Contemporary Conservatism
I have not tried to trace either historical roots or philosophical background to conservatism. This is an exercise so that people can see what contemporary conservatism would look like in practice. I appreciate your critique. The time is ripe for a new emphasis from the Christian Democratic Party. We are the natural inheritors of contemporary conservatism.
John Howard’s era which has seen many people lost in selfish hedonism due to economic growth has ended. Individual blessing has resulted in massive personal debt, housing mortgage stress, and a breakdown in family and social structures. Yet Australia has become a more conservative country.
Labor’s “Me tooism” of Kevin Rudd captured this conservative trend and cut Labor from its tradition left wing roots, with its emphasis on the government’s role in making society a more just place and the individual’s values being seen in relation to his or hers’ economic worth to society. Nathan Rees’ new Cabinet is trying to do the same in light of the State Government’s economic woes.
Democracy is not a political theory but a practical means of producing responsible citizens and legislators who care about the people. The more autocratic any political Party becomes, the more it moves from the people.
Contemporary Australian conservatives were pleased to say sorry to indigenous people and take pride in the achievements of immigrants to our country. They accept we are a nation that has come from 200 countries with all that cultural and religious colour and baggage. Contemporary conservatives are not afraid of diversity and think that the extended family is a good metaphor for contemporary Australia. Contemporary conservatives are committed to a sustainable environment without being afraid of scientific commentary on the threats to our future.
Contemporary conservatives stress family values, decency, hard work and reward for individual initiative without denigrating social justice, the need of many for welfare support, and our central role in caring for the refugee, the poor, and the dispossessed. Contemporary conservatives think that war is a senseless and un-Christian way of solving international disputes, threats of terrorism and fear of cultural and religious differences.
Contemporary conservatives are not the social elites who are critical of everyone but themselves. For them family values provide cohesion, security and culture in a world where violence, immorality and injustice escalate. It is not cynicism, fear of change and bewilderment that leads to this conservatism but a series of positive beliefs.
They believe in the rights and power of the individual to make the most of free market economics without disadvantaging those who need support of the community. They are not dependent upon governments granting us equity, justice and opportunity. The common good is not dependent upon government intervention neither do they believe their value depend upon market demand and economic worth. A society based on economic competition means that all but a few must deal with the feeling of being worse off than others.
The consumption tax is more equitable as we pay for what we enjoy, and therefore, contemporary conservatives expect a lowering of personal and company taxation rates to encourage personal initiative. They believe that generally speaking, private ownership is the most effective basis for community enterprises, but selling essential public enterprises such as the power, water key transport, hospitals, education, energy production, defence, border protection, health and the like is best provided by society as a whole for our future national security and social service.
Contemporary conservatism believes in the right of labour to organize itself into unions and seek its work conditions and benefits without being inclusive of all workers who have the right to organize their own industrial arrangements with their employers. Contemporary conservativism believes we should open our doors to those who are refugees and migrants, but expect of them a commitment to this country, its language, values and cultural traditions.
Christian conservatives up until the 1970’s could count on a general public acceptance of the Judeo-Christian ethic and that countered the homosexual, abortion, drug and sex lobbies and every aberration on a conservative life style portrayed on the stage, in print or in film. The Christian Democratic Party came into being on this basis and grew as a moralist party.
But Christianity is larger than morals and conservative Christians who accepted that the Bible’s concerns involved matters of social justice withdrew support from the CDP until no mainline denomination now supports the Christian Democratic Party. Further, the CDP withdrew into increasingly smaller circles of a Christian fundamentalism, comfortable to some, but rejected by most. While moral issues are still a major part of contemporary conservatism, so are the great social justice issues stressed by Jesus Christ.
Contemporary conservatism requires that we become more Christian. However, not all of our CDP older members understand the need for change and are perhaps suspicious of it. Because we have not been more Christian, we have lost the support of all mainline denominations although we have good support from the Coptic Church.
We must recapture the lost support of mainline church leaders. We need the support of all Christians on the great moral and justice issues that confront us. The issues of stem cell research, restrictions on immigration, the scientific evidence on climate change, global poverty and inequality, the new slavery: human trafficking, genocide in a half dozen countries like Sudan, HIV Aids, the evaluation of water policies, industrial relations, euthanasia, policies concerning refugees and indigenous peoples and so on, have many Christians of different backgrounds on different sides. But these are all great moral issues demanding our stance and intellectual contribution. Christians are making great contributions on these issues, but our Party is not taking them on board.
A do-nothing fundamentalist response to changing situations is a quick direction towards irrelevance. We are simply dying out. The Bible is so wise in declaring “in the multitude of counsellors there is wisdom.” Those who declare that they alone are the fount of all wisdom have a serious ego problem.
Contemporary conservatism requires that we become more democratic. We must make our party more Democratic as our name indicates. In practise, we never have special meetings or conferences to discuss our policy. Currently major issues are not debated. The first we hear of a CDP stance is when we read a press release in our name. Many times we would all agree with them, but many issues these days are beyond the wisdom of one man.
Democracy describes our most successful form of government. With origins in ancient Greece, Rome and south Asia, democracy has generally grown and expanded throughout history. Today, democracy is the predominant form of government in the world. It is a fundamental belief in the ability of ordinary people to understand issues and to comment intelligently on them.
We need to involve our members, branches and Councils in matters of policy and press releases that involve the rest of us should not be made until there has been consultation. Contemporary conservatism requires that we become more a political party. The Christian Democratic Party has for over twenty years represented the concerns of people who support Christian values, schools and caring institutions, family life, and who uphold the importance of the Commonwealth Constitution.
While we have fought for the values that made our nation, we are committed to the future development of our nation as an inclusive community based on cohesive values that made us a people. All other issues must be democratically debated. We have to change from being a party where a few attack anyone who does not agree with them. That is not a democratic response, but a totalitarian one.
We must become more of a political party. That means we must become better structured, with more members involved in leadership. At the moment we are like a pyramid balancing on a very narrow point of one man. We must inspire, motivate and mobilize a very large group of members and supporters, as we pursue a common goal of representing the whole Christian community in Parliament – of seeing our NSW and Federal Parliament enact laws that are in harmony with the principles of the Scripture.
The trouble is, that some of our members are totally resistant to change. They react, sometimes with threats to those who propose discussion seeking the best direction for the future. These people work on the basis of shooting the messenger rather than engage in discussion for the future of our CDP.
We must become more Christian, more democratic, and more of a party. A Christian Democratic Party is a wonderful concept. But we have to do more to make sure it is representative of all Christians, that it is truly Democratic representing fairly all of the members and that it is really a political party making a difference to our nation for God and the community.
Rev The Hon. Dr Gordon Moyes, A.C., M.L.C