The Independent Whig
Conservatism
How To Better Articulate Conservatism (and Liberalism too)
As he began his tenure as president of The Heritage Foundation Jim DeMint said that “Conservatives need to better articulate their message if they are to prevail in the war of ideas.” (1) In The Washington Post he wrote, “Conservative policies have proved their worth time and time again. If we’re not communicating in a … Continue reading
Haidt’s Mixed Message: The Strength of “The Righteous Mind” is Also Its Weakness
In spite of the great insights that are offered by Jonathan Haidt in his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion and by his team of researchers at YourMorals.org there’s still a tendency for them to think like liberals, which means that they sometimes fail, in my opinion, to … Continue reading
The Conservative Elephant
The same studies which show that the liberal morality rests on a small number of moral foundations, show that the conservative morality is built on all of them in equal balance. It includes care, fairness, and liberty, just as the liberal morality does, but it does not end there. It also depends equally on a … Continue reading
What is Conservatism?
(This post is an excerpt, with some minor updating, from the longer essay in the post What Is Rick Perry Talking About? ) What is Conservatism? Conservatism is the morality which is built on all of the moral foundations in equal balance, as illustrated in this 19 minute video on TED.com: The Moral Roots of Liberals … Continue reading
Conservatism and Liberalism in a Nutshell
When there’s food on the table there are many problems. When there’s no food on the table there is only one problem. The seven-foundation (including ownership) conservative morality gained freedom from an oppressive regime, and it created a new form of government designed to prevent such oppression from ever happening again. The new nation, thus … Continue reading
Why Rep. Carson Thinks the Tea Party is Racist
Democratic Rep. Andre Carson told a Miami crowd last week that the Tea Party movement would “love” to see black Americans “hanging on a tree.” (1) He is not alone among liberals in depicting the Tea Party as racist. Janeane Garofalo attributed the Tea Party to “racism, straight up,” (2) and Keith Olberman agreed with … Continue reading
What is Rick Perry Talking About?
One of the most quoted passages from Rick Perry’s book Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington is this: We are tired of being told how much salt to put on our food, what kind of cars we can drive, what kind of guns we can own (and) what kind of prayers we are … Continue reading
I Support Viewpoint Diversity
A politically diverse group of social scientists, natural scientists, humanists, and other scholars who want to improve our academic disciplines and universities. We share a concern about a growing problem: the loss or lack of “viewpoint diversity.” When nearly everyone in a field shares the same political orientation, certain ideas become orthodoxy, dissent is discouraged, and errors can go unchallenged.
Venn Diagram of Liberal and Conservative Traits and Moral Foundations and
