Philip Vincent Munoz argues that social conservatives should be committed to the small-l liberal democratic order undergirding the American experiment: Why Social Conservatives Should Be Patriotic Americans: A Critique of Patrick Deneen. As Munoz notes, the natural rights approach to politics that typifies classical liberalism is sufficiently compatible with social conservatism to be worth reclaiming. Rather than seeking to build an entirely new political order or political philosophy, Munoz advocates for conservatives to embrace the liberal tradition that stands at the root of America's order:
Rather than trying to create something new, I would direct us to the more modest task of recovering something we have unfortunately lost. America’s true liberal heritage is not to be found in Hobbes or Rawls, but rather in the natural rights philosophy of our founding fathers and in the natural rights statesmanship of Abraham Lincoln.
In our natural rights tradition, we can find a commitment to truth and a profound respect for nature and the natural order created by God. I also believe it offers our best hope for a more sustainable liberalism.Read it all.
2 comments:
You keep sending me to links that actually make me think and that takes a bunch of time. The Russell Kirk link was wonderful.
Glad you are enjoying the posts I'm linking to! I actually met Munoz about 9 years ago at a conference in Arizona. Nice guy, although we didn't speak much to each other (I was in a lawyer group and he was in a political science professor group). I'm trying to do my best to help conservatives do some deeper thinking about what it means to be conservative -- as we work to regroup and reflect after the defeat this year.
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