Politics



I consider myself a traditional Conservative, following the intellectual tradition of Conservative thinkers like my late professor Mel Bradford and others like Willmoore Kendall and Michael Oakeshott. I am also deeply influenced by defender of Classical Liberalism, like F. A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. I have also been intellectual shaped by Leo Strauss and his students, although I find their understanding of America to be rather problematic.

I have always had the greatest respect for the Framers of the Constitution of 1787 and the Republican form of government they sought to establish for all times. I follow Willmoore Kendall's claim that it is only though the preservation of majority rule as established within the Federal System can Republicanism avoid the consequences of the notions of liberal intellectuals who not only despise the government that the Framers gave to the Americans, but also despises the common man and all that he believes in. I find it odd that the left who speaks endlessly about making things more democratic, truely does not want the majority to rule. Rather they seek only the rule of those whom they understand to be "enlightened". All the rest of mankind, the great unwashed and "unenlighted" are to be ruled with an iron fist. One only has watch how the likes of Mrs. Clinton and Al Gore speak to the American People, as though they were children who had to be eternally governed by their more caring and more intelligent parents. When these people speak of community or "the village", they do not mean the communities or "villages" that existed before the Welfare State and Federal Intervention destroyed these socal networks, but the Re-education Camps/Concentration Camps. But the forces seeking to destroy our heritage of political liberties do not openly inform us what they intend to do. Instead they mask their agenda by claims of good intentions and higher moral codes. Here Jefferson's words are all so true: "The Price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance."


In contemporary American politics, I tend to support the Conservative Republicans. Although I am uncomfortable with the radical heriage of the GOP and the mainstream GOP Dollar worship ideology, it is the only party that not only wishes to preserve the Constitutional heritage of the Founders but it also is the only current party that seems to be politically responsible. In a perfect world, I would rather be a Democrat of the old pre 1860 variety [Free Trade, States Rights Democrat], in the tradition of Robert Frost and the Southern Agarians, but that is no longer possible.


Robert E. Lee's letter to Lord Action on the sovereignity of the states

The Mayflower Compact

Deadly Social Engineering

Is Manliness a Virtue?

Comments about Mr. Lincoln's War

On the US. Constitution

Lawful Government vs. Tyranny

Heston at Harvard

Noonan on Patriotism


Go to my Cliff's Americana Page






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Last Updated July 22nd, 1999 by Clifford A. Bates, Jr




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