"Conservatarians" Welcome Both Cowboys, Community

[Valin]

Real Clear Politics:

Peter Berkowitz

March 8, 2015

 

As the response to the parade of possible 2016 presidential candidates at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) attested, conservatives continue to admire rugged individuals: entrepreneurs, test pilots, and cowboys. They also cherish tight-knit communities: neighborhoods, voluntary organizations, and religious congregations.

 

To some critics this looks like conservative incoherence. Aren’t tight-knit communities the antithesis of rugged individuals? To others—better versed in the basics of character formation in a free society and in what Tocqueville called “the art of association”—the conservative celebration of the individual and community appears quite sensible: it takes strong individuals to build flourishing communities and flourishing communities to nourish strong individuals.

 

This leads to a more fundamental difficulty. How do conservatives, whose very designation proclaims their inclination to preserve that which is time-honored, embrace free societies? After all, freedom encourages individuals to depart from established beliefs and practices and authorizes them to make their own way in the world. Isn’t tradition one thing and liberty quite another?

 

In most times and places, liberty and tradition have been at loggerheads. But America’s great experiment in constitutional self-government forged an alliance between them. The American founders were Englishman and Puritans, or Deist descendants of Puritans. Both their political and religious heritage taught them the sanctity of the individual and the imperative of limited government.

 

Limiting government to protect individual freedom is the precious inheritance of the American constitutional tradition. Conserving that legacy is American conservatism’s unifying task.

 

(Snip)

[Valin]

Prepare Yourself For A Shock. I'm posting a vid by Newt! I know this hardly ever happens!

 

Uploaded on Feb 7, 2012

In the third seminar of the Conservative Intellectual Tradition in America, Speaker Gingrich talks to Mallory Factor's class about American History.

 

Do Yourself a Favor...listen