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American conservatives aim to conserve our political inheritance from the founders. The past few years have seen a revival of interest in the Constitution and Declaration of Independence as documents that should guide our political life. But the conservative defense of the country's founding principles is incomplete as long as it fails to apply them to the challenges of our day: to show rather than just say that those principles amount to timeless wisdom. Conservatives have barely begun to outline a plausible alternative to Obamacare. Our economic ideas too often seem like well-developed answers to the problems of 1981. We have failed to persuade black, Hispanic and Asian citizens that our philosophy promotes the interests of the whole nation. And none of us are quite sure what to do about the intolerable fact that in our society, family stability seems increasingly to be a luxury good. Conservatives may be able to defeat Obama without meeting these challenges, but we will not be able to achieve the more profound objectives to which that defeat is only a means.
Ponnuru is a senior editor at National Review
Could You Just Leave Us Alone, Please?
BY GROVER NORQUIST
Conservatives ask only one thing of the government. They wish to be left alone. They do not want the government to steal money from their neighbors and give it to them. They want taxes low and lower. They want property rights protected for all. They want to be in charge of educating their own children. They wish to practice their own faith and transmit it to their children without government "help" or interference. They want their Second Amendment rights respected. They want their professional and business lives to be left alone by the government. They would not be serfs or civil servants taking orders from an imperial city. Nor would they be czars themselves.
Conservatives are not antigovernment, just as cancer doctors are not anticell. Conservatives oppose government's growing so large and intrusive that it becomes destructive of human liberty. That is why conservatives respect and support the American military and police. That part of government, properly constrained by the Constitution, is responsible for protecting our liberty. American conservatives are a threat to no honest man or woman or any peaceable nation. We wish to be left alone to run our own lives as we choose. And we demand that the government provide the same liberty to our countrymen.
Norquist is the president of Americans for Tax Reform
We Are Wary of Utopian Promises
BY PETE WEHNER
Conservatism is a mansion with many rooms, but as a general matter, conservatives respect the Constitution for the limitations it imposes on the power of the state and believe the Declaration of Independence is the sheet anchor of our liberties.
Conservatives also believe that America, while an imperfect nation, has been a tremendous force for good in the world. While conservatives acknowledge limits on U.S. power and influence, they believe (unlike many libertarians) we should oppose tyranny in other lands. And conservatives believe in the primacy of a strong national defense.