Acclaimed CMC professor Harry V. Jaffa’s political philosophy once reshaped conservatism. What does it teach us now?
Harry Jaffa at Honnold-Mudd Library (credit: Claremont McKenna College)
Over the course of twenty-five years, Harry V. Jaffa worked in a sunlit office at Claremont McKenna College. But his ideas would reach beyond the halls of the university to define the modern political landscape.
Born in 1918 in New York City to two Jewish immigrants, Jaffa’s academic career took shape when he became one of political philosopher Leo Strauss’s first doctoral students. Academically, Jaffa’s role as a Straussian apostle contributed to reshaping conservative political philosophy.
Following Strauss, Jaffa applied classical philosophical thought to modern political questions, specifically the American founding and Abraham Lincoln’s political thought. He hailed the sixteenth president as one of the greatest protectors of the moral truths the American founders championed. Jaffa’s scholarship focused on the Lincoln-Douglas debates. His seminal work, Crisis of the House Divided, explored the fundamental tension between Lincoln’s belief in equality grounded in natural right and Douglas’ moral relativism. For Jaffa, Lincoln’s exemplary leadership demonstrates how America’s founding principles serve as enduring standards for political action. To Jaffa, the eventual triumph of Lincoln’s philosophy showed that the moral truths outlined in the Declaration of Independence must guide the nation’s governance moving forward. Preserving the nation’s core truths—and working to fulfill the promise they outline—demands leaders who both exhibit moral authority and execute practical governance.
The impact of Jaffa’s work extended into the realm of public politics when he took on a role in Barry Goldwater’s 1964 presidential campaign. When Goldwater accepted the Republican Party’s nomination, he stated, “Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue." The speech sparked controversy, and the quote, which Jaffa penned, became a rallying cry for an emerging conservative faction. While Lyndon B. Johnson would end Goldwater’s presidential bid, the campaign laid the ideological groundwork for the conservative resurgence led by Ronald Reagan over the following two decades.
Jaffa’s academic and political legacy is preserved through the Claremont Institute, which his own students founded to advance the principles he taught. Initially renowned for defending the modern applicability of American Founding principles, the Institute has since embraced reactionary populism and election denialism. This development raises questions regarding the conflict between moral principle and pragmatism, a hallmark of Jaffa’s thought.
Jaffa’e elevation of Lincoln reveals his penchant for principled leaders who govern with an eye to the timeless truths of the founding. But the populist approach supports strategies that stray from the measured, principled approach Jaffa supported. Popular conservative politics has strayed from Jaffa’s vision of principled governance anchored to America’s founding truths, instead embracing reactionary and populist rhetoric. The application of America’s founding principles to contemporary governance using Jaffa’s philosophical approach must overcome the barriers imposed by flawed actors within a turbulent political arena.
That said, many conservatives attempt to justify the electoral and cultural battles that define recent American politics by appealing to one of Jaffa’s core beliefs: we may justify extreme action in pursuit of justice. The contemporary conservative movement views drastic action in domestic and foreign politics as complementary with America's fundamental principles in the effort to realize the founding promise. If “moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue,” then what does the pursuit of justice demand and when has America abandoned its moral truths?
Jaffa’s legacy illustrates a critical debate within contemporary conservatism regarding the proper way to apply America’s founding values to public governance. This dilemma is not new and is one Jaffa once attempted to navigate through lending his services to one of conservatism’s most important modern campaigns. With a new conservative government on the horizon, the Right must soon decide whether to embrace principled leadership or reactionary demagoguery.
Jaffa provides a framework for just governance through strict adherence to our nation’s founding principles. Public servants must treat these founding principles as enduring guidelines, not pliable frameworks used to win partisan political battles or serve reactionary aims. In an increasingly polarized age, Jaffa’s philosophy forces us to reckon with what action we accept as a just defense of fundamental liberties.