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Conservatives Launch a New Statement of Faith

2 years ago

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Almost five decades ago, at the Sharon, Connecticut estate of William F. Buckley, the founding principles of conservatism -- dubbed the Sharon Statement -- were crafted by some 90 young conservative intellectuals.

This coming Wednesday, February 17 -- on the eve of the Conservative Political Action Conference's annual gathering -- eighty established conservative leaders will sign a new document intended to renew those principles.

Written by M. Stanton Evans, and adopted on September 11, 1960, the Sharon Statement was launched during the inaugural meeting of Young Americans for Freedom. These callow idealists could only dream that they were codifying the philosophy behind a political movement that would emerge as a counterweight to liberalism.

But that dream came true, and can be evoked by a series of names, starting with Buckley's own and running through other conservative writers and intellectuals: Ayn Rand, Russell Kirk, Irving Kristol, L. Brent Bozell, Milton Friedman, and moving on to a roster of conservative political captains: Goldwater, Reagan, Thatcher, Gingrich, George W. Bush.

It started with a simple declaration of belief. Much as the Port Huron Statement later provided a roadmap for the New Left, the Sharon Statement gave young conservatives a written statement of principles -- including individual liberty, limited government, the free-market economy and a strong national defense – to stand behind.

The statement read, in part:

WE, as young conservatives believe:

THAT foremost among the transcendent values is the individual's use of his God-given free will, whence derives his right to be free from the restrictions of arbitrary force;

THAT liberty is indivisible, and that political freedom cannot long exist without economic freedom;

THAT the purpose of government is to protect those freedoms through the preservation of internal order, the provision of national defense, and the administration of justice;

THAT when government ventures beyond these rightful functions, it accumulates power, which tends to diminish order and liberty...

Fifty years later, the Conservative Action Project (CAP), a loosely formed network of conservative leaders -- which seems to be affiliated with the secretive conservative Council for National Policy (CNP) -- is coordinating the new statement signing. The modern document will be called "The Mount Vernon Statement".

The signing will occur at Collingwood Library and Museum -- which was originally part of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate. There will be no politicians included in this first round of signing, but conservative leader (and CAP member) L. Brent Bozell III hopes to take it around the country, and to have many more people sign it online. "The Sharon Statement was great patriots drinking bourbon around my grandfather's house, but today, we have the Internet," he said.

Signers will include such notable conservatives as the following:

- Edwin Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation.

- Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council.

- Becky Norton Dunlop, president of the Council for National Policy.

- Alfred Regnery, publisher of the American Spectator.

- David Keene, president of the American Conservative Union.

- Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America.

- David McIntosh, co-founder of the Federalist Society.

- Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.

- Kenneth Blackwell, former Ohio Secretary of State.

While some may see this as a publicity stunt, I believe it's important for the conservative movement to do some soul searching -- and fifty years seems to be a good amount of time for a recommitment to first principles. To be sure, the movement has changed -- and, to my way of thinking, not all for the better -- since the signing of the Sharon Statement. The young intellectuals at Sharon, for instance, pledged fealty to rugged individualism. In recent times, many prominent conservative intellectuals, especially ex-pats from the recent Bush administration, have pushed a squishier concept of "national greatness," which has proven -- as the phrase suggests -- to be a call for larger government.

Other recent developments are more promising. Just as Buckley banished the John Birchers from the conservative movement, just this week, Erick Erickson -- editor of the popular conservative blog, RedState, banned "Birthers" (those who don't believe President Obama was born in America) and Truthers (those who believe 9-11 was "an inside job").

According to Brent Bozell, whose uncle was William F. Buckley, and whose father ghostwrote Barry Goldwater's classic manifesto Conscience of a Conservative, a new statement of beliefs is needed because, "there's a sense of the need to get back to first principles."

Filed Under: Conservatives

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