And the Welcome back to Conversations. I'm Bill Crystal and we're pleased to have back

Harvey Mansfield from Harvard University. Harvey, welcome.

Thanks.

Good to see you again.

Good to have you again.

Let's talk about conservatism.

I think you're notoriously a conservative at Harvard,

and I don't think you normally shy away from the term too much so but what about what

is it this is a liberal regime you've written about that a lot liberalism is the

American doctrine somehow what does it mean to be a conservative in contemporary America?

It's not easy. It's a difficult position in America. You start off on your heels, so to speak, in a defensive posture.

In the first place, the general atmosphere is one of progress going forward and conservative doesn't seem to mean going forward.

Everything else is going forward.

We believe in innovation, new products, new this, new that, we have a growing

economy, growth, and so on, and everything that's modern and new seems to be better than

everything that's not modern and old, so conservatism starts off with a disadvantage and it's political as well.

The liberals are for progress and America's always been for progress.

And progress according to them is in accord with history.

If you're for progress, then you're on the right side of history. If not, you're on the right side of history, if not you're on the wrong side, and that's a bad place to be.

Strangely enough, that makes liberals into something like conservatives because they think that they have the support of history.

So in a way, therefore the status quo, a moving status quo, which they think is going

inevitably forward. And that's their belief in progress.

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