Paleoconservatives Rock Tufts

On Saturday, October 28, ISI held a day-long symposium on "America and the Idea of Ordered Liberty" (arent' they all named this?) at Tufts University. The event was dominated by that breed of paleoconservatives. Who are "paleoconservatives"? Well, think Pat Buchanan. Paleo-cons are more anti-authoritarian, stressing tradition, civil society, and federalism, along with familial, religious, regional, national, and Western identity. Thank you, Wikipedia.

The day started with two foundational lectures - one by Professor Michael Federici of Mercyhurst College who spoke on "Rights and Duties: The Original Purpose of the Constitution" and another by Gary Gregg of the University of Louisville who spoke on "Deliberative Democracy and the Idea of Representation."

Then, came the rock stars. And by "rock" stars, I don't mean any harm or foul to Federici or Gregg. By "rock"stars, I mean the final 3 speakers rocked - as in "shook things up." First, there was the always provocative, yet humorous, Bill Kauffman who was the lunch time speaker. He is the author of Look Homeward, America: In Search of Reactionary Radicals and Front-Porch Anarchists. Oh, he's not only in search of them, he's one of them. He gave a talk titled, "The Anti-Federalist Critique" and focused mostly on the life and thought of the Anti-Federalist, Luther Martin. Kauffman argued that there has been an Anti-Federalist strain running throughout American history - at least there has been in his "alternative America."

Next came Professor Marshall DeRosa from Florida Atlantic University who spoke on "War, Union, and American Democracy after 1865." Let me cut to the point: he gave a defense of the Confederacy. He made a lot of great points about the Confederate argument against nationalism and for regionalism and states rights. With the role of the UN today, DeRosa warned about how the Confederacy's arguments against nationalism would also apply against the move towards a world government (or even things like the EU or NAFTA).

However, he didn't win over the anti-slavery, pro-Lincoln Yankee crowd. Though there were many that agreed with him, there was certainly a fiery exchange. DeRosa is certainly opposed to slavery, but he's also opposed to the Civil War. Yep, these paleo-cons really don't like any war. But, he has a solid argument: why did 600,000 people have to die and 200,000 slaves have to starve to death after they were freed at the conclusion of the Civil War in order to end slavery just a little earlier than it would have ended anyway (according to DeRosa). The writing was on the wall - the economic need for slavery was running out of steam. But, let's move on to contemporary subjects...

The final lecture of the day was by Professor Claes Ryn, a Swedish-born political theorist at Catholic University. He spoke about "The ideology of American Empire" and started the lecture by saying we shouldn't be using the term "neo-conservative" - that's just not a proper description of the people we are trying to refer to. Instead, we should call them the "neo-Jacobins" because they are trying to remake the world, turn cultures on their heads, and supplant those cultures with their own. There's too much about his lecture that I could write about, but this post would go on too far... let's just say, it was provocative and he isn't exactly in favor of the war in Iraq.

About 100 students and faculty from the Boston area attended and it was a fantastic time. One student told me they learned more in that one day then they had in four years at Tufts University. Yep, that's ISI. We "bring it." The next regional conference (like this one) that will be held is slated for March in Charlotesville, Virginia. If you're within a 4-hour drive, you won't want to miss it. ISI. Off the chains, yo.