I don’t think the average American who is heavily influenced by modern culture is going to dive into Hayek or Thucydides, or choose to listen to Aerosmith for its conservative tone. I do think some core conservative principles can be emphasized in cultural contexts in ways that encourage people to live those principles. The most straightforward one is individual independence – “self rule”, if you will. Individual responsibility is a necessary corollary. Those things are also central to conservative religion, but not exclusive to it. There’s no need for a libertarian/ religious divide. People who embody those characteristics need to be held up as honorable examples, people to admire and emulate. A large nanny-government is diametrically in opposition to the concepts of self-rule (I am in control of my life) and individual responsibility (I accept responsibility for my actions and their consequences). The difference between libertarians and the religious is that the religious give control of their lives to God’s will and measure the appropriateness of their actions against God’s law. The two philosophies will clash where God’s law and “liberty for all” clash – for example, gay marriage. Big issues, but they don’t obviate the similarities of the two philosophies.
But, again, the average voter or voter-to-be, especially teenagers, aren’t going to sit around thinking deep philosophical thoughts and put them into practice. They want to watch TV, dance to music, go to movies with their friends, get ahead in life. The basic principles of conservatism need to come through in simple basic terms as the best way to live your life. As another commenter said, you can’t impose politics and philosophy on the arts, especially. Art emerges from the inner creative being. We just need to encourage and enable artistic conservatives to freely express their conservative inner creative being, in movies, music, fine art and any other venue.
We also need to hold all office holders, especially Republican/conservative, accountable, from the smallest city council to the federal government. I believe there would be a groundswell of support to eliminate earmarks if a movement focused just on that took off (and it’s already gotten a lot of traction). The senators in my state are among the worst; I’m joining the local Republican party and I’m going to be very vocal about pushing them to stop it themselves and push for others to. And make no mistake: If a senator is forced by his/her constituency to forego earmarks, he’s going to push hard to make sure no one else can get them either.
There’s a lot more that can be done. But each of us has to embrace the core of conservatism to make it happen: Individual responsibility. Don’t just chat about it online. Make changes in your own life and community. That’s what the libs have done. There’s no reason we can’t too.
