As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Conservatism, simply, is the philosophy that in every sphere of life there are transcendent and foundational principles of order to which society must conform in order to both survive and flourish.
“Is this the sort of thing with which First Things, that highbrow ecumenical journal of religion in public life, wants its brand to be associated? Would the journal’s late founder, Father Neuhaus, be proud?” - Madeline Fry
“The contention at the heart of Ahmarism is that the government ought to impose a putatively Catholic conception of the common good unchecked by notions of individual liberty and so-called ‘proceduralism’ (which the rest of the planet calls “the rule of law”).” - The Imperialistic Sohrab Ahmari
“The catalyst is a sprawling coalition of self-described nationalists, Catholic integralists, protectionists, economic planners, and others who are increasingly rallying around something called “post-liberal” conservativism. By “liberal,” they don’t mean contemporary progressivism as represented by the Democratic party.
“The liberal person is an autonomous self whose ultimate goal is liberation from every idea and restraint except for the idea that restraint is unacceptable. Mitchell writes that the first stage of liberalism still relied on the Christian, traditional society in which it lived.
“He may not have lost by much—but with a tenfold increase in write-ins and a drop-off of 800,000 voters, it appears that Moore was too much for principled conservatives in Alabama.” - American Conservative
“Whatever Yiannopoulos’s politics, they are not conservative in any meaningful sense. Indeed, Yiannopoulos has said so himself.”
“The ‘impressive’ ‘independent candidate’ that #NeverTrump leader and Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol touted as having a “real chance” to win the presidency has been identified as National Review writer and Iraq War veteran David French, who is now believed to be planning for a presidential run.”
By Dr. Caleb Verbois, The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College (Grove City, PA). Used by permission.
With Ted Cruz having dropped out of the 2016 presidential race, there will be a string of eulogies seeking to autopsy his campaign. At least some of those critiques may hit the mark. In particular, Cruz’s campaign strategy went awry in three ways.
First, Cruz consciously copied Obama’s micro-targeted campaign of voters. He has been repeatedly praised for a campaign that focused on tiny groups of voters in states like Iowa to learn exactly how to win their vote. But while that works in Iowa where there is time to prepare, it does not work once the primary calendar heats up. This focus on targeting winnable voters also led Cruz to worry too much about focusing on states he thought he could win. He had success, in the sense that he won most of the states he heavily focused on, but by “giving up” in other states he let Trump get too far ahead. The most recent example—giving up on the northeast state primaries to focus on Indiana probably doomed his campaign. Cruz was ahead in Indiana but after Trump’s victories in the northeast the polls in Indiana changed drastically.
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