Avik Roy and John Hood recently launched what they hope will be a movement, Freedom Conservatism. In consultation with others of like mind, they drafted a statement of principles. It’s available on their website, freedomconservatism.org. One can debate the principles and their formulations. Quibbles aside, the deeper problem is this: Taken as a whole, the statement is irrelevant.
We do indeed have a liberty deficit in America. Our culture of freedom is eroding. But we won’t restore freedom by talking about it in a loud voice. We can’t insist upon freedom, we can’t demand freedom and refuse to kowtow and submit, unless we have a solid place to stand. Our loyalties and loves stiffen our spines. In my experience, it’s not lost on young people that those who are willing to venture public resistance to woke tactics of intimidation are often religious. They can see that fixing one’s eyes on God’s Word and harkening to his authority nurtures freedom. There are powerful natural loves as well: of a mother for her child, a soldier for his comrades, a patriot for his country. These loves motivate self-sacrifice, which is freedom’s highest expression. Greater love—and greater freedom—hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.[...]
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