The loss of traditional heroes and values gives rise to the new conservative radical

Professor Stephen Valdes

In the past ten years, or as conservatives see it, since Ronald Reagan, life as they knew it crumbled before their eyes. Every pillar of society from the church, with their incessant sex scandals, Wall Street, professional sports with its drug fueled criminality, the main stream media, political scandals with wars and economic ruin at every turn, it has all revealed itself to be corrupt, incompetent or both…

All forms of former authority, have given rise to a growing anxiety crisis. According to Time magazine,  Banks are trusted by 32% of the populace, down from 50% in  2004. Newspapers down to 24%, and the Congress, a paltry 12%. Our CEO’s have likewise betrayed us. From Enron to Exxon, these grossly overpaid executives have gotten their obscene bonuses while we drown in upside down mortgages, and shrinking job opportunities. We have gone from hate Bush, to bash Obama. Science has betrayed our trust with climate change so we turn to a  half term Governor from Alaska for homilies rather than learned discourse

Now to make matters worse, an ongoing ethnic and demographic shift from a white European country, to a diverse and latinized majority by 2050. This is a profound change to our national image.  The “white only” sign on our institutions from the church to the lunch counter have only recently disappeared. We have tended to view minorities as parts of this great nation, and white Europeans to represent the whole.  All of this will change by 2050 with the European being the new minority. Our shaken faith in institutions, and the very soul and character of our nation is leading to great anxiety, if not down right fear of change. And with every great societal change comes the profits of doom seeking to cash in. The Rush Limbaugh’s, Glen Becks, and Fox news.

The most obvious effect of all of this will be the impact of political change over the next 25 years. Our politicians realize that the so called minorities are now becoming politically active and are reluctant to endorse any initiatives that would invite a backlash from nonwhites. The rabid right sees the left as agents bent on the destruction to all they hold dear as they look to new hero’s who understand their anxiety (even if they are the ones raising the level of fear mongering) as it self destructs on its own weight. Glen Beck summed it up with the suggestion that the white man responsible for the worst mass murder in Alabama was “pushed to the wall” because he felt “silenced and disenfranchised by political Correctness. “ .  

With this new demographic will come new groups and profits dedicated to defending the interests and rights of European Americans. Both political parties will be taking up the cause of the oppressed white minority. Race will continue to be the defining cause of our politics. Groups like the Tea Party will cry out for justice and a return to the past. And this brings me to the subject of this piece.

Fear of the future has always kept the conservative philosophy alive. The modern conservative is no different. His fight is with history itself. Glen Beck has developed a large following based on a fear of progressives starting with Woodrow Wilson. He’s the president that gave us the League of Nations, the Federal banking system,  income tax and Probation. Big government at its worse, not to mention the growth of an industrialized nation. Funny thing is that a conservative Republican  government brought us to the brink of our current economic disaster.

So then, how does this new conservative anxiety respond with no heroes to guide them and the very face of the nation changing?  We now see an attack on all the imagined crimes of the progressives from social security to socialized medicine. Tear out the welfare state by the roots, and conjure up the devils of the cold war, “Socialism!”It is our birth rite to live free in an economic state of nature where humans live in harmony with an untainted market. Darwin at his best. Living as our European ancestors did, wiping out the aboriginal inhabitants who would not bend to the concept of private ownership of property, (that also included other humans).

So here is the essence of the revolt against the government stripped bare. Modern civilization with its taxes, regulations, social justice (Jesus said that) and technology, and worse yet, the changing demographic of a multicultural world with no hero’s. For todays frighten conservative the correct model is simplicity itself; it’s every man for himself. The concept that  government exists for the betterment of society, is being replaced by a yearning for the simple days before the industrial revolution when a man was judged by his ability to master the environment with a gun and a plow…Conservatism then, is a revolt against the progress of civilization itself.