President’s Welcome
It is a pleasure and a privilege to lead The Philadelphia Society as President for 2022-23. Serving as an officer and board member of the Society has been a unique experience over the last several years. The principal mission of our Society is to hold meetings. Yet in pursuing this mission, we have had to navigate not only a pandemic but also an unprecedented abuse of power in many of our political jurisdictions.
While much on the Right seems new today, and while there seem to be many shifting alliances among conservative and libertarian intellectuals, we know that there is a rich and long history in our movement to the most important questions we are asking. We also know that The Philadelphia Society has often been the place where these questions were debated by the most seminal figures in the movement – in fact, my first memories of the Society came as a graduate student who was privileged to witness some of these debates. These are memories which have inspired me – many years later – to bring my own graduate students regularly to our meetings, where they and other young members of our movement can learn and can establish the relationships that are vital to sustaining the cause of ordered liberty.
The Society plays a unique role in providing a forum where the diverse elements of the conservative movement can come together to network and to debate, and the meetings planned for my term will continue to do just that. This Fall we return to the east coast and will meet at the Ritz Carlton Tysons Corner in McLean, Virginia (September 23-24, 2022) to address the question: “Can American Institutions Still Be Conserved?”
In the Spring of 2023, we return to the Midwest – meeting at the Westin Indianapolis in Indiana (March 31-April 2, 2023) – where we will focus on the question of religion in public life. I look forward to seeing you at both of these meetings, and also to being of whatever service I can be during the course of my tenure.
Best regards,
Ronald J. Pestritto
President, 2022-2023