The Conservative Mind

David Brooks argues there used to be two kinds of conservatives: "economic conservatives" and "traditional conservatives", who sought "to preserve a society that functioned as a harmonious ecosystem, in which the different layers were nestled upon each other". He believes Russell Kirk’s essay, “Ten Conservative Principles,” gives the flavor of this traditional conservatism.

1. The conservative believes that there exists an enduring moral order.
2. The conservative adheres to custom, convention, and continuity.
3. Conservatives believe in what may be called the principle of prescription... that is, of things established by immemorial usage
4. Conservatives are guided by their principle of prudence.
5. Conservatives pay attention to the principle of variety.
6. Conservatives are chastened by their principle of imperfectability.
7. Conservatives are persuaded that freedom and property are closely linked.
8. Conservatives uphold voluntary community, quite as they oppose involuntary collectivism.
9. The conservative perceives the need for prudent restraints upon power and upon human passions.
10. The thinking conservative understands that permanence and change must be recognized and reconciled in a vigorous society

Brooks believes "traditional conservatism has gone into eclipse." He knows this because Republicans "almost always use the language of market conservatism" as opposed to "the language of social order" and because few conservatives would "be willing to raise taxes on the affluent to fund mobility programs for the working class [or] use government to actively intervene in chaotic neighborhoods [or] who protest against... cut[ting] domestic discretionary spending to absurdly low levels."

His claims are mostly strange. For example, conservative politicians are probably not wrong to calculate that one wins votes by advancing personal freedom rather than social order. More fundamentally, there is a large jump from Kirk's principles to support for raising taxes to fund activist government programs. Or rather: it seems foolish to believe that the government we have is capable of pursuing activist policies in the spirit of "traditional conservatism".

A traditional conservative, in other words, would be less concerned with raising taxes and more concerned with school choice, federalism and de-unionizing government workers. Brooks reminds us that, by his own lights, he is not any sort of conservative.