About Us
The Brighter Side of Conservatism
When did conservatism get so dark? We have come a long way from Ronald Reagan’s “shinning city on a hill” to Donald Trump’s “American carnage.”
America is a great country with a bright future because of the values we conserve. Although those values are at the core of the American experiment, they are not uniquely American; they are universal. They are the values of democracy, capitalism, rule of law and international order. We must conserve these values if we are to conserve this republic.
The nihilism in today’s conservative movement is palpable, describing America as a “failing nation.” We believe that America is the last, best hope of mankind. America has a fast-growing, dynamic economy, the most powerful military in the world, the best business, and the best minds. Our cultural dominance is unsurpassed in world history. For all of our challenges, America’s light still shines so bright.
The values essential to conserving our constitutional republic:
• Democracy. Democracy is the cornerstone of our freedoms. It is the most precious and the most precarious of our freedoms. Free-market economist Milton Friedman would say, “Economic freedom is a necessary condition of political freedom, but it is not sufficient.” Meaning we can’t have democracy without capitalism, but it is democracy, or political freedom, that is the ultimate goal, both in our day and throughout history. Democracy and the vote are sacred to the republic, and without them, the world will slip into darkness.
• Capitalism. Capitalism is the freedom of having control over our lives and the fruits of our labor. Capitalism is freely offering our services for the goods or services of another who is freely doing the same. Capitalism and free trade have shown throughout history to be the only substitute for war. For most of mankind, you could take another person’s stuff only by force and conquest. With capitalism, you can take things only by offering others something they want, the opposite of force. Capitalism is voluntary, dynamic and at the cornerstone of any free society, and it must be conserved.
• International Order. We must conserve the peaceful world order passed down to us by the greatest generation. The sacrifices America made during World War II to secured liberty for America and the world must be conserved. The lessons from history are clear: A tyrant bent on dominating others will not stop unless stopped by force, and the world is too small for America to ignore major international issues and think they will just go away. We must conserve the world order that was established in large measure by the United States after World War II. A key component to that world order is respecting territorial integrity. The world will spiral into chaos if we adopt a “might makes right” mentality. Although America has seen combat, major powers have not fought each other since 1945. We must conserve this precious gift.
• American Institutions. Although our institutions can be old and stogy, they play a crucial role in our freedoms. Our founders set up a beautiful system of checks and balances among the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of government. They also created checks and balances between the states and the federal government. They created a constitution that could adapt over time to the changes of society. Our military and our intelligence agencies do an amazing job of keeping us safe and promoting freedom around the world. We should take a moment to reflect and be grateful for our immense power and sophistication, for all our flaws.
• American Values. Values are the most important, for without values, everything else crumbles. The vote, the right of the people for self-determination, is an American value. It is instinctively an American value. On Sept. 11, 2001, after Flight 93 was hijacked, what did they do before they decided to storm the cockpit? They voted. They came to consensus. Our founders wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Freedom is at the heart of the American experiment, and it is worth conserving.
Today’s conservative movement has gotten so dark. They say we are a failing nation, overrun by migrants, crumbling infrastructure, violence and war.
We disagree. America is still the bastion of freedom and democracy around the world, no matter which party temporality controls the White House.
While the modern-day conservative movement is consumed by darkness, we will not follow. We may be outspent and outnumbered, but we are not alone. We will continue to keep the flame of conservatism burning, until one day the brightness can spread again.