American conservatives have won a political victory in the United States, just as they have in some settings in Latin American, the Middle East (in Jewish and Muslim cultures), and in Europe. They are giddy with the prospects of their time in the sun. But there are some serious issues facing us and facing them that are not drawing enough of their attention and energy.
The writings of Kevin Roberts are a good place to assess these realities.
Kevin Roberts is the president of the Heritage Foundation, which is the intellectual epicenter of the MAGA movement and the publisher of the book of documents called Project 2025. As such, Roberts is an important voice for the right-wing resurgence that was swept into power in the last election.
Roberts wrote a book; I reviewed it, and you can read that review here.
Roberts also wrote a short article for “Imprimis,” the mail-distributed newsletter of Hillsdale College. This Michigan college has risen to prominence in the conservative movement as an example of what education needs to be today. I have a niece who is a student at Hillsdale.
This “Imprimis” piece summarizes a good bit of Robert’s political philosophy. Interestingly, it omits anything about religion, including Roberts’ commitment to conservative Roman Catholic religion and private classical education. And it ends with this:
“American conservatism exists to serve the people and the nation through the constitution. This includes defending them against enemies foreign and domestic. And the fact is, elite institutions have become the people’s and the nation’s enemies. They are openly waging cultural war on those they ostensibly serve. They cannot be negotiated with or accommodated. They must be defunded, disbanded, and disempowered. The rewards for doing so—for putting American families first again—will be greater than we know. This is the fight before us. If we thoughtfully and tenaciously combine populist energy with conservative principles, it is a fight we can win.”
Among the elite institutions that need a “controlled burn” are Homeland Security, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Reserve, FBI, Department of Education, FEMA, and the military-industrial complex.
In both of these surveys—the long form book and the short form article—Roberts describes several structural problems, such as a dysfunctional congress and an equally dismal immigration system (although he generally calls it a broken border). Most Americans, including elected leaders and organizational elites, concur.
But Roberts completely ignores some fundamental problems in American life.
First, there is no mention of the wealth disparity that has created an oligarchy now moving into positions of federal power.
This attack on the middle class began back in the presidency of Ronald Reagan, when tax cuts for the rich were enacted on the promise that the upper-class savings would trickle down to the middle and lower classes. It has not happened. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. The statistics on this change in American life are staggering, but Roberts writes as if he is ignorant or indifferent to this phenomenon. It remains the single most problematic trend in American life, and the conservative movement has no answer, no solution.
Second, nowhere in Robert’s book and article does he discuss civil rights and human rights. He traces the conservative movement to the lionized Ronald Reagan instead of its true origins in the pushback to the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, the modern conservative movement can be best understood as a resistance to, first, civil rights for African Americans, then second equal rights for women, and finally, human rights for LGBTQ. Sadly, Robert’s constant reference to family issues (“putting families first” is the phrase in the article) is code language for pushback against these three waves of freedom.
Further, the creation of the Federalist Society in 1982 and the appointments of their members to the federal bench, including the Supreme Court, is a powerful, long-range strategy to claw back the freedoms for these three large demographic groups: racial minorities, women, and LGBTQ. Striking down abortion as a personal and private right is but the first of others to come.
Third, Roberts and his kin are disdainful of anything that smacks of global thinking, such as global trade, global organizations, and consideration of global issues like migration, climate change, and the digital world (including artificial intelligence). Roberts is so fixated in national identity and national issues that he is blind to the need for global thinking. He equates global thinking with a denigration of nationality, even though he is himself a proud and active member of the largest, transnational organization in the world, the Roman Catholic Church.
The history of the world can be studied and described as the transition from tribal, to local, to regional, to national, to international. The future demands global thinking, planning, and cooperation. The challenges here are the challenges everywhere, and we need leaders and strategies that will lead the world to address the problems of the world. National thinking has become parochial.
If conservatives want to govern well and leave the human community more safe, free, and prosperous when their time runs out, they must address these pressing issues of human life on planet earth: wealth inequality, civil and human rights, and globalization.
