No Whining: A test for American conservatism

If you’re a conservative, you admire Edmund Burke—and you may recall this passage—a bit hyperbolic perhaps, but stirring and powerful:

But the age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists, and calculators, has succeeded; and the glory of Europe is extinguished for ever. Never, never more shall we behold that generous loyalty to rank and sex, that proud submission, that dignified obedience, that subordination of the heart, which kept alive, even in servitude itself, the spirit of an exalted freedom. The unbought grace of life, the cheap defence of nations, the nurse of manly sentiment and heroic enterprise, is gone! It is gone, that sensibility of principle, that charity of honor, which felt a stain like a wound, which inspired courage whilst it mitigated ferocity, which ennobled whatever it touched, and under which vice itself lost half its evil, by losing all its grossness.

Thus Burke in 1790, in his Reflections on the Revolution in France. At that very time, the American rebels of 1776, by contrast with their French successors, were vindicating their revolution by becoming Founders of a successful experiment in self-government. It has always been the claim of American conservatives that here, on this side of the Atlantic, glory is not extinguished, the spirit of an exalted freedom is not dead, and manly sentiment and heroic enterprise remain possible, consistent (if in some tension) with the principles and practice of a modern republic.

The rise of Donald Trump is a challenge to that proud claim. Perhaps Burke was right. Perhaps ours is destined to be an age of sophisters and calculators. And not merely of sophisters and calculators, but of suckers and con men.

Perhaps. But surely we need not concede defeat. As William Gladstone, an admirer of Burke, put it almost a century later, "The resources of civilization are not yet exhausted."

Still, one can ask: Are we deploying those resources as energetically and resolutely as we could be? Are those of us in the anti-Trump and #NeverTrump camps really doing all that we can do at this moment of crisis? At a time when not just the outcome of this year's election but the fate of the American conservative project is very much in question, are we rising to the moment?

It would require superhuman stoicism for an American conservative not to be depressed by the Trump phenomenon. But being depressed by a real problem is one thing. Moping about feeling sorry for oneself is another. Ted Cruz has said, correctly, that Donald Trump is a whiner.

But there is, unfortunately, whining on the anti-Trump side as well. There's the whine of disappointment: "Gee, we won in Wisconsin. We thought Trump was stopped. Now look at the New York polls. And the states after New York are tough. Can you imagine what a slog it's going to be?"

There's the whine of foreboding: "And then what? Can you imagine what a mess a convention that denies Trump the nomination would be? Paul Ryan says it would be even worse if the delegates select a nominee who hasn't been a candidate. Maybe it's time to begin accepting Trump?"

There's the whine of wishfulness: "Maybe if he wins the nomination, Trump won't be so bad for the Republican party or conservatism after all. Let's not be rash. We could probably influence him. Or we could at least protect the down-ballot candidates against him."

There's the whine of wistfulness: "Ah, if only we now had better alternatives. If only Marco Rubio hadn't frozen for two minutes in the New Hampshire debate. If only Scott Walker's campaign manager hadn't wasted all that money. If only.??.??.?"

There's the whine of fatalism: "Yes, Cruz would probably be a good president. But surely he can't win a general election. Yes, he only trails Hillary Clinton by four points now. But do you know anyone who likes him?"

There's the whine of difficulty: "And if it comes to an independent candidacy—well, won't it be tough to get on the ballot in Texas and North Carolina? Won't it be hard to find the perfect candidate? Has it ever really worked before?"

These whines are not without basis in fact. Whines usually do have some plausible grounding in reality. The odds may be daunting, but a serious political movement is about winning, not whining. Donald Trump is a test for American conservatism. It's not too much to say he's a test for America. Are we so lacking in "manly sentiment" and "heroic enterprise" that we can't defeat him?

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William Kristol is editor of The Weekly Standard, which, together with Fred Barnes and John Podhoretz, he founded in 1995. Kristol regularly appears on Fox News Sunday and on the Fox News Channel.