R: Conservatives Have No Party

Wednesday, September 7th, 2016 at 7:30 p.m. in the Berkeley Mendenhall Room

James Barry, Portrait of Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Statesman, Orator and Writer, ca. 1774, oil on canvas. 127 × 99 cm, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

In a dramatic and divisive election season, voters of the "Never Trump" and "Hill Not Jill" ilk may decide the election. Ought conservatives make up a similar voting bloc, demanding key concessions from Establishment candidates before endorsing them? Is there an establishment that conservatives can (or should) consistently support?

More broadly, ought the American political system exist as a two-party system? George Washington more than 200 years ago warned against the dangers of the party system, saying, "It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection. It opens the door to foreign influence and corruption, which finds a facilitated access to the government itself through the channels of party passions. Thus the policy and the will of one country are subjected to the policy and will of another." How can conservatives promote unity while remaining committed to their principles?