On the American conservative mindset you think you already understand (but probably don't)

Whenever I discuss politics with people, especially when I travel, I'm always amazed at how little understood the positions of American conservatives seem to be.

Not that I am necessarily a strict conservative myself. But I don't mind helping to clarify some points that in my experience are not particularly well-grasped - both at home and abroad, come to think of it.

Anyway, what made me embark on this mission is that I thought yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a great piece on "The Conservative Mind" by Peter Berkowitz, a senior fellow from the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

While you should read the whole thing, I thought I'd excerpt the parts that would be of most interest to readers of this blog.

On Iraq:

The split among conservatives has widened since Saddam was toppled in the spring of 2003. Traditional realists continue to put their trust in containment, and reject nation-building on the grounds that we lack both a moral obligation and the requisite knowledge of Arabic, Iraqi culture and politics, and Islam. Supporters of the war still argue that, in an age of mega-terror, planting the seeds of liberty and democracy in the Muslim Middle East is a reasonable response to the poverty, illiteracy, authoritarianism, violence and religious fanaticism that plagues the region.

On American conservatives versus European ones:

In contrast to much European conservatism, which harks back to premodern times and the political preeminence of religion and royalty, in America -- which lacked a feudal past to preserve or recover -- conservatism has always revolved around the preservation of individual liberty. Of course modern conservatism generally admires virtues embodied in religious faith and the aristocratic devotion to excellence. It also tends to emphasize the weaknesses of human nature, the ironies and tragedies of history, and the limitations of reason and politics. At the same time, it wishes to put these virtues and this knowledge in liberty's service.

On one of three authors, Russell Kirk, author of "The Conservative Mind" (1953), who he says have had the most influence on today's American conservatives, he writes:

[He had an] attachment to 'the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence' as against the routinizing and leveling forces of modern society.

(I have something of the same attachment myself.)

And that Kirk also had, writes Berkowitz:

. . .faith in custom and convention and consequently a distrust of the 'sophisters, calculators, and economists' who would reconstruct society upon abstract designs."

(And me, too.)

Finally, on Kirk's view of religion, he writes:

The leading role in this mix that Kirk attaches to religion marks him as a social conservative; his insistence that religion provides the indispensable ground for individual liberty marks him as a modern conservative.