Conservative columnist George Will says today’s GOP has strayed far from its conservative roots. Indeed, he recently said “young people have made up their mind about the Republican Party, that it’s kind of the dumb party.”
He explains where the party has been and what’s at stake in a new book, “The Conservative Sensibility.”
Here’s a piece of the National Review’s analysis of the book:
The conservative intellectual movement is engaged in a debate over nothing less than the foundation of our regime, the nature of liberalism, the virtues of the market, the role of the state, and the value of freedom. Some conservatives, especially young ones, have turned their attention away from the free choices of individuals to the institutions — family, community, religion, and nation — that provide authoritative guidance for those choices and shape personal characters. Will, who dedicates this book to Barry Goldwater, reminds us of what the conservative mainstream looked like for much of the 20th century, and what it might look like again.
“The proper question for conservatives is, What do you seek to conserve?” Will asks. “The proper answer is concise but deceptively simple: We seek to conserve the American Founding.” Whereas Burke and European conservatives defended throne and altar, American conservatism ought to protect the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the principles that inform them.
Will has worked in journalism and commentary for about 50 years. He shares with us what he’s learned and where he thinks the country is headed next.
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