Dwight A Moody
December 2024
American conservatives have won a political victory in the United States, just as they have in some settings in Latin American, the Middle East (in Jewish and Muslim cultures), and in Europe. They are giddy with the prospects of their time in the sun. But there are some serious issues facing us and facing them that are not drawing enough of their attention and energy.
The writings of Kevin Roberts are a good place to assess these realities.
Kevin Roberts is the president of the Heritage Foundation, which is the intellectual epicenter of the MAGA movement and the publisher of the book of documents called Project 2025. As such, Roberts is an important voice for the right-wing resurgence that was swept into power in the last election.
Roberts wrote a book; I reviewed it, and you can read that review here.
Roberts also wrote a short article for “Imprimis,” the mail-distributed newsletter of Hillsdale College. This Michigan college has risen to prominence in the conservative movement as an example of what education needs to be today. I have a niece who is a student at Hillsdale.
This “Imprimis” piece summarizes a good bit of Robert’s political philosophy. Interestingly, it omits anything about religion, including Roberts’ commitment to conservative Roman Catholic religion and private classical education. And it ends with this:
“American conservatism exists to serve the people and the nation through the constitution. This includes defending them against enemies foreign and domestic. And the fact is, elite institutions have become the people’s and the nation’s enemies. They are openly waging cultural war on those they ostensibly serve. They cannot be negotiated with or accommodated. They must be defunded, disbanded, and disempowered. The rewards for doing so—for putting American families first again—will be greater than we know. This is the fight before us. If we thoughtfully and tenaciously combine populist energy with conservative principles, it is a fight we can win.”
Among the elite institutions that need a “controlled burn” are Homeland Security, Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Reserve, FBI, Department of Education, FEMA, and the military-industrial complex.
In both of these surveys—the long form book and the short form article—Roberts describes several structural problems, such as a dysfunctional congress and an equally dismal immigration system (although he generally calls it a broken border). Most Americans, including elected leaders and organizational elites, concur.
But Roberts completely ignores some fundamental problems in American life.
First, there is no mention of the wealth disparity that has created an oligarchy now moving into positions of federal power.
This attack on the middle class began back in the presidency of Ronald Reagan, when tax cuts for the rich were enacted on the promise that the upper-class savings would trickle down to the middle and lower classes. It has not happened. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. The statistics on this change in American life are staggering, but Roberts writes as if he is ignorant or indifferent to this phenomenon. It remains the single most problematic trend in American life, and the conservative movement has no answer, no solution.
Second, nowhere in Robert’s book and article does he discuss civil rights and human rights. He traces the conservative movement to the lionized Ronald Reagan instead of its true origins in the pushback to the Civil Rights Movement. In fact, the modern conservative movement can be best understood as a resistance to, first, civil rights for African Americans, then second equal rights for women, and finally, human rights for LGBTQ. Sadly, Robert’s constant reference to family issues (“putting families first” is the phrase in the article) is code language for pushback against these three waves of freedom.
Further, the creation of the Federalist Society in 1982 and the appointments of their members to the federal bench, including the Supreme Court, is a powerful, long-range strategy to claw back the freedoms for these three large demographic groups: racial minorities, women, and LGBTQ. Striking down abortion as a personal and private right is but the first of others to come.
Third, Roberts and his kin are disdainful of anything that smacks of global thinking, such as global trade, global organizations, and consideration of global issues like migration, climate change, and the digital world (including artificial intelligence). Roberts is so fixated in national identity and national issues that he is blind to the need for global thinking. He equates global thinking with a denigration of nationality, even though he is himself a proud and active member of the largest, transnational organization in the world, the Roman Catholic Church.
The history of the world can be studied and described as the transition from tribal, to local, to regional, to national, to international. The future demands global thinking, planning, and cooperation. The challenges here are the challenges everywhere, and we need leaders and strategies that will lead the world to address the problems of the world. National thinking has become parochial.
If conservatives want to govern well and leave the human community more safe, free, and prosperous when their time runs out, they must address these pressing issues of human life on planet earth: wealth inequality, civil and human rights, and globalization.
Dwight A Moody
December 2024
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