Gerson on conservatism
Posted by Joseph Knippenberg
The WSJ’s Naomi Schaefer Riley chats with Michael Gerson, who is apparently writing a book on the future of conservatism. What he has to say won’t please our libertarian readers.
9:43 PM / October 21, 2006
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The libertarians are wrong, but so is Gerson. The last thing we need is big-government conservatism, even if it’s Christian-flavored.
Joe, thanks for the link. How ’bout the formulation, rhetoric = statement of "ideals"? What would Aristotle think? Or Lincoln?
David Frisk, I say "Amen" to that.
Good catch, Paul. Someone should talk to MG about the difference between ideals and principles.
On President Bush’s/Michael Gerson’s rhetoric: it’s been linked to at this site, but go to Dan Mahoney’s very equitable (therefore just and appropriately critical) analysis of President Bush’s 2nd Inaugural. Odd that a Christian - President Bush/Michael Gerson - has nothing very complex to say about the human heart and the human condition, including the realism of sin.
5: Yes, it is hard to take very seriously (as a Christian voice) someone who has little or nothing to say about sin. One needn’t use the word, and probably shouldn’t use it in politics. But the concept needs to
be there -- and clearly so.