserve any of the above? At present, we must aim not on conservation but desperately trying to restore our freedom, our family and our constitutional order.

The right should drop the old goal of conservation. It’s time for restoration.

Jon Gabriel, a Mesa resident, is editor-in-chief of Ricochet.com and a contributor to The Arizona Republic and azcentral.com. On X, formerly Twitter: @exjon.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: What does being a conservative mean? GOP should focus on restoring US