The conservative party in American politics is still the Republican Party, but there are tremendous differences in terms of which faction may rule the roost from time to time.  Tom Pauken in his new book, Bringing America Home argues that “Machiavellian pragmatists and neoconservative ideologues” hijacked the Grand Old Party (GOP) and did so by pretending to be Reagan conservatives.  Pauken maintains that true conservative principles provide the correct roadmap to solutions for the big problems facing our country.  He also argues that they provide the right roadmap back to power for Republicans.  This is obviously contrary to Obama’s radical presumption, which may have contributed to his overly ambitious domestic agenda and squandering of his first year in office, and that is that Democrats’ victory in 2008 meant people now broadly repudiate conservative values and solutions.  The rise of the Tea Party movement and sizeable back-to-back defeats of Democrat candidates in 2009 and 2010, unhinge the presumption.  On the other hand, Republicans would make a huge mistake believing that the electorate somehow longs for a return to the debt and domestic spending levels, centralized decision-making, or expansive military and foreign policy aims pursued under George W. Bush.  The People have turned a corner, and so should the Republican Party. 

Notwithstanding past policy mistakes, any real progress in making America great again will require the party in power to address budget and trade deficits.  The fiscal conservatism of constituencies in the Republican Party make it more likely Republicans can do this.  Moreover, social conservatives in the Republican Party coalition will contribute outside the normal realm of hot-button issues, by helping reassert classic traits of the American character, which Pauken says are needed to fix among other things the economic crisis.  For instance, policies are necessary to rebuild the middle class, but the middle class is defined foremost by character traits, and only then by median income.  To slow or reverse the growth of government represents an economic imperative to be sure, but also a character imperative—including the willingness of more people to postpone gratification and resist public dependency.  Character is thus essential to rejuvenation of the free enterprise system.

Character is clearly needed by people and legislators alike, to responsibly address the unfunded liabilities of our bloated entitlement programs.  Recognition of character is needed too, in order to discern that good jobs are not always the so-called white collar ones.  Not all good jobs do or should depend upon getting a college education either.  The idea that every child should be a four-year, liberal arts or science major is narrow and elitist at its core.  The attitude and attendant policies from Washington have helped rob labor of its inherent dignity in America , while helping to decimate the American manufacturing base.  Having just one kind of global comparative advantage, say, in information systems, fails the common sense test and is largely responsible for moving American jobs offshore and losing out to foreign competitors.  America is big enough and must be big enough for all kinds of work: blue and white collar, manual and managerial, technical and services. 

Whether fiscal and/or social conservative, solutions as such will be incomplete—and hence the metaphorical war to save, much less to make America great again will be lost, if Republicans (and by extension the majority of Americans) do not also adopt political conservatism in terms of how they regard their Constitution.  Quite aside from the necessary social morality informed by principles of Christianity, the nation most urgently requires restoration of “constitutional morality.”  That is to say, the Founders’ political culture on which our republican system and Founding Document depends, must regain relevancy in Congress, at the White House, inside the Supreme Court, in town halls and state legislatures across the land.  The emphasis on checks and balances, separation of powers, states rights and federalism, must be observed and even relearned, if the country would not devolve into tyranny or to the status of a second-rate, socialist backwater where once freemen and freewomen called home. 

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Wesley Allen Riddle is a retired military officer with degrees and honors from West Point and Oxford .  Widely published in the academic and opinion press, he ran for U.S. Congress (TX-District 31) in the 2004 Republican Primary.  Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . 

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