Ongoing Debate Over the Word ‘Conservative’ | Eastern North Carolina Now

Jay Nordlinger of National Review Online ponders the meaning of an important term.

ENCNow
Publisher's Note: This post appears here courtesy of the John Locke Foundation. The author of this post is Mitch Kokai.

    Jay Nordlinger of National Review Online ponders the meaning of an important term.

  • Twenty-five years ago, I met Scott Morris, when we both worked at The Weekly Standard. He asked, "What kind of conservative are you? What is the basis of your conservatism?" I attempted a couple of answers, which did not satisfy him. Scott was an intellectual, who had studied philosophy, including over in Oxford.
  • Finally, I said to him, "Look, Scott, I'm a simple fellow: I just hate the Reds. Hate, hate, hate the Reds." He laughed and laughed, and let me off the hook, for a while.
  • I had made a serious point, however. George F. Will says that the first thing a conservative is, is anti-Left.
  • His friend William F. Buckley Jr. traveled the country for more than 50 years, giving talks. Most of these talks had Q&A periods. The most frequent question he got was, "What is a conservative? Can you define 'conservatism'?" WFB always had trouble with this, believe it or not. He often said that conservatism was more of a mindset, or disposition, than a doctrine or program.
  • George Will has titled his most recent book "The Conservative Sensibility." He also asks a basic, mandatory question: "What are conservatives trying to conserve?" His answer, for American conservatives, is: our Founding. ...
  • ... First come rights — our natural rights — and then comes government. It is the job of government to secure our rights.
  • George Will is not everyone's cup of tea, of course, because no one is. (Neither is the Founding.) I know people on the right who insist that Will is not a conservative at all. I know others who think that Will is the living, breathing embodiment of conservatism. "Your mileage may vary," as I see on social media.
  • Conservatism has long been a house of many mansions, and maybe too many.

Go Back


Leave a Guest Comment

Your Name or Alias
Your Email Address ( your email address will not be published)
Enter Your Comment ( no code or urls allowed, text only please )




Panning the Election ‘Expert’ Predictions John Locke Foundation Guest Editorial, Editorials, Op-Ed & Politics Did You Know? for Some Post-Graduate Plans, Employer Tuition Reimbursements Is the Way


HbAD0

Latest Op-Ed & Politics

The existing School Board should vote to put this project on hold until new Board is seated
At least one person was shot and killed during an assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on Saturday at a political rally in Pennsylvania in which the suspected gunman was also “neutralized,” according to the U.S. Secret Service.
As everyone now knows, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling to grant presidents immunity for "official acts" has given Donald Trump unlimited power to do literally anything he wants with zero consequences whatsoever.
President Joe Biden formally rejected on Monday a bill in Congress that would require individuals to show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in elections for federal office.
Watch and be sensitive to the events which will possibly unfold in the coming days.

HbAD1

illegal alien "asylum seeker" migrants are a crime wave on both sides of the Atlantic
majority of board member are rubberstamps for liberal superintendant
like the old Soviet Union, Biden put DEI political officers in the military
ssick perverts running Deere sponsored homosexual event for 3 year olds

HbAD2

appoints new pro-cnesorship White House official
Those with access to President Joe Biden behind closed doors say that his condition is deteriorating at an accelerated rate

HbAD3

 
Back to Top