“It [National Review] stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.” – National Review Mission Statement
What they say: Stop! No more changes!
What they mean: Life (my life) is good; cultural changes might diminish my good life!
I was among them. I was a conservative who vehemently and actively resisted change … until I became tired of being wrong.
The Political Parties’ Parting of the Ways
Historically, the Republican Party was composed mostly of progressives who advocated for changes—particularly for abolishing slavery, for civil rights for all people, and for voting rights for all citizens, regardless of race, gender, or religious belief. In that bygone era, it was the Democrats who fervently resisted change.
But, as most folks know, over the course of a few decades—from the mid to late 20th century—a gradual-but-complete reversal occurred. The Republicans became the Status Quo Party while the Democrats became the Transformation Party.
I came of age in the 70s, in the latter part of that reversal period. By then, Congress had passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. In the Senate vote, 27 of the 33 Republican senators voted for the act, while 46 of the 67 Democratic senators voted in favor. So, even then, most of the Senate’s opposition to the advancement of civil rights came from old-line Democrats, mostly from the South.
The Times They Are a Changing
But, as Bob Dylan wrote and sang in that same year, the times were changing. Both political parties were gradually changing, essentially, eventually trading places. In 1972—the year of my first vote—incumbent President Richard Nixon conspired with his cronies to dig up dirt on his rival, and the resultant Watergate scandal hastened the reversal. So did Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” which, as most folks know, sought to bring southern voters into the Republican Party by—at least tacitly—embracing the anti-progressive stance on civil rights.
In the 1976 elections, 83 percent of Black voters and 82 percent of Hispanic voters voted for Jimmy Carter, the Democratic candidate. But the reversal really began 40 years earlier, with FDR’s first election in 1936. In that year, the African-American-owned New York Amsterdam News printed this headline: “BIG NEGRO VOTE BACKS F. D. R. AS NEW DEAL SWEEPS NATION.” Minorities—particularly blacks—recognized which political party seemed more concerned with their needs. So, not surprisingly, most aligned with the more progressive Democratic Party.
Throughout the elections of the following decades, racial, religious, ethnic, and gender minorities have overwhelmingly supported Democratic candidates. Meanwhile, Republican candidates could count on the support of most White voters—those who agreed with the National Review’s yell to “Stop!” Stop changing things that might disrupt my comfortable life.
Confession Is Good for the Soul
And I was one of those comfortable White voters. Although I’d voted for McGovern in 1972, from 1973 until 2016, I voted a straight Republican ticket. I was convinced that the conservative philosophy best addressed the nation’s needs. I was wrong. And I’m tired of being wrong. So, it’s time for me to renounce my conservative beliefs.
Conservatives—first conservative Democrats, then conservative Republicans—were wrong on civil rights for minorities. We conservatives have been wrong on voting-rights bills. We were wrong on women’s rights issues. We’ve been wrong on Second Amendment (gun rights) issues. We’ve been wrong on environmental and climate-change issues. We’ve often been wrong on economic and tax issues. We’ve often been wrong on wars and military-spending issues. (Sorry, liberal friends, but I’m not ready to concede on the abortion issue. I’m still in the pro-life camp.) But, for far too long, I’ve been with the conservatives on the wrong side of too many policy issues.
George Bernard Shaw was right when he said, “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” I’ve changed my mind; I admit my many mistaken views and actions. I choose to leave in the past my views that were rooted in the past. For the sake of the nation, I choose progress and advancement over stagnation and gradual decay. I hope you do too.