Commentary
Conservatives have a disposition to believe that there is little new under the sun. It is why conservative thinkers study the past as a guide to understanding the present and shaping the future. They show a reverence for arrangements, and the ideas that support them, inherited from the past—unlike their postmodern opponents on the Left, who believe the principal reason to examine the past is to deconstruct it.
In recent years, lively debate on the American political Right has seen the emergence of two propositions that challenge conservatives’ traditional belief in the virtues of limited government. The first argues that defeating the Left in the culture wars requires the impressment of the state to promote traditional values and the role of religion in the public square. The second proposition is economic. Conservatives should deploy the power of the state to intervene in the economy and impose trade tariffs to sustain jobs in disadvantaged regions of the country and protect industries deemed vital….