"Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan tweeted, 'The Republican Party is no longer the ‘wine and cheese’ party. It’s the beer and blue jeans party.' .... As it stands right now, however, the party is much more about grievance politics and retribution" - Dispatch
"Eric Voegelin’s warnings about the dangers of gnostic politics apply to the right as well as the left. Christians must make a clear and unequivocal distinction between the historic Christian faith and the misleading political religion that is more pervasive on the right than anyone seemed to realize." - Public Discourse
"With a Biden administration and a Democrat–controlled Congress, conservatives will need to do plenty of yelling 'stop!' in the coming months....However, economic support for families is one area where social conservatives can and should find common ground with Democrats." - Public Discourse
Even at our best, we humans often botch the job of identifying what’s true and right. The important thing is to recognize what went wrong, learn the lessons, and aim to do better.
If I could gather every American who self-identifies as conservative and deliver one message to them right now, that would probably be the bottom line: Face the facts of January 6 and start identifying how to do better and be better.
There’s much we still don’t know about what went wrong leading up to, and on, January 6, 2021. But many points are already known. Here’s a baker’s dozen.
"For those transgressions I am branded a leftist (or, as I recently noted, 'a flaming Communist'). ...The irony, of course, is that during this same season, I’ve continued to write and speak about the same biblically-based values that I have embraced for decades." - Michael Brown
"Instead of trying to persuade voters of the wisdom of particular policies, both Democrats and Republicans sought to mobilize the voters who already thought they way they did. . . . But if conservatives expect to fully implement their beliefs, they will need to win the hearts and minds of most Americans." - Veith
"October 19 [was] the birthday of Russell Kirk (1918-1994), whose book The Conservative Mind gave shape and direction to a rebounding transatlantic political and philosophical tradition. Kirk rooted conservatism, not in a political platform, but in a deep-seated respect for tradition, faith, order, morality, and precedent." - Acton
"Preoccupied as they were with political victories and strategies, movement conservatives were not very attentive to how the deeper beliefs and sentiments of people were evolving in the United States. Yet, political power is circumscribed by the culture of voters and what it will make them accept or reject." - W. Examiner
