Publication Date: September 1, 2009
Callie Siskel, Assistant Editor
212.247.6980, [email protected]
“Is Conservatism Dead?”
by JAMES PIERESON
in The New Criterion, September 2009
A REBUTTAL TO SAM TANENHAUS’S THE DEATH OF CONSERVATISM (Random House)
A REBUTTAL TO SAM TANENHAUS’S THE DEATH OF CONSERVATISM (Random House)
“The most far-reaching political development in the United States over the past half-century has been the rise of conservatism to its status by the turn of the millennium as the nation’s most influential public doctrine. This did not happen by accident, but rather because conservatives succeeded where liberals had failed.” So writes James Piereson, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, in the September 2009 issue of The New Criterion. Piereson reminds us all that reports of conservatism’s demise have been greatly exaggerated. His essay “Is Conservatism Dead?” is a response to Sam Tanenhaus, the editor of The New York Times Book Review, who has just published a new book, The Death of Conservatism.
“Is Conservatism Dead?” is not only a rejoinder to Tanenhaus—it also recounts a history of mischaracterizations of the conservative movement. Since the beginning of the Cold War, liberal intellectuals have attempted to define conservatism in such a way as to guarantee its failure. In this liberal critique:
[conservatives] were obliged to endorse all manner of liberal reforms once they were established as part of the new status quo. . . . So it was that conservatives who wished to reverse liberal victories became radicals or extremists.
Like his forerunners, Tannenhaus thinks the only legitimate, successful conservatism is a kind that “accommodates rather than opposes liberalism, and thus one that will accept its role as subordinate to the dominant liberal tradition in American life.” The reality is quite different:
Conservatism is now a permanent and enduring aspect of American political life, supported by millions of Americans and defended by a large network of writers, journals, and think tanks. . . . Conservatism in America deploys the principles of tradition, reason, and orderly change in defense of liberal institutions—the Constitution, representative government, liberty and equal rights, the rule of law.
As Piereson points out, the timing of The Death of Conservatism has been less than auspicious: it arrived in stores at the precise moment Obama’s poll numbers began their return to earth. There couldn’t be a clearer indicator of the continuing appeal of conservative ideals than the popular reaction to the sweeping statism of a Democratic administration. “If conservatism is dead,” writes Piereson, “then so is liberalism, and much else besides.”
JAMES PIERESON is a Senior Fellow and Director of Manhattan Institute’s Center for the American University and president of the William E. Simon Foundation. Before joining the Manhattan Institute, Mr. Piereson was executive director and trustee of the John M. Olin Foundation. The paperback edition of Camelot and the Cultural Revolution: How the Assassination of John F. Kennedy Shattered American Liberalism will be published on September 15by Encounter Books.
THE NEW CRITERION, now co-edited by the art critic Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball, was founded in 1982 by Mr. Kramer and the pianist and music critic Samuel Lipman. A monthly review of the arts and intellectual life, The New Criterion began as a publication devoted to engaging, in Matthew Arnold’s famous phrase, with “the best that has been thought and said.” Published monthly from September through June, The New Criterion brings together a wide range of young and established critics whose common aim is to bring you the most incisive criticism being written today. Visit us on the web at www.newcriterion.com.
To read the full-length version of “Is Conservatism Dead?” please visit
Or for an excerpt in The Washington Times:
To schedule a radio or television appearance with Mr. Piereson, contact Callie Siskel at (212) 247-6980.