EDMUND BURKEWe all want to do something about the hyper-partisanship of our age. The rancor between liberals and conservatives, and between Democrats and Republicans, is venomous. Disagreement isn't bad. Debate is healthy; and we don’t want an America of Stepford wives. But increasingly no one bothers to listen to – or understand – the other side.
When Standard & Poor downgraded the credit rating of the United States, it said “the gulf between the political parties” has destroyed its confidence in the government’s ability to manage the nation’s finances. It is difficult to argue with that statement. We can blame politicians, but that is too facile. Politicians reflect the attitudes of their constituents. Egged on by opportunists who make a living reinforcing our views and demonizing the other side, we too often assume those on the other end of the ideological spectrum are ignorant or operating in bad faith.
If want to fix what’s broken, we must begin with ourselves.
Here’s an idea – perhaps a wacky idea – that might help at bit. I stress ""help a bit."" It's not going to change the world. But something that helps even just a bit may be worth considering, especially if it might also be fun.
What about conservative-liberal book clubs, devoted to reading and discussing an equal number of good conservative and liberal books?
Personal experience leads me to believe this can be beneficial. I am a liberal who – in the process of writing a book about William F. Buckley Jr. and the rise of the American conservative movement – spent five years reading conservative literature. Did the experience convert me to conservatism? It did not. I emerged just as committed a liberal as I when I began. In fact, in some ways I am more committed because I better understand why I am a liberal. But the experience has led me to understand conservatism better, and to respect conservatives more. I may still think that a particular view is wrong, but I have a better grasp on why it appeals to intelligent people with a different ideological perspective.
You might say I have learned to speak conservative. That allows me both to better understand what conservatives are saying and to more effectively communicate my own views to conservatives. It’s a help with our ideological Tower of Babel.
Participants in a liberal-conservative book club may be in for some surprises. For example, ever since modern technology has brought us a cornucopia of consumer goods unprecedented in the history of mankind, the best liberal and conservative thinkers have worried about America becoming seduced by materialism. In the 1950s and 1960s, conservative Russell Kirk urged us not to seek only “another piece of pie and another pat of butter” and instead more highly value what he called “the permanent things.” During the same time, liberal economist John Kenneth Galbraith challenged his profession’s prevailing assumption that “welfare is greater at an all-around higher level of production than at a lower one.” Conservatives and liberals will discover that they share some deep-seated values and concerns, even if they differ about solutions.
Book club participants should be prepared to have their stereotypes challenged. Conservatives, for example, may discover that liberals are not naïve utopians and “levelers.” Liberals may discover that conservatives are not dupes of business propaganda who have been brainwashed into supporting positions against their own self-interest.
Here are a few suggested guidelines. Each book club should be composed, at least roughly, of equal numbers of liberals and conservatives. Clubs should read quality books. I set forth below some suggestions, all available in paperback. Based upon my instincts as a teacher, I list them in an order that I think makes sense – in each case, beginning with a book that offers a sharp but broad theory of the ideology it advocates, and ending with a work of fiction. There are, of course, many good books and no magic to my suggestions; but avoid tracts devoted to ridiculing the other side, which now abound.
Participants should commit to making a genuine effort to better understand the other side. Three rules might support that effort: (1) Before criticizing a conservative book, a liberal should first identify something that he or she found persuasive – or at least interesting – in that work, and vice versa. (2) No participant should speak twice until every participant has spoken once. (3) Avoid ad hominem attacks, not only of fellow club members but of the authors under discussion. By all means, argue that a particular view is wrong and explain why; but calling a view “stupid” disparages those who agree with it.
I am not suggesting that discussions be tame. Nothing’s wrong with lusty debate. But passionate debate need not be bitter.
You’ll get the most out of this experience if you approach it as follows: This isn’t about reaching consensus but learning to disagree more cheerfully and more productively. It’s about learning something yourself, not about teaching something to others. It’s about challenging your own biases and assumptions, not challenging those of others.
And it’s about having fun.
Suggested Books
Conservative Books
1. Barry Goldwater, The Conscience of a Conservative (1960). This polemical call to arms, ghostwritten by L. Brent Bozell, William F. Buckley Jr.’s brother-in-law, propelled Goldwater to national attention and became the anthem of a rising conservative movement.
2. Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot (1953). Perhaps too long at over 500 pages, but the first three chapters are must reads. Ask yourself: Is Edmund Burke’s approach, which Kirk argues is “the true school of conservative principle,” still followed by the conservative movement?
3. George F. Will, Statecraft as Soulcraft: What Government Does (1983). An elegant argument by one of our era’s most thoughtful conservatives, that government – properly conceived – is, in fact, about social engineering.
4. David Frum, Comeback: Conservatism That Can Win Again (2008). Frum translates conservative ideas into policy prescriptions. Liberals may be surprised about how often they find themselves agreeing with him.
5. William F. Buckley Jr., Stained Glass (1978). The prime mover of modern conservatism communicates important aspects of his worldview through a riveting spy novel.
Liberal Books
1. Paul Starr, Freedom’s Power: The True Force of Liberalism (2007). In parallel to Frum’s book, conservatives may be surprised about how often they agree with Starr. Yes, liberals also worry about threats to liberty from consolidated governmental power.
2. Paul Krugman, The Conscience of a Liberal (2007). Krugman persuasively argues that the middle-class is imperiled – and along with it, so is the Republic.
3. John Kenneth Galbraith, The Affluent Society (1958). This was one of the most widely-read works by liberals of Kennedy’s New Frontier and Johnson’s Great Society. Don’t read it for Galbraith’s economic ideas, which even many liberal economists dispute; read it as an example of how a liberal thinks, and savor Galbraith’s attack on “conventional wisdom” – in the book that coined that term.
4. G. Calvin Mackenzie and Robert Weisbrot, The Liberal Hour: Washington and the Politics of Change in the 1960s (2008). This is the story about what liberals tried to do – sometimes successfully, sometimes not – when they were in power.
5. Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843). You’ve seen the play performed. Now read it as an allegory about converting a conservative to liberalism.
[I’d love to hear suggestions for other books. You can send them to me via the Contact Me function on the website.]