Skip to main content

Dan Oliver: Maybe, just maybe, the way to capture the public’s attention is to fly a freedom banner

Dan Oliver writing in The American Conservative offers some thoughtful queries and cautions in reflecting on Arthur Brooks’ call (Commentary, March 2014) for a conservative social justice agenda: 

Conservatives know the value of faith, community, and work. Heaven knows they know the value of family and of education—look at the efforts they have made to promote various non-governmental solutions to the problems in these areas. And their proposal for Social Security is not to abolish it but to privatize it. Brooks may think that conservatives have been insufficiently articulate, and given their presidential and policy track record, he has a point. But is his point augmented or diminished by Gallup’s finding that 72 percent of Americans describe themselves as either conservatives or moderates? Have conservatives done well, and would they have done better flying a social justice banner? Or worse? . . . 

Perhaps, as Oliver suggests, conservatives might try re-thinking how we speak in the idiom we know:  “Maybe, just maybe, the way to capture the public’s attention is to fly a freedom banner…”



© The Philadelphia Society 2024 | Webmaster Contact

The material on this website is for general education and information only. The views presented here are the responsibility of their authors and do not reflect endorsement or opposition by The Philadelphia Society. Please read our general disclaimer.