Aug 29, 2019
Americans have been forced from their homes. Their jobs have
been outsourced, their neighborhoods torn down to make room for
freeways, their churches shuttered or taken over by social justice
warriors, and their very families eviscerated by government
programs that assume their functions and a hostile elite that deems
them oppressive. Conservatives have always defended these elements
of a rooted life as crucial to maintaining cultural continuity in
the face of changing circumstances. Unfortunately, official
“conservatism” has become fixated on abstract claims about freedom
and the profits of “creative destruction.”
Professor Bruce Frohnen writes in his new book, Coming
Home: Reclaiming Americas Conservative Soul,
that "Conservatism has never been the only voice in America,
but it is the most distinctively American voice, emerging from the
customs, norms, and dispositions of its people and grounded in the
conviction that the capacity for self-governance provides a
distinctly human dignity. Emphasizing the ongoing strength and
importance of the conservative tradition, the authors describe our
Constitution’s emphasis on maintaining order and balance and
protecting the primary institutions of local life. Also important
here is an understanding of changes in American demographics,
economics, and politics. These changes complicated attempts to
address the fundamentally antitraditional nature of slavery and Jim
Crow, the destructive effects of globalism, and the increasing
desire to look on the federal government as the guarantor of
security and happiness.
To reclaim our home as a people, we must rebuild the natural
associations and primary institutions within which we live. This
means protecting the fundamental relationships that make up our way
of life. From philosophy to home construction, from theology to
commerce, from charity to the essentials of household management,
our ongoing practices are the source of our knowledge of truth, of
one another, and of how we may live well together."