Obama the conservative

Despite running for the candidacy of the Democratic party, Barack Obama should be the great hope of conservatives—both in the US and Europe
January 20, 2008

"Right speech, wrong party." That was the conclusion of a number of conservative commentators after Barack Obama's celebrated performance at the Democratic national convention in 2004. This speech was very different from anything else delivered that night. Unlike many other Democrats, Obama used his moment in the limelight to send out a positive and constructive message about an end to the bickering of partisan politics; to the spin and cynicism that has defined political life in America since the 1990s. This is a message Obama has continued to spread in the run for his party's nomination for president.

Obama's hopeful non-partisan tone appeals to those conservatives who have been disillusioned by the polarising George W Bush presidency. After eight years with a leadership that has deepened the political divide in America, they long for a president capable of rising above the standard ideological fray.

The conservative blogosphere is currently flowing over with such comments, uttered by people who are tired of seeing their country torn apart by fierce arguments between the Bush and Clinton camps, and the cultural wars fought by the Christian right and die-hard secularists. These sentiments were recently summed up in an excellent essay in the Atlantic magazine by the conservative journalist and commentator Andrew Sullivan (known in Britain through his columns for the Sunday Times), where he came out as a passionate supporter of Obama.

The attraction of Obama to Sullivan and other conservatives is not surprising. In fact, their support is consistent with the constructive wing of the philosophy of conservatism. Those stuck in the world of divisional politics can be baffled by this. How, they ask, can people who admire Reagan and Thatcher also have time for Obama?

Aside from his positive message of unity, there are a number of things concerning Obama which appeal to conservatives, not least his appreciative attitude towards traditions and his understanding of the importance of learning from history. In her ambitious New Yorker profile of Obama published last May, Larissa Macfarquhar writes that Obama was critical of his parents and grandparents for breaking up from their respective communities and moving to other towns and countries. They allowed themselves to be seduced by the American dream of individualism and mobility, something which to Obama seems "credulous and shallow." To Obama, the abandonment of their surroundings in Kenya and Kansas to start anew somewhere else seemed, writes Macfarquhar, "a destructive craving for weightlessness." Freedom has a price, and this is shattered communities and loneliness.

Freedom from tradition is not an end in itself, and continuity is good for people—these seem to be governing principles in Obama's universe, principles which are expressed in his political outlook. On healthcare, he states that he does not wish to reform today's system to the same extent as his main opponent in the primaries, Hillary Clinton: "We may need a system that's not so disruptive that people feel like suddenly what they've known for most of their lives is thrown by the wayside." Obama believes that the introduction of a government-run healthcare system, as in Britain or Sweden, would most likely be impossible in the US, because it is at odds with certain traditions in American culture.

Obama criticises the war in Iraq on the basis that it is difficult to introduce democracy hastily and through violence. Societies change slowly, and certain historical conditions for democracy have to be in place. Without such conditions, he rightly states, the new form of government is not likely to survive.

History is important, and when politicians don't care about what is compatible with culture and society, things go wrong. That is not something one would expect to hear from a liberal leader, but rather something we find in the writings of Edmund Burke. Obama has also made a name of himself as someone who neither takes anything for granted nor comes across as certain about his political stands. In him we find the "reflective attitude" which the American philosopher John Kekes, a prominent figure in today's conservative movement, associates with a conservative outlook.

All of these elements—the messages of optimism and unity, and the appreciation of the concepts which lie at the heart of conservatism—should make Obama a more attractive candidate to conservatives than, say, Rudy Giuliani or Mike Huckabee. Neither of these has an appeal than rises above party.

European conservatives should, like many of their American cousins, hope not only for an Obama nomination, but also for his election on November 4th. It has been difficult to present a strong case for conservatism in Europe, partly because of the Bush administration. But Obama could change that; a charismatic and broadly supported president with ideas similar to Burkean philosophy would lend credibility to conservatism everywhere. Four more years of partisan trench warfare won't.