“In Europe, ‘liberal’…means free market economics and liberty in general. Which is why the ‘Liberal Party’ in Australia is actually what Americans would describe as the conservative party. Whereas in the United States, ‘liberal’ has come to mean progressivism, openness to change of every sort, and left-leaning ideologies.
“Join a political movement if you like, but don’t confuse it with an intellectual movement. To the extent that you wish to pursue intellectual authenticity in public, you will need to give up on direct political influence.” - Daniel Burns
“Conservative legal theory holds that laws need to be interpreted and applied according to their “original” or “textual” meaning. Conservative judges, unlike liberal judges, resist ‘making laws,’ which they consider to be the role of legislators….they also tend to have a high respect for ‘precedent,’ for upholding previous court rulings.
“These failures, as noted by Senator Hawley in his speech, can quickly turn into a political liability for a Republican Party that has derived significant power from campaigning on the importance of judicial nominations. Bostock is a wake-up call…of a movement in need of change.
“The second fallacy is that before the state takes charge of our morals, it must be morally superior to us, and there’s no evidence it is. Quite the contrary: the record shows that when government takes command of personal morality, both the people and the state end up less moral, not more.” - Timothy Sandefur
“[Vermeule argues that] the Constitution’s most abstract language should be interpreted as affording the government almost entirely unconstrained power over its citizens, a sort of blank check for the exercise of political authority as the sovereign sees fit. But can that practice of interpretation be justified on theological grounds?” - John Ehrett
“He was uninterested in promoting a party agenda. Rather, he sought to promote a way of life and a moral societal order guided by what T. S. Elliot called the ‘permanent things.’” - Acton
“Conservatism, simply, is the philosophy that in every sphere of life there are transcendent and foundational principles of order to which society must conform in order to both survive and flourish.
“Is this the sort of thing with which First Things, that highbrow ecumenical journal of religion in public life, wants its brand to be associated? Would the journal’s late founder, Father Neuhaus, be proud?” - Madeline Fry
