Conservatism now

National Review, Dec 22, 1997 by Newt Gingrich

While honoring their past, conservatives must bring it into the future. Herewith, a plan.

ANGLO-AMERICAN conservatism is unique in its intellectual origins. The gap between the United States and Britain across the Atlantic is infinitely smaller than the gap between Britain and continental Europe across the channel. And the reason is very profound.

Conservatism in its modern form starts with Magna Carta, a copy of which we are honored to have in the Great Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol. It comes down through the English civil war, is codified by John Locke, picked up by Jefferson and the other Founding Fathers, and enters the Declaration of Independence with the words that we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights.

In this Anglo-American model, power comes from God to the citizen and is loaned by him to the state. In the European model, power comes from God to the King and is loaned by him to the citizen. This basic difference explains why our Constitution begins: "We, the people . . ."

When the Soviet empire collapsed, there was a long pause for reflection on the Right because conservatism had recently defined itself as anti-Communist and needed to rethink its positive message. At the same time the Left figured out that if they did not imitate us, they could not win. Regarding victory as more important than principle, they promptly learned our language. So the French Socialists offer tax cuts. Tony Blair runs closer than his Conservative opponent to Lady Thatcher. And Bill Clinton, of course, was in favor of welfare reform, middle-class tax cuts, the end of big government, and everything else necessary to get good poll ratings -- as long as he did not have to appoint people who believed in all this.

SO we conservatives have gone through a period of confusion. We regained clarity with the Contract with America, but then we failed to communicate what we were doing.

In his introduction to this year's Almanac of American Politics, Michael Barone makes the point that across the entire modern world the news media are on the left. Between campaigns, debates are framed on the left -- and the bias is so deep that those who are biased do not even know it. All their friends share the same view and they think it is simply normal. Hence, conservatism is tactically on the defensive.

However, we can regain momentum and communicate over the elite media by keeping a cheerful, enthusiastic focus on clear, vivid differences. I want to give you a few policies that will define our future on terms that fit the future, fit our philosophy, and appeal to the American people.

The first such policy is taxes. Our position there should be very simple. We want tax reform -- tax reform so thorough that we can abolish the IRS as we know it. Period.

I would hope that by May or June we will have introduced a bold tax-reform bill that would allow us to do two great things (in addition to saving time for the American people). It would allow us to dramatically shrink both the Internal Revenue Service (which now has 110,000 people) and the number of lobbyists on 14th Street. For if there are no loopholes, there are no lobbyists, or at least their number should decline dramatically.

Second, we should state firmly and clearly that since we are endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, it is totally wrong for the Federal Government to discriminate against any American citizen. We are thus opposed to any quotas or set-asides. Next spring we will move the Canady legislation, which provides for civil equality for all Americans. In the interim, I hope we will have hearings and meetings across the country so that people who have suffered official discrimination can appear in the local media and communicate the fact that injustice is done every month when the Federal Government decides who the winners and losers will be based upon quotas and set-asides.

Third, while we shouldn't have "affirmative action" we should have affirmative outreach -- especially in education. We want every child to be so well educated that he can pursue happiness without needing a quota. If an ethnic group is not getting enough people into law school, the answer is to reform the local primary and secondary schools. And education is pre-eminently local -- local parents, local children, and local teachers. So we will have a bill to move 90 per cent of all federal funding to the local community, eliminating the federal bureaucracy and getting the money back home where it belongs.

In addition, children should go to safe, well-disciplined schools where they are expected to learn the basics. Every child in America should be able to read and write by the end of the third grade --and that means read and write in English, because that is the language of opportunity for Americans.

If a school system fails to reform itself, parents should have the right to send their children to a decent school. Everywhere in America, when we offer poor inner-city parents this opportunity, they take it. In Ohio, Gov. Voinovich passed a scholarship program, and there are already 2,500 children receiving scholarships in Cleveland, and another 4,500 on the waiting list. Let the Left explain why their unions matter more than our children.