Three ways in which conservatives, indeed all Americans, should strive to uphold high standards and key principles. For the full columns, follow the links embedded in the headlines.
Why President Trump should not be booed (Oct. 28).
Donald Trump, the person, may have deserved the karmic payback of being booed at Sunday night’s World Series Game 5, but Trump, the president, should not have been subjected to such lack of respect.
When a president is acting in a non-political capacity or in a ceremonial role, his office merits respect from his fellow citizens. In disrespecting the office, they ultimately disrespect themselves.
A president in a non-political role always carries with him the identity of head of state and chief elected official of the citizenry. In both capacities, his symbolic role is important. As head of state, he is the chief representative of this great and good nation to the rest of the world. As chief elected official, he is the first public servant, someone whose role and function is as universal tribune for all Americans.
To repeat, this is not to say Americans should respect him because he is our “ruler.” He is not our ruler. He is our agent, duly chosen through a process that is as close as the civic realm ever gets to the sacred. …
In the long run, if conservatives play dirty, they will LOSE (Oct. 25).
One of the worst developments in the Trump era is the widespread belief on the Right that if conservatives want to win, we have to “play dirty.”
This sentiment was repeated, often in those exact words, all over Twitter and conservative social media in the wake of House Republicans pulling their stunt of occupying a “secure” hearing room, some with cellphones illicitly in hand, to protest the way Democrats are conducting impeachment proceedings. It has been a common argument, or at least verbal eruption, since Trump entered Republican presidential politics.
The sentiment is terribly self-defeating in practice and, worse, morally monstrous….
Heritage Foundation pushes ‘True North’ principles (Oct. 22). The Heritage Foundation yesterday released a statement of unifying conservative principles that is as good as anything since the Sharon Statement drafted at the Buckley family estate in 1960….
