the author of multiple books including his most recent the reactionary mind conservatism from edmund burke to sarah pail. dr corey robin thanks for joining us from our new york city studios tonight thanks for having me i appreciate it what is what is conservatism in your opinion how would you define that as both as a as an abstraction as a word and also as a movement. it's a movement of reaction against democratic movements from these are movements like abolitionist movement the french revolution the labor movement the women's movement and what conservatism is is a politics of reaction against these movements that tries to come up with a defense of hierarchy. that in the face of those movements what william f. buckley rather famously said conservatives stand athwart the arc of history with their hand out shouting stop it sounds to me like you're saying it's quite that benevolent. yeah i mean it's conservatism and some conservatives like to say that they have some kind of orientation towards history but but what they really have an orientation to is the question of democracy and hierarchy t

appealed to the scottish people to vote against independence, and he is offering more power to edmund burke. scotland's nationalist government already controls some of is spending. -- he is offering more power to edinburgh. >> the union is to david cameron's case, and he fortified himself with a visit to a porridge factory. then he giggled the possibility of devolving more power to the scottish parliament is an -- he dangled the possibility of devolving more power to the scottish parliament if they rejected independence. >> we have to settle that issue first. is there more we can do to improve the settlement? are there other powers? how can we make the united kingdom work better? >> the prime minister and his party's scottish leaders know that opinion polls consistently suggest more dilution is more popular in scotland and independence and suggest the solution is more popular in scotland than independence. >> we have been attached to england for a long time, and i do not see a need to be independent. >> in edinburgh, anti-capitalist protested against the prime minister's visit. david camero

collectively called the new conservatives, and there were birkie ends, followers of the philosophy of edmund burke, the great 18th-century statesman who argued that we should honor traditions and institutions and we should honor them because they have developed for particular evolutionary reasons, almost an hours to view of how societies developed. we have institutions. we have traditions. very important to our society, and have come to be aware they are because then come to work. we don't always understand exactly what they do and how they do it and other work, but wisdom is the product of experience, and wisdom has been impressed into these institutions. now, frequently misunderstood as someone who clung to the status quo. not so. burke was a reformer and argued that paradoxically preservation required change i could go on and talk a lot more brienz our communities. they disagree about liberty. as i have already alluded to, libertarians believe that liberty is about being free from coercion. birkie is believe that, but they also believe that meaningful liberty also requires certain number charit

[applause] it was the irish philosopher edmund burke who once wrote that the only thing necessary forph is for good men and women to do nothing. i will not die doing nothing. and i do not believe you will die doing nothing to give our children and our grandchildren the kind of nation that we were able to enjoy. because the preamble to the constitution says "we, the people, of the united states, in order to form and more perfect union." the union is in trouble and it is up to you and me to get it back on track. we hold these truths to be self- evident. we still hold these truths to be self-evident. and we, the people, are still in charge of this nation! let's take our country back. [applause] ♪ [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> c-span 2, a brookings institution forum on a new strategic arms reduction treaty. in a few moments, today's headlines and your calls live on "washington journal." our coverage of the annual conservative political action conference continues today. rex santorum is scheduled at 10:25

his speech and give him credit for saying it, he said look, when i was a kid i didn't know who edmund burkee austrian economist. romney thought they were playing for the detroit tigers. that didn't go over well, either. he's selling to a crowd that doesn't believe in him, whereas, newt gingrich and especially rick santorum, the body language, the spirit in the room was different. it was more a conversation among friends than was the mitt romney speech, even though they worked on it for days and days. >> how impressive is this and how politically smart is that picture that rick santorum has his family up on stage with him? this crowd is all about social values and social issues, they have been talking about them all week long. was this a good move and is this going to give santorum the momentum, the boost he needs to go to michigan and arizona on february 28th? >> well, he understands the symbolism and mood music of cpac. cpac, which wasn't always so focused on social issues, the way it is right now. this was perfect symbolism for the crowd. having the wife and the kids up there, throughout

edmund burke, do you represent your district or do what you want to do?here are many issues like that that are put in and there is a lot of common sense in the book from the various members of the congress. some are funny and there are democrats that gene mccarthy said with of the bipartisanship and the league of women voters that's where accidents happen and they are not just rules. people explain in a paragraph or two or three how they got that rule and why it was important in their life and just like jerry ford he only wrote from the heart about it and what he said at the end of that is, you know, you've got to remember ' when you raise your hand in the floor of the house you don't take an oath for the republican party come you don't take an oath to the democratic party to take an oath to the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic and we have to give back to that and get back to civility to the it's a good book. he will have a better feel of why congress reacts in the way that it does and the different questions that you come up with as

this according to marx, all that is solid melts into air, if you can do it in conservatives, like edmund burkecording to the church, which was the first great counterweight to the power of money, and you can do it as a social democrat, a la carl lani, who is more persuasive than marx or burke when talking about the dangers of the market and market values overwhelming other values. even american exceptionalism is the that there are differences, that there are chairs to differences among nations, among societies that reflect unique histories. the universalist myths of the market -- as maggie thatcher said, "there is no alternative." there is one clear, most efficient, best way, only way of doing things. it becomes very dogmatic. so you have the dogmatism of free-market economics in a kind of his marriage with the political power of wealth. there becomes only one possible way of doing things and it drives out and crowds out the cherished myths, a cherished unique national experiences, other moral claims. the laws a doctrine in alon called efficient breach. sometimes it is economically efficient t

speaker, since i have been a member in this house for the last 12 months, it was edmund burke, he was a colleague of ours on the other side of the pond in the house of commons, and a huge supporter of the american revolution, he said this. no one made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. no one made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little. i confess, mr. speaker, i was a little naive when i showed up here as a freshman last january. i thought i was going to be able to fix it. thought my colleagues and i, you and i, our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and i, working to the, i thought we were going to be able to fix it. it's taken a little longer than i thought. those big bites at the apple have not been as successful as i hoped. have we passed here? yes. am i proud of them? yes. has the senate moved on them and sent them to the president? no. so we changed gears. bringing little ideas to the floor. those little ideas that as my colleague from new jersey mentioned are serious reform proposals. i'll say