Tag: founding principles

What Bill Buckley Would Say to Conservatives Today

I stressed that Buckley delineated the critical difference between
the conservative movement and the Republican Party, which are two
separate institutions. The latter is a political party interested in
winning races and gaining power. Conservatism is an intellectual
movement dedicated to ideas that often have political application. The
fortunes of the conservative moment are not automatically tied to the
inevitable ups and downs of the GOP.

I concluded by pointing out that in his leadership of the
conservative movement, Buckley sided with T.S. Eliot, who wrote that
there are no lost causes because there are no gained causes. Indeed,
Buckley welcomed the never-ending struggle to preserve and protect the
priceless idea of ordered liberty.

That cause wasn’t lost in Buckley’s day, and it still isn’t lost today.

“idea of ordered liberty” Ordered by who? to what end?

 a nation ruled by laws not men can still be ruled by the men who write them and destroyed be those who enforce them

What Bill Buckley Would Say to Conservatives Today

The 3 Big Differences Between Conservatives and Progressives

Conservatives ask: “What can I do for myself, my family, my community, and my fellow citizens?”

Progressives ask: “What is unfair?” “What am I owed?” “What has offended me today?” “What must my country do for me?”

The 3 Big Differences Between Conservatives and Progressives

6 Things Roger Scruton Has to Say About Conservatives and Freedom

cultml:

Scruton, referencing  Burke and the
French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville, said that meaning in
life comes from involvement in associations. He made the distinction
between civil society, which he defined as “a system of associations,”
with the state, “a system of offices.”

In answering the question of the role
of government in supporting civil society, Scruton said this is “open
to capture from the left,” who use the pretext of government support to
impose government programs on communities that would not have
spontaneously formed such programs otherwise.

Scruton also addressed the perceived
decline of civil society in American life, referencing the work of
American political scientist Robert Putnam in his 1995 book “Bowling Alone.”

Americans seek “shortcuts to
gratification taken in solitude and not in communion with others,”
Scruton said, and this is “one of the great blows” to American culture.

6 Things Roger Scruton Has to Say About Conservatives and Freedom

6 Things Roger Scruton Has to Say About Conservatives and Freedom

Scruton, referencing  Burke and the
French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville, said that meaning in
life comes from involvement in associations. He made the distinction
between civil society, which he defined as “a system of associations,”
with the state, “a system of offices.”

In answering the question of the role
of government in supporting civil society, Scruton said this is “open
to capture from the left,” who use the pretext of government support to
impose government programs on communities that would not have
spontaneously formed such programs otherwise.

Scruton also addressed the perceived
decline of civil society in American life, referencing the work of
American political scientist Robert Putnam in his 1995 book “Bowling Alone.”

Americans seek “shortcuts to
gratification taken in solitude and not in communion with others,”
Scruton said, and this is “one of the great blows” to American culture.

6 Things Roger Scruton Has to Say About Conservatives and Freedom