Responsible Conservatism

“Conservatism needs to recover its ability to speak to our deep perennial need for solidarity. The economic freedom that encourages individuals to be productive and independent certainly needs to be promoted. We need more robust economic growth, and there is an inherent dignity in earning a living and providing for oneself and one’s family, which why…we value earned success much more highly than benefits that are given to us. It’s a false philanthropy that constructs programs and policies that seduce people into habits of dependency that diminish the opportunities and incentives for earned success.

“All that needs to be said, and said frequently. The problem is that today’s Republican party says little more. Economic vulnerability and moral disorientation are the defining political and social challenges of our time, and economic freedom, however important for a vibrant economy and healthy society does not address these problems.” (It does address the desirability of constructive entrepreneurism.)

“Moreover, middle-class culture is falling apart because of the equally stunning triumph of lifestyle freedom, and this puts ordinary people at a disadvantage as well. Progressive elites who often preach lifestyle freedom have regrouped. They raise their children in segregated communities and schools, guiding them toward lives as well-disciplined competitors in the new society,” which is based on outstanding merit in various fields….These upper class dictators of relativism insulate themselves from social and moral excesses. “Make healthy choices,” they tell their children. “Meanwhile, the rest of America slides toward moral disorientation. In a world of tattoos and piercings, serial cohabitation and out-of-wedlock children, all saturated by a crude culture, it’s not clear anymore what makes someone and honorable, respectable, adult.”

(The preceding quotations were taken from First Things, February 2013, pages 3 and 4.)

To my way of thinking, the answer to these ubiquitous problems is that we, Americans, absolutely must find ways to stabilize the family in all its aspects. We also must find ways to communicate the principles of basic Christianity to our people. Until we do these things, we are accomplished, we are doomed to further deterioration in our society.