Progressive Conservatism: How Republicans Will Become America's Natural Governing Party

by F.H. Buckley

After the Democratic Party divided Americans along gender and racial lines, F.H. Buckley argues that the Republican Party can become the natural governing party again by uniting Americans around a return to their roots—championing the common good, liberty, and equality. "Frank Buckley shakes conservatives by their lapels in this sharp-edged vision for a Republican Party. Progressivism Conservatism does what’s needed—disrupt received wisdom with pragmatic, innovative ideas."  —Philip K. Howard, author of The Death of Common Sense "F. H. Buckley shows us how a seeming contradiction can lead to the healing of a fractured country."  —Roger L. Simon, award-winning novelist and editor, Epoch Times The Republican Party must return to its roots as a progressive conservative party that defends the American Dream, the idea that whoever you are, you can get ahead and know that your children will have it better than you did. It must show how the Democrats have become the party of inequality and immobility and that they created what structural racism exists through their unjust education, immigration, and job-killing policies. Republicans must seek to drain the swamp by limiting the clout of lobbyists and interest groups. They must also be nationalists, and as American nationalism is defined by the liberal nationalism of our founders, the party must reject the illiberalism of extremists on the Left and Right. As progressives, Republicans must also recognize nationalism’s leftward gravitational force and the way in which it demands that the party serve the common good through policies that protect the less fortunate among our countrymen. At a time when the Left asks us to scorn our country, Republicans must also be the conservative party that defends our families, the nobility of American ideals, and the founders’ republican virtues. By championing these policies, the Republicans will retain the new voters Trump brought to the GOP as well as those who left the party because of him. And as progressive conservatives, the GOP will become America’s natural governing party.

Genres: Politics

272 pages, Hardcover

Published July 12, 2022

About the author

Francis H. Buckley: Son of F.J. & H.B. Buckley; M. Esther Goldberg; child Sarah.
BA, McGill University 1969
LLB, McGill University 1974
LLM, Harvard University 1975
Exec Dir/Assoc Dean of Geo Mason Law & Economics Center & Foundation Law Prof who's taught there since '89 & was Visiting Olin Fellow at the U of Chicago Law School in '88/9. Shimer College trustee. Twice visiting professor at the Sorbonne/ Paris II, in fall '07 he was visiting professor at the Institut d'études politiques de Paris. He writes on law & economics & has published in journals, including the Journal of Legal Studies, the International Review of Law, Crisis & Economics & Public Choice. He's defended free markets before the American Enterprise Inst. His books include Fair Governance (Oxford '09), The Morality of Laughter (Michigan '03) & Just Exchange: A Theory of Contract (Routledge '05).
Geo Mason's Law & Economics Center, focusing on issues like tort reform, declines releasing fundraising & donor information. Documents released by the Community Rights Counsel, including some released as part of the nat'l tobacco settlement, show that its officials asked R.J. Reynolds Tobacco for $20,000 for its federal judges program, according to a Reynolds internal email. The center received $40,000 from Philip Morris from '96-99 & was listed among "key allies". It also received $40,000 from Exxon Mobil Foundation in '04. Buckley said their policy of silence as re donors is best for all. He declined to say where the seminars take place, citing security reasons: "We've been advised that there are more ethical problems if you disclose than if you don't."

Reviews

[Camilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was an interesting work of historical theory and political analysis. The main premise of the book is that conservatives will need to embrace a progressive attitude and outlook in order to gain back political command and make beneficial changes to our government and country. The author listed several areas of needed reformation, including the education system and federal taxation. He explained how Trump came to power and how he lost that power and used that explanation to segue into his theme of reforming conservative voters into a more open-minded group on social policy. I'm not sure I buy into everything he claimed, but it was an interesting concept and I'm intrigued by the predictions he made.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

F.H. Buckley argues convincingly that the Republican party has always been a progressive party. Like many political debates there is a risk in this discussion that individuals talk past each other because of the ambiguity of both words - "progressive" and "conservative."

I've previously given the meaning of these words significant thought, to the extent that I once argued publicly that I (a conservative Republican State Senator) was more progressive than a certain WI State Senator who was a well known liberal in the Bernie Sanders wing of the Democratic party. When debating what should be done concerning the Milwaukee Public Schools my argument was that self-identified "progressives" were actually the ones that wanted to "conserve" the current system, a system that is widely acknowledged as a failure, and I wanted to adopt reforms that embraced a new system. I didn't want to conserve, I wanted to "progress" into alternatives that could yield better results.

Conservatism to me has always meant conservation of the Constitution. With that definition it's not an oxymoron to be both a progressive and a conservative. Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican President, embodied the principle wholly by simultaneously embracing the most critical elements of the Constitution while aggressively pursuing progressive policies that extended Constitutional rights to black Americans. A strange dichotomy, Lincoln conserved the Union and extended Constitutional Right while also disregarding portions of the Constitution that hampered the ability to preserve the union.

Buckley extends the progressive conservative argument to subsequent presidents in convincing fashion, more notable Teddy Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower. The only Republican president that did not embrace aspects of progressive conservatism is Calvin Coolidge who has the distinction of being the only President in US history that left office with less spending than when he entered office.

I agree with portions of Buckley's assessment. In particular his ideas relating to adopting Canadian style immigration reform makes tremendous sense. I disagree strongly with aspects of his healthcare and education reforms that would move closer to nationalism of both healthcare and education systems.

It's important to distinguish progressive conservatism as a campaign strategy versus a governing strategy. Unfortunately the author is correct that a more populist progressive conservative agenda is likely to win more elections, but my fear is that the progressive conservative agenda is a departure from the more classical conservative principles that would yield a more limited government and therefore better results.

[Jack R.]

Buckley, a Canadian by birth and political temperament, attempts to perform an ad hoc ideological paint job of the former Trump presidency. 45 was part of a grand right-wing tradition of “progressive conservatism,” with members being Lincoln and Eisenhower, that mixed economic centrism (or was it liberalism?) with social conservatism to forge a strong nationalist vision of the United States. Now that Trump’s populism and anti-democratic outrage got the better of him, its time to move on and embrace his agenda without the polarizing man behind it. Yet, most of Buckley’s analysis for a post-Trump progressive conservatism swings from Heritage boilerplate to Daily Caller outrage polemic. His proposals can be contradictory, his critiques specious (comparing Chinese totalitarianism to Catholic integralism?), and his interaction with the main moral fount of Toryism/conservatism in its Anglo-American visage (Christianity!) is wanting to the point of absence. There is no social conservatism here but a quick dismissal of the validity of natural law and traditionalism. What the book offers then is policy prescript after policy prescription. Indeed, Buckley’s “Progressive Conservatism” reads exactly like a resurrected neoconservatism— who were obsessed with finding sociological and economic solutions— with a more modest foreign policy (he does not touch much on that vital subject much also): its abashedly liberal, pro-welfare, extremely patriotic, and possesses a Jaffa-esque love of the founders and Lincoln. I believe liberal values and American patriotism to be good in reason, but Buckley’s Americanized, Trumpified Red Toryism has no audience: the modern Right, the ones who will lead its future course, are postliberal anti-Americans.

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If the reader can get past the author's misogyny (he once called Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor a "stupid Latina" and insults both the present VP and former Secretary of State Clinton for their physical appearance in this book,) there are some compelling ideas to be found here. Returning the GOP to the principles of Lincoln, TR, and Eisenhower is something everyone could agree would be a positive development.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad by any means, but I felt like the central idea Progressive Conservative as an ideology is not talked about as much