The Challenge of Restoring Civil Society

Is There Something Missing from Our Modern Discussion

First of all, here is Phillip Blond [click to read] in The American Conservative. He offers an interesting perspective in light of our current alternating possession politics. Perhaps he's on to something when he says that Civil Society has been lost.

Taken in light of Rabbi Yonason Goldson's Observations [click to read] that the best foundations of Conservative thought are found in the traditions inspired by Divine revelation. Then Rabbi Goldson points out that the noblest aspirations of Liberalism are also so rooted.

We all love the story of Star Parker [click to read] but deep down we lament that we're not creating more stories like hers. Big government provides the serfdom of the welfare state but a capitalism that excludes all but the best, brightest, and well funded from the marketplace does not reach those who need it with something better. Educational choice is a great starting point. In an honest discussion [excluding the teachers' unions] it would seem that both Liberal and Conservative could embrace the empowering reality of programs like the DC Opportunity Scholarships.

Policies that are Pro-Market more than simply Pro-business might make it possible for more people to create businesses and products. As Blond points out, this is another point where the common man must be empowered. Why CAN'T there be small players in every industry. The Tucker Car Company [click to read] in Chicago might be a good example of the kind of company Americans should be creatiing. Unforunately Preston Tucker was put out of business by the US Attorney Otto Kerner. Even though Tucker was eventually proven innocent of the charges brought against him, the trial bankrupted his company. The whole concept of government stepping in to rescue failing companies that are 'too big to fail' means effectively that government is taking sides. The loser is the smaller company, who's failure is not deemed so threatening.

Regulatary mechanisms unfortunately are often the means for creating efffective monopolies and decreasing value as protectors of the public interest. Corporations regularly make large contributions to politicians so that the legislation they craft -- often hurtful to ALL industry, hurts them less than their competitors. Our goal should be a marketplace with reasoned rules that encourage a variety of creative solutions to enter the marketplace.


Samuel Miller, a wealthy Lynchburg businessman, founded this school for disadvantaged youth in his native Albemarle County.

Giving that Worked [click to read] by Marvin Olasky in World Magazine. People of faith need to reclaim their heritage as healers in the world. With "work tests" for the able-bodied and disdain for indiscriminate givers, Christians in the past fought urban poverty with generosity plus discernment

A Habit of Thrift [click to read] by Marvin Olasky. John D. Rockefeller’s economy and efficiency led to a better life for millions.

Obama's 'Bridge to Nowhere'

Modern Liberalism's 'Moral Laziness' Exposed


The lodge and cabins at Lewis Mountain were designed by Marcellus Wright, who also designed the Big Meadows Lodge. Lewis Mountain was created as a separate lodging area for African-American guests in the 1940's. A decade later segragation would be abolished in the National Park although it would continue in the state of Virginia well into the 1960's.

SWAC Girl sent out the news that we had been challenged. A left-leaning blogger down in Richmond wanted to know if a certain beer made in Nelson County [which had just won a major taste competition] was any good. Not wanting to drive the two hours from Richmond to see for himself, he laid down the challenge for Conservative bloggers close to the brewery to go and "tell him if it was worth his while to go there himself."

We all politely declined. I opined that since 'Politics is Genetic' [click to read], his taste buds and mine were likely quite different. We were all inclined to put the matter to rest.

But a bigger question seemed to gnaw at the back of my consciousness... why does modern liberalism seem so adverse to the hard work of good old-fashioned research? I thought that was what 'higher education' was supposed to instill in you. Yet more often than not, serious scholarly works appear that simply pull out a tired old template and fill in the blanks. The Latest Obama Biography from David Remnick [click to read] does just that. Placing the 'Anointed One' squarely at the other side of Pettus Bridge as the fulfillment of the Civil Rights Movement.

The problem is this. The writer only wants to wade in deep enough to make Obama the tragic hero of America's racial drama. A drama that in modern liberal legend only has two chapters: Roots and the KennedyAdministration. It is left to Rush Limbaugh [who didn't go to college] and Glenn Beck to point out the great thought that took place at the time of our nation's beginnings: The wording of the Declaration of Independence changes the wording of earlier such declarations from 'property' to 'pursuit of happiness' precisely for the purpose of excluding slaveholding from the list of Divinely endowed rights. Also ignored are the civil-rights initiatives of the pre-Kennedy era. While Robert Byrd was wearing white robes and going to Klan rallys it was largely Republicans who were dismantling American Apartheid.

