Intellectual Conservative Politics and Philosophy » Features

Conservative Evangelism, Part One

Alan Roebuck — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:55:31 +0000

The liberal's basic problem is that he is participating in the false and wicked system of liberalism, a system that is dragging him and his nation down to destruction. His basic need is to hear this bad news (the truth about liberalism) and the good news of conservatism that there is a truer and better [...]

Neither a Dark nor Golden Age: Thinking About the Past

Jack Kerwick — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:27:53 +0000

Golden Ages exist in Heaven, Dark Ages in Hell, but in this world, neither the unadulterated optimism attending to the former nor the dreary pessimism belonging to the latter have any place, for it is a mode of existence to which both tears and laughter are intrinsic.

For the most part, ideological rivals of [...]

Thinking About “Conservatism” and “Libertarianism”

Jack Kerwick — Fri, 28 May 2010 12:27:58 +0000

Considerations of such contingencies as cultural traditions, widely distributed emotional dispositions, institutional arrangements, and habits, prescription, precedent, and prejudice, are conspicuously absent from the libertarian's vision.

Upon discovering that I, a regular contributor to a website devoted to exploring "conservative and libertarian" politics, endorse Arizona's latest effort — the passage into law of SB 1070 [...]

The Disillusionment of Garry Wills

George Shadroui — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:22:33 +0000

Henry Adams, about whom Garry Wills has written at length, concluded upon observing politics up close that "power is poison." Garry Wills appears to have reached the same conclusion regarding Barack Obama.

A few weeks back, Garry Wills, the renowned historian, published an angry lament in the New York Review of Books blog in which he expressed [...]

Harry Reid, “Racism,” and Racial Subtexts

Jack Kerwick — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:32:36 +0000

Harry Reid's only offense (in this case) is that he told the cold, hard, truth.

Several weeks ago now, the revelation concerning the reasons that Senator Harry Reid had specified in accounting for the viability of Barack Obama's presidential candidacy had elicited outrage from his Republican rivals. Both Obama's "light skin," the Senator explained, as [...]

Calling the Threat for What it Is: Not “Islamo-Fascism,” “Koranic Literalists”

Jack Kerwick — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:43:02 +0000

Those who are convinced that this is indeed a "war" should take the first indispensable step toward "the Victory" for which they long by at least understanding who "the Enemy" is and what "the war" is about.

In a recent article, I pointed out that, far from its providing an occasion for all self-styled "conservatives" to rejoice, [...]

The Decisive Reason Against Obamacare: Liberty Revisited

Jack Kerwick — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:52:45 +0000

Republicans and others who decry the monetary costs of this contentious program inadvertently, and in spite of their protestations to the contrary, prove that their difference with the Democrats is one of degree, not of kind.

It is to my great delight that the healthcare plans that President Obama and this Democrat congress are determined [...]

Nathan’s Hope

Emily Ham — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:45:55 +0000

A tribute to IC's brother Nathan Alexander who passed away from leukemia on May 24, 2009. Emily Ham was one of his favorite students and most talented writers. A memorial service is being held at Troy University at 5pm on August 24, 2009.

Some three weeks ago, I had the honor of being [...]

White Ignorance, Black Guilt, and the Politics of Race

Jack Kerwick — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 10:58:47 +0000

To most whites the phenomenon of affluent and privileged blacks like Henry Louis Gates, Jr. harboring racial grievances toward the United States is a baffling curiosity. The phenomenon is best explained by the twin concepts of White Ignorance, which demands a post-racial or trans-racial world, and Black Guilt, which, in glaring contrast, demands an enlivened racial awareness.

Nationally syndicated [...]

Barack Obama, Notre Dame, and Abortion

Jack Kerwick — Mon, 04 May 2009 11:52:52 +0000

How can this self-professed Catholic institution embrace the most visible proponent of "abortion rights" the world over while simultaneously maintaining its identity?

Notre Dame, a traditionally Roman Catholic institution of higher learning, recently extended to Barack Obama an invitation to deliver the commencement speech at its impending graduation ceremony — a task for which he will [...]