Common Good Conservatism at the Breaking Point

America is in crisis, and conservatives can save the day, argues Kevin D. Roberts. . .

. . . if they can stop “owning” other conservatives on Twitter for a little while.

Writing in The Public Discourse, the Heritage Foundation president sees the stars aligning for a fractured conservative movement.

But it must reclaim ideas of the “common good” from the left. And conservatives must boldly battle Big Tech and government elites for the “political, policy, cultural, social, and educational” future of the republic.

His prescriptions are bold—from total reform of education, to renewed federalism, to restoring the place of faith in civic life.

Can they happen? Roberts offers reasons for optimism. . . but also a sobering assessment of the now-or-never urgency conservatives must face today.

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CATEGORY: TRADITION (5 min)

Is Imitation the Truest Form of Creativity?

“In our current political culture, it seems that not only can everyone have an opinion, everyone does—and you are expected to listen to it,” writes Phillip Dolitsky in First Things.

Is this a good thing? Almost certainly not, he argues.

The surfeit of opining gives us “hot-take punditry” in politics . . . and it gives us students and scholars who are ignorantly dismissive of the past.

Educators used to know better. In the 19th century, Dolitsky writes, “imitation” of past masters was the path to creativity. “Originality” meant wrestling with the ideas of your predecessors.

We need to recover that spirit of creative imitation today:

“Students need to be told that while they need to think for themselves, they cannot truly think without first paying homage and deference to those giants who came before them.”

Do you agree that the contemporary obsession with “originality” is regressive? Read Dolitsky’s case for imitation and limitations right here.

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Because our student editors and writers are bravely bringing conservative ideas to their campuses, we’re highlighting their efforts here.

Woke Watch: Stanford Climate Science Polluted by "Environmental Justice" via the Stanford Review

An Interview With Dr. Tim Westley, Candidate for TX Land Commissioner via the Texas Horn

CATEGORY: POLITICS (21 min)

Did America Have a Founding?

Today, some of the biggest debates focus on whether the American founding was a good thing.

The New York Times’s 1619 Project isn’t the only challenge to the founding.

Some prominent critics on the right suggest that today’s political and cultural crises were inevitable outcomes of the founding.

But political scientist Jeff Polet has a different question for you . . .

What if America was never founded at all?

Wait . . . What?

Writing in Modern Age, Professor Polet shows that the question isn’t as bizarre as it may seem.

The whole metaphor of a “founding” is all wrong, he says. Instead, think of a tree, and the deep roots it lays.

To make his case, he draws on seminal thinkers like Russell Kirk and Orestes Brownson. (And if you don’t know Brownson, read on!)

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Thought of the Day:

“Not everyone who is enlightened by an angel knows that he is enlightened by him.”

—Thomas Aquinas

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