America's racial history is far from simple, but to those who would pull out the template, consider a few facts from modern history. The Left still bases much of its 'call to action' on the template that America is a 'racist' nation. That racism exists today is true, but you don't see it at tea parties. The American Right holds as its heroes men like Alan Keyes and packs out venues to hear him speak for Pregnancy Help Centers. Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell and Larry Elder are lauded for their intellectual contributions to the movement.

It is the Right, largely, that supports initiatives like the DC 'Opportunity Scholarships' [1.] that give disadvantaged children access to school choice. The Left is deeply committed to the 'one size fits all' public school that unfortunately limit educational opportunities for too many minority children.

It is the Right that sees opportunity for all in the American experiment. The Left seems bound to the notion that America creates a permenant underclass based on minority status. Thus we must create ever expanding government programs to redistribute the wealth.

It is the Right that sees innovation and freedom as the engine that produces new streams of prosperity. The Left sees a finite pool of resources and feels compelled to assert itself as the distributor of them. The Right senses that the best of human innovation is yet to be seen.

It is the Right that sees humanity for what it is and deals with sin. It is in free societies that history is allowed to point out the errors and outright atrocities. Massive Resistance, Lynchings, Jim Crow Laws and other dark chapters of our history are rightly remembered. The Left sees mankind as basically good but the institutions have not been perfected yet. To study the history of the movement though, the deaths of millions unter Stalin and other leaders is the price that must be paid. With no notion of sin, the carnage may actually be greater. Denial of one's Own Depravity [click to read] is a dangerous thing indeed.

History suggests that there is a better way. Our own history tells us of Ruby Beck [click to read] who, with her sister Lizzie, built a dream. During the height of segregation and Massive Resistance Ms. Beck convinced Alexandria bankers Burke and Herbert to loan her money to build a restaurant in Culpeper. She did it and was later honored as Virginia's 'Businesswoman of the Year.' Every school child in Virginia needs to know her story.


The Boxwood House in Culpeper, Virginia.

A Point of Contrast: George W. Bush's New Book

George W. Bush's Decision Points [click to read] should be interesting. Andrew Breitbart reports that is not your typical memoir but 'an account of key decisions' in his life. ht/SWAC Girl

Woodrow Wilson and Modern Liberalism

1919 Disillusionment with Woodrow Wilson Changed
the American Left Forever...

Fred Siegel in City Journal [click to read].


Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and birthplace in Staunton.


Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library.

Leading the Leftward Drift...

...Today's 'Missing Senators' are a Kennedy Legacy

"As Kennedy tilted left, the Democratic Party generally followed."

Daniel J. Flynn in City Journal [click to read] offers a bit of perspective on how the Democratic Party drifted from a position of representing the people to representing the interests of a coalition of leftist interest groups. One leader of the journey leftward was Senator Kennedy.

"Massachusetts steadily drifted left. Where Massachusetts went, its longest-serving senator followed—and where Ted Kennedy went, the Democratic Party followed. Democrats lined up behind Kennedy because they believed in the Church of Camelot, because Kennedy embraced the FDR–LBJ activist-government model that had served the party well during its heyday, and because they had the tendency to mistake the most liberal voice in the room for the smartest voice in the room. The story of Democratic Party presidential politics between 1968 and 1984 reads something like Waiting for Godot, with the youngest Kennedy brother playing the title character."

But to look at brother John's legacy, turning back Soviet ships carrying missles to Cuba, cutting tax rates to spur the economy, one would have to conclude that JFK's legacy is far closer to Reagan's than the policies of Camelot today. Ted started out believing that unborn life was worthy of protection. When he occupied the National stage, however, he became a strong advocate of abortion 'rights.' At a time when many in his church were holding prayer vigils outside abortion clinics, the youngest Kennedy was overwriting the rights of the unborn with 'privacy.' Thus, he ceased to represent a great number of Catholics who hold to the sanctity of unborn life.

Gradually Camelot became less and less representative of the majority of Americans but continued to exist out of the myth that it did.

'A Modern Dystopia'

H. G. Wells, Godfather of American Liberalism

Here's an Interesting Article on H. G. Wells [click to read] by Fred Siegel in City Journal. Most of us remember Wells for his novels: The Time Machine and War of the Worlds but his political writings inspired people like Margaret Sanger.


H. G. Wells.