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Crisis Magazine
Can Virtue Heal
the American Right?
Rachel Lu
September 24, 2015
We’ve come to that agonizing point in our political process when each
political party must choose its champion. Republicans are trying to
decide in whose hands to place their party’s fate. The inexperienced
but well-spoken Marco Rubio? Rand Paul, a man of intelligence and
conviction who nonetheless selected drone strikes as the issue most
worthy of a filibuster? Or should we throw everything to the wind and
pick a buffoon with a giant wallet for his soap box?
The stakes are high. America sits in the shadow of a militant secular
culture that seems determined to subdue everything in its path. Liberal
Democrats have lashed themselves firmly to the mast of that dominant
culture, and by doing so have won a political edge. Our mainstream
cultural institutions eagerly promote their values and often their
candidates as well. Meanwhile, on the conservative side, we obsess
about messaging, demographics, and electoral ground games, and while
those do merit attention, the hard decisions will ultimately revolve
around one central problem. Conservatism has become countercultural,
and it’s hard to win elections from a countercultural platform.
At the heart of this debate lies a brutally simple dilemma: we can
either move ourselves in the direction of the mainstream culture, or we
can continue trying to persuade the culture to move back toward us.
As usual, the right choice is also the harder one. Our liberty will
never really be safe among a citizenry that disregards virtue. If
conservatism throws away its other commitments in order to compete for
progressive hearts, it may as well just not exist. However far our
compatriots stray from natural law, we must continue to call them back
to prudent ways of living, reminding them of the manifold benefits of
discipline, self-sacrifice, and virtue. Unfortunately, many of our
allies have grown apathetic or even hostile to this fundamental work.
Small Statism and the Lesson of the Tea Party
Within modern conservatism, there is presently a great deal of support
for what we might call “small-state minimalism.” Minimalists get
enthused about plans to “small up and simple down,” not just our
government but also our conservative message and philosophy. Instead of
conserving traditional ideals and values, they argue, we should focus
our political efforts on preaching small-state principles. Lower taxes,
reduce regulations, and try to dismantle the administrative state as
much as possible. Throw a bone to the religious by promising to defend
freedom of religion, but more generally, try to diminish the
government’s intrusion into the lives of ordinary people. Silence our
preaching about abortion, marriage, and especially sex...
Read the rest of the article at Crisis Magazine
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