George F. Will’s The Conservative Sensibility is really about the American conservative sensibility, as those of Europe and America differ. Europe’s is more concerned with “conserving social hierarchies and established churches,” while American conservatism seeks “to conserve or establish institutions and practices conducive to a social dynamism that dissolves impediments to social mobility and fluidity.”
Conservatism seeks to limit the size and reach of the state to allow for individual autonomy. One might say that as the state contracts, humans flourish. Will notes that we are indeed exceptional, as no other country has a creedal identity based on a set of ideas. If American conservatism seeks to conserve, what does it precisely seek to conserve? According to Will: “[w]e seek to conserve the American Founding.”
He notes that progressivism started over a century ago with Woodrow Wilson, that its concepts
Get access to this article, plus the entire archive, by subscribing.