I believe that conservatism needs to be redefined by focusing on small, unobtrusive, fiscally responsible government. As a conservative I believe that I know what is best for my family and myself, and that it is not the government’s place to dictate my actions. I also believe that I know how to best spend my earned income, and that the government should not tax me to support failing social welfare programs.

On March 18, upon my invitation, pro-choice, lesbian, feminist radio host Tammy Bruce lectured at Wabash. Those first three adjectives were not easy ones for me to overlook. I am a nondenominational, Protestant Christian. I did not learn that “fundamentalist” was a bad word until I came to Wabash, but in a certain sense, I still consider myself one. I believe that the Bible is God’s word and that it is true. I believe that life is God’s precious gift, which begins in mother’s womb, and should not be taken from innocent, unborn children. I believe that men and women were created for each other, and that homosexuality is sinful. My beliefs, by the standards of many at Wabash, are fairly extreme. If God were to deliver bad political predictions to me each year, there would be precious little to separate me from Pat Robertson.

Russell Kirk is one of the most influential conservative philosophers of our modern time. In his article, The Essence of Conservatism, Kirk sets forth ten canons that outline the basic principles that compose classic conservatism. In today’s society the values of classic conservatism have been splintered and manipulated to serve the interest of groups such as the neoconservatives and the evangelical right. This has put the conservative movement in America in dire straights and for it to survive there must be a return back to the core values of conservatism.

But as Republicans now know, electing Obama was not the end of the world. Or America. (At least not yet anyways.) Sure, the economy may have tanked, Gitmo is closing, and Rahm Emanuel took control of the media, but at least we still have Keith Olbermann foaming at the mouth each night with Bush Derangement Syndrome, right? (Not even humor can change our current situation!)

Enter the state of the party: We lost the mandate. Once fancying itself as the exuberant voice of the ‘real’ America, the Republican Party has become the very enemy it sought to fight against: big government with high spending. But not only that, in the process we succeeded in becoming the party of stagnant, senior citizens.

Unlike the past, individuals tend to no longer take part in fellowship and camaraderie. Folks are literally bowling alone. Instead of spending time at the local Kiwanis, Lions, or Red Hat Ladies Clubs, twenty-first century Americans favor isolation and the comforts of home, either blogging or doing much less social activities. Certainly, involvement in these traditions fosters trust, moderation, and personal responsibility. These basic ideas are part of the strong foundation upon which our nation was built.

Within fraternity houses on campus there are the responsible individuals who smooth the operations and perform thankless tasks. Whether it is a treasurer paying the bills, or a freshmen vacuuming a hallway, a well-functioning fraternity relies on these individuals to complete, with little oversight, work that can be postponed or procrastinated. A fraternity teaches its Brothers responsibility through the jobs and positions they hold throughout their four years. Likewise, the immediate accountability that a fraternity offers builds up a Brother. A fraternity house, on some level, requires its members to trust one another to do their allotted tasks in order to promote the efficient running of the house.

During my first visit to Wabash College about a year ago, one thing that immediately struck me was the sheer number of student publications. I thought this was quite remarkable for a liberal arts college of Wabash’s size. In one way or another, over the years I had been affiliated with public and private universities as well as liberal arts colleges, and nowhere before had I seen the number and variety of publications that I saw at Wabash. The quality of writing in those publications varied, but overall it was quite good. Later on I was to find out that Wabash prided itself in the emphasis it puts on writing, but at the time this came as an interesting curiosity. Furthermore, a particularly pleasant surprise for me was that a substantial amount of writing in those publications was dedicated to conservative voices and ideas. Not nearly to the point that these would dominate the discussion, but certainly at the level that was more at par with the representation of such voices in the US population. This left an impression that there was an active, vibrant conservative movement on campus, which also was a stark contrast to most college campuses these days. At the time I did not know how to account for this fact, but over the past year I think I have been able to glean several factors that contribute to making such a movement possible. Oftentimes these factors have more to do with what Wabash doesn’t have, rather than what it does.

The United States has come to match Livy’s remark about ancient Rome, that she could not endure her vices or their remedies. We are teetering on the edge of disaster on several fronts. We should think seriously about the abyss that awaits us, identify the cause of our distress, and consider if our country can be saved