In North Carolina, the political label “conservative” is more popular than the terms “liberal” or “progressive.” In the most recent John Locke Foundation poll, for example, 46% of likely voters described themselves as conservatives, with 25% picking the liberal label and the rest either “moderate” or nothing at all. If we broaden out to include...
National conservatives understand better than most that many in our modern civilization feel uprooted and adrift. Their attempt to address the malaise of modernity gives them broader political support than is warranted. In the end, they do not apprehend the roots of the modern political crisis, and their suggested solutions would undoubtedly deepen the social...
I attended the third National Conservativism conference in Miami and was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. I went skeptical: “nationalism” left a bad taste in my mouth, and I was sure I would find rabid Donald Trump supporters, QAnon types, or people who despised those from other countries. None of my preconceptions were true....
One of the consequences of writing a syndicated column on politics and public policy for more than three decades is that I am constantly told what I think and why I think it. You may find this consequence perplexing. Isn’t my job here to tell readers what I think and why I think it? Sure....
Overturning Roe v. Wade is the Republican party’s greatest achievement in generations. Abortion, the intentional killing of an innocent and unborn human being, is no longer recognized as a constitutional right. It took 49 years, and Chief Justice John Roberts made every effort to salvage Roe, but the five remaining conservative justices did not waiver. Conservatives can be prone...
The word “spring” is often tacked on to political moments when a repressive status quo crumbles and a new era of hope emerges. The “Springtime of Nations” in 1848 was one of the largest political shifts in history, as European nations rebelled against monarchy and other traditional institutions, which they replaced with flatter, more-democratic structures....
For some, our strongest impulse is for government, an inherently coercive institution, to butt out of our private affairs and decisions. For others, the strongest impulse is to butt in.
As someone who tends to fall on the libertarian end of the political spectrum, I used to struggle with understanding the term “conservative” as a political category. I have noticed the term expresses a broad political ideology. This is generally understood to those that adhere to the principle of conservatism but not something readily available...
The only organ to which secular progressive political activists make little appeal these days—one could consider it America’s only understimulated organ—is the cerebrum. The brain. But when progressives do appeal to voters’ rationality, they wisely do so more primarily through story than through argument. Yet, unfortunately, the progressive story is a “story” not only in...
Conservatives are cat people. They are picky. They are fastidious. And they are impossible to herd.
Daren Bakst, James Leutze and Douglas Radar on offshore drilling and N.C.'s energy policy; Kay Hagan and Joe Coletti on health insurance reform; David Frum on future of conservatism; George Leef on college degrees and U.S. economic strength.
