Political Philosophy

“One might readily identify The Conservative Mind as seven books rather than as one. While the first four editions possess a righteous anger about them… the last three editions carry a more comfortable feel.

“Locke breaks from the way Christian thinkers had treated these topics for centuries. In the classical Christian tradition, religion is not merely inward belief. It is a lived, embodied reality: sacramental, hierarchical, liturgical, and communal. And while politics should protect rights and prevent harms, it also has a pedagogical function.” - L&L

“There were intoxicating promises of a grand new world devoid of antagonisms and social pathologies. We had a master plan to transform chaos into ease. As an embattled community, we sheltered ourselves under the mantle of the dream, and I was committed to becoming a faithful drop in the great wave of revolution” - IFWE

“Jordan B. Cooper, in his new book, Makers of the Modern Mind: A Guide to the Thinkers Who Formed the Modern Left…. traces the metastasizing of Marxism into an ideology that reduces pretty much everything—truth, reason, culture, language, science, all human interactions—to the oppressive imposition of power.” - Acton

“Elites continue to rule because movements are not spontaneous: like parties, they need organization and discipline. Organization largely explains why elites rule: minorities are organized, whereas majorities are not.” - Law & Liberty

“Asked if anything could constrain his use of power, Trump responded, ‘My own morality. My own mind. It’s the only thing that can stop me.’ For Trump, then, obedience to international law, and to one’s ‘own morality,’ are the only things that can inform decisions in matters of international relations, revealing a hole in his thinking, and likewise, a deficit in public discourse.” - Providence

“Having explained why I agree with some of the convictions that could be labeled ‘Christian Nationalism,’ and yet why I don’t embrace the term, let me lay out several pertinent questions. These questions can be read as implicit statements… but I also hope they will be read as genuine questions.” - Kevin DeYoung

“When the young and activist militants on the disaffected Right reduce Winston Churchill to the status of a dangerous forerunner of neoconservative foreign policy, or see in Ronald Reagan nothing but a sterile libertarianism—ignoring his courage and determination to defeat the scourge of communist totalitarianism, and his eloquent appeals to faith, community, and patriotic devotion to country—or facilely dismiss the pugnacious and brilliant William F. Buckley, Jr.

“At that time, the debate in England raged over whether the King was the law (Rex Lex), or if the law was king (Lex Rex). The debate was over which authority was higher—the king or the law. Was the written law bound to the word of the king, or was the king bound to the law?” - Christ Over All

“In reality, the Revolution was a disaster for both liberty and happiness. The France of the Enlightenment, which had sown the seeds of freedom, was brought to an untimely end. What emerged instead was a police state” - L&L