Weyerich

Mr. Weyrich Asks the Big Question
By Daniel G. Jennings
One of America’s most important conservative leaders, Paul Weyrich is asking an import question no thinking conservative can afford to ignore: Has American conservatism achieved victory by abandoning its basic values and truths?
In a series of articles entitled "The Next Conservatism" Weyrich looks into the state of modern America and the soul of conservatism and makes some troubling conclusions. He wonders if conservatives have destroyed the very things they love with some of their intellectual positions. In an essay on a "New Conservative Economics" Weyrich comes close to committing conservative heresy when he wonders is a system in which individually owned businesses can’t compete with a few giant chain stores really free enterprise? He also wonders why conservatives are mindlessly accepting mindless competition and endless economic progress? Weyrich asks why conservatives have welcomed and even supported the destruction of the traditional economy and with it the traditional communities upon which it is based in the name of economic progress?
The questions Weyrich asks expose what might be called the Dark Side of modern conservatism the economic policies promoted by conservatives destroy or at least undermine the things conservatives believe in. For example, so-called free trade agreements lead to the export of jobs which destroys traditional small town economies by destroying factories. Unrestricted immigration drives down wages and denies both immigrants and native born Americans the chance at the American Dream. Unregulated business leads to violent sexually charged entertainment that undermines the nation’s moral fiber.
Can conservatism survive if conservative economic policies uncontrolled federal spending, free trade and unrestricted immigration destroy the livelihoods and lifestyles of the people responsible for the Republican political victories? George W. Bush won reelection in 2004 because Rush Limaugh, Ronald Reagan, James Dobson and others won the ideological battle for the opinion of Main Street. That victory is now threatened by the economic policies Republicans seem to mindlessly embrace.
Rhetoric about the opportunities created by free enterprise only works if average people are in a position to take advantage of those opportunities. A factory worker who earns a good wage is receptive to messages about lower taxes, he sees a large percentage of his hard earned income taken by government. He’ll listen when a Republican talks about smaller government and lower taxes. A discount store employee whose wage is so low she can only feed her children with the help of food stamps won’t listen. She’ll probably want more government because she benefits from government.
The armies of low paid, poorly treated workers created by the so-called service economy are a leftist’s dream audience. They are poor, often helpless and dependant on government. They’ll listen to tired old leftist rhetoric about redistribution of wealth and the evils of business. They’ll listen to schemes to expand the welfare state and increase taxation. After all they have something to gain from expanded government, more welfare and little to loose their wages are so low their taxes are minimal.
The Conservative movement succeeded because there was an affluent and educated middle class that was receptive to the Conservative message. What happens when that middle class is gone replaced by low paid, service workers? Low paid workers who blame many of their troubles upon Republicans who promised them a vision of prosperity through free enterprise and gave them low pay and no benefits. Anybody remember the 1920s which led to the Depression, the New Deal, and decades of liberal Democratic dominance?
There are moral issues here, how can conservatives call themselves pro family when they mindlessly support policies such as free trade and unrestricted immigration that hurt families? What good are family values when parents have no time to spend with their children because both parents are working ten hours a day just to pay the mortgage? How can family life be maintained if both parents have to spend eight or nine hours a day working outside the home and two or three more hours commuting?
Weyrich is right to ask these questions. The question is will the conservative movement and its leadership listen? My guess is they’ll only listen when they start losing elections.