I suspect by now the reader will have a clear subject for the predicate of this essay’s title. ‘Bad Conservatives.’ They exist as ideological cousins. Like cousins, you would most likely claim them if push-came-to-the-old-shove, but outside election years or family reunions, mutual affection is difficult to sustain. Helen Rittlemeyer (now Helen Andrews) mentioned that she likes fighting with conservatives more than liberals. To an outsider, this statement is likely baffling. But if the high-contrast national filter of “red versus blue” is peeled away, a whole variety of ideas to propose and aggressors to parry becomes evident. Take a recent conversation between two die-hard conservatives:
“So you were at Claremont with Hadley Arkes?” “Yes.” “I am curious. How influential –or rather – how widely accepted is Harry Jaffa’s theory of natural rights down there?” “Very widely accepted and highly influential.” “What a shame.” “I know. But at least Dr. Arkes was there!”
The question of conformity within the ranks recently came flooding back to me as I learned about (of all things) the old Left. Admittedly, Peter Robinson, Christopher Hitchens and Robert Service could easily walk into a bar and be asked if their mutual presence was the premise to a joke. (Perhaps after hearing Hitchens’s drink order the bar keep would remind him to say his prayers.) But get the three of them talking about Leon Trotsky and some very good sense comes onto display.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex9bCF1drXU
It is settled, with varying degrees of assent, that Trotsky is not a good person per se. His writing is splendid. His tactics: brutal. Never-the-less, thanks to Trotsky’s expulsion from Stalin’s Soviet Union, and thanks to their divergent personalities: it is easy to identify one of Stalin’s most major flaws as regards his fellow comrades.
“[Stalin] didn’t enjoy faction fighting. Trotsky loved it. He enjoyed polemics. He carried it on with people close to him all his life.” – CH
Stalin killed more Communists than Hitler did, because he couldn’t enjoy a good debate. Playing the “what-if” game has its limits, but we know a damning vice to Stalin was discomfort with disagreement; a situation which contemporary conservatives are blessed to enjoy. We have ideological tensions. Resolve those tensions if you like, but it will be to the loss of your integrity and probably the lives of those who disagree. Like the family, but in a much less significant way, political allies can–and ought to–make one another just uncomfortable enough for virtue to arise. I have no patience for hard-line Americana conservatives who propose both the Christian religion and the torture of prisoners in the same breathe. The two are mutually exclusive. Yet every chance I have to patiently restate my position helps me hone my argument and humble my ego.
