Edwards on Conservatives

Edwards shouldn’t be surprised that a worldwide meeting of conservatives attracts both the libertarians, who equate unbridled markets with personal freedom, and the fundamentalists, who want to stem the tide of consumer culture.

Today’s conservative movement is a hodge-podge of divergent ideas united in an effort to ignore a well-known truth that the spread of unbridled markets has always spawned fundamentalist reactions because it undermines the families and social structures that make freedom, markets and democracy possible. Not surprisingly, successful societies of free individuals have usually required effective government to steer between the libertarian and fundamentalist extremes.

Despite all their differences, the libertarians and the fundamentalists share a fantasy that by eliminating the power of governments they can create a society where they need not compromise with people with whom they disagree. These two groups deserve one another. While they fight among themselves, the rest of us should get on with the business of reforming the government and our public lives to meet the needs of the 21st century.

ROBERT LEMPERT

Pacific Palisades

* Edwards [a former congressman from Oklahoma] traveled all the way to Austria before encountering people who have seen the “dark side” of conservatism. Undaunted, he returns to the U.S. to exhort his fellows to keep that cheerier, American face on restraining the federal government and exalting the individual. I wonder what country he was visiting during the Oklahoma City bombing.

TONY BIRD

Northridge