Erik Prince Please forgive the brevity of this “With Both Barrels.” It’s the weekend. I wasn’t planning on posting, but Dedra is still drinking coffee, the kids are cleaning (whoo-hoo!), and it’s a grey, rainy day outside. Not good weather for the last Saturday of the summer. But, hey, enough about the Birzer [...]
Ralph Nader This essay was in the August 18, 2010 issue of the Wall Street Journal. Is Mr. Nader correct in considering Russell Kirk, and other like minded conservatives, allies on this issue? Even if we may agree with Mr. Nader on the problem, would we agree on the solution? Comments are welcome. [...]
Winston Elliott III Yesterday, on the third floor of a west Houston office building, I had the opportunity—well the blessing, really—of being with some truly wonderful persons, discussing one of my favorite books, Russell Kirk’s Prospects for Conservatives. The roll call of participants: Father Donald Silvio Nesti, John Hittinger, John Rocha, Clint Brand, Bob [...]
Our co-editor of the The Imaginative Conservative, Brad Birzer, has written an excellent new biography entitled American Cicero: The life of Charles Carroll. From the book jacket: Before his death in 1832, Charles Carroll of Carrollton—the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence—was widely regarded as one of the most important Founders. Drawing on [...]
I find myself in a difficult position in replying to Brad Birzer’s essay “Westward, The Loss of the Republic.” First, I have great respect for my very good friend Dr. Birzer and agree with him on the essence of conservatism and most other important questions. Secondly, he is usually the hopeful one and, to put [...]
Below is an excerpt from a NY Times article (7/20/10) on the new British Prime Minister’s plan to cut government spending 25% and shrink government bureaucracy (I added a few comments in all caps). Tough economic times are the only reason such a plan has a chance. Wait a minute, aren’t we having tough economic [...]
by Winston Elliott III Winston Elliott III “Long before our own time, the customs of our ancestors moulded admirable men, and in turn these eminent men upheld the ways and institutions of their forebears. Our age, however, inherited the Republic like some beautiful painting of bygone days, its colors already fading through great [...]
Russell Kirk In the paragraphs below, from A Program for Conservatives, Dr. Kirk addresses conservatives with words which remind us of our pilgrim status in this world of tears. We are not called to material success. We are called to obedience. We are called to love. The True, the Good, and the Beautiful [...]
Thank you to Stratford Caldecott from The Economy Project for this very generous recommendation of The Imaginative Conservative: A new and rather impressive blog has made its appearance. The Imaginative Conservative seems to be the main forum right now for intelligent discussion of social and cultural issues from the vantage-point of the cultural or “paleo”-conservatives [...]
Russell Kirk In the below quote Dr. Russell Kirk lays out the essentials for those of us seeking to preserve and restore Western civilization. He makes clear that true conservatives do not limit themselves to questions of politics and economics. In previous essays Brad, Bruce, John and Barbara have ranged from the politics [...]
Russell Kirk Having spent the last eighteen years working with educators I am often surprised that there is little awareness of the Progressive roots of modern public education. In this essay Dr. Kirk makes the point that educationists, drawing from progressive theories and the psychology of Freud, created a system which they felt [...]
Bruce Frohnen In his essay in the 2006 issue of The Political Science Reviewer our good friend Bruce Frohnen addresses fundamental questions regarding the conservative roots of America’s political culture. I publish this partially in response to Brad Birzer’s “Under Montana Skies” essay today. In this essay Brad defends alliances between conservatives and [...]
Being neither a religion nor an ideology, the body of opinion termed conservatism possesses no Holy Writ and no Das Kapital to provide dogmata. So far as it is possible to determine what conservatives believe, the first principles of the conservative persuasion are derived from what leading conservative writers and public men have professed during the past two centuries. [...]
The twentieth century conservative is concerned, first of all, for the regeneration of spirit and character—with the perennial problem of the inner order of the soul, the restoration of the ethical understanding, and the religious sanction upon which any life worth living is founded. This is conservatism at its highest. —Russell Kirk Friends, may we [...]