A Fine Tradition by Henry Irving

By Henry R Irving

My wife discovered a timely treasure recently at Rodney's bookstore in Central Square. It is a biography written in 1928 by Andre Maurois and titled “DISRAELI, A Picture of the Victorian Age.” Though its style may be a bit old fashioned, it’s an easy read, introducing a range of historic figures and presenting many key historic debates and decisions of the times. That’s where the book becomes timely, as a reminder of how things stay the same the more they change. The characters are different, of course, and the issues have evolved, perhaps, but Mr Disraeli’s challenge to define conservatism and adopt its principles is portrayed as intimately as the challenges faced by the entertaining collection of conservatives most days in our fair city.

For Disraeli, conservatism was a proud and romantic attitude that took into account what was authentic about England and its ‘vigorous, obstinate breed of small squires, that aristocracy at once so venerable and assimilative…’ That squares with what I’ve come to love about chairing the Cambridge GOP Committee, which I sometimes think of, in offhand moments, as herding cats. (If and when I survive it, I hope to have gained a more historical perspective.) In the meantime, the committee’s membership never stops debating and arguing. The moderates go at the hard core types and then the hard-core types hit back at the moderates. We couldn’t march in lock-step if we tried, and hammering out the issues is our contact sport.

Still, the human qualities are consistent with the past. We may not be “small squires,” but we are, for the most part, vigorous, obstinate, hard-working businesspeople of one kind or another. If there is any trace of aristocracy in the local GOP, it is far more assimilative than it is venerable. I’m not uncomfortable suggesting that we share with the likes of Mr Disraeli a respect for precedent, which he noted was often ridiculed by conceited and superficial minds even as it is so well grounded in human nature.

Maurois wrote that it seemed to Mr. Disraeli that a Conservative’s duty — and by a stretch of imagination a Cambridge Republican’s duty today — was to have the nerve to preserve the past to the extent it would continue to add good value and make living easier, to reject prejudice and outworn principles, and, above all, to guide the party boldly toward a portfolio of generous policies. It’s much like a Cambridge Republican’s duty to be a “small p” progressive who tries to move things forward, to be effective, to make progress, and to look out for those who suffer misfortune or injustice, as opposed to being a “large P” Progressive who is impatient with tradition and constitutions and who keeps trying new things without much regard for measuring success or the costs of change. Better to be a “small p” progressive and spend OPM like it is your own than to be a “large P” Progressive (“large P”) who sees other people’s money as money to spend on other people.

The future is coming back to the past in recent months in Cambridge as the city’s residents have learned about its capacity to spend other people’s future dollars. And it’s nice to know that the Cambridge GOP Committee’s members enthusiastically and almost unanimously decided to support a project that is bringing Cambridge’s financial situation to light. Talk about “small p” progressives at work!

When news breaks of an unfunded $602 million obligation in Other Post Employment benefits in Cambridge, the local breed of vigorous, obstinate small squires should get riled. When our fair city’s balancing of commercial and residential tax rates undermines its tax base, perhaps a return to thoughtful precedent is timely. When residents deal with an $11 million liability attached to an employment discrimination lawsuit, they might reconsider an attitude that does not take into account the authentic Cambridge.

Mr. Disraeli might not be a Republican if he were in Cambridge today. But I reckon he’d prescribe a return to basic conservative principles and disciplines.

Henry R Irving is the chairman of the Cambridge Republican City Committee and lives on Bigelow Street.

A fine tradition