What is conservatism? Ask 10 people and you’ll get 10 different answers. In our confused American moment, knowing what conservatism is and what it isn’t will help us find clarity, invite sanity back into the public square, and give us a better chance to cure what ills our United States.
If you’re hungry as you read this, all the better. Because I’m not here to lecture you on the definition of conservatism. I’m inviting you to actually taste it. On a recent road trip to California, I stopped for dinner at the most northern In-N-Out Burger restaurant in America in Keizer, Oregon. As I ate, I realized I was experiencing a living, breathing, intensely popular American conservatism in action. It wasn’t just a meal – it was a primer in what it looks like to conserve worthy goals, methods, and values. Order some food, pull up a chair, and let me show you how.
First, In-N-Out Burger conserves worthy goals. When Harry and Esther Snyder created the first In-N-Out Burger in 1948, they combined the innovative new idea of a drive-thru with the old-fashioned ideas of superior quality and service. In doing this they were catering to two conditions American thinker Russell Kirk considers necessary for the healthy functioning of any society: the impulse to improve as well as the impulse to conserve. In-N-Out’s singular priority has always been the customer. New managers receive consistent training in this philosophy at the company’s headquarters, ensuring that all 385 In-N-Out locations have the same goal: a satisfying dining experience for every customer.
To that end, one of the first things you notice about In-N-Out restaurants is a clean, bright, inviting environment outside and inside. The second thing you notice is a simple, straightforward menu. There’s no reason for decision fatigue and little possibility that the number of your favorite combo has changed since your last visit.
You’ll also notice the friendliness and helpfulness of the associates. Dressed to impress in distinctive red and white, team members demonstrate unity in their uniform appearance. You won’t be distracted by statement-making t-shirts, inappropriate tattoos, or unkempt hair, for example. You’re also highly likely to enjoy a smile when you step up to the counter, as well as when you’re served your food and perhaps even during your meal. In today’s screen-saturated age, good customer service has become somewhat of a rarity, so it’s especially appealing to interact with young workers who have an attitude of gratefulness and cheerfulness as they go about their work.
While other fast food restaurants may have sacrificed superior quality and service in the name of profits, In-N-Out Burger leads the way in conserving those goals. It’s one reason they were <a href="https://www.rd.com/article/best-fast-food-burger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voted makers of &#8216;the best fast-food burger in America&#8217;</a> in a 2022 restaurant survey, leading in almost every category including food quality, staff friendliness, cleanliness, atmosphere, and healthy food options.
The second thing In-N-Out Burger successfully conserves are worthy methods. While some competitors perfect their fries in a science lab and take advantage of the latest artificial methods of cooking and processing, In-N-Out takes pride in being different. Burgers are made from fresh beef. Buns are made the old-fashioned way from real sponge dough with no preservatives. Associates hand-leaf lettuce every day and cook fries the same way they did in the 1940s: with fresh potatoes in 100% sunflower oil.
In-N-Out Burger is so committed to freshness, they won’t build a restaurant more than a day’s journey away from their own family-owned facilities. And being conservative does not have to mean being tone-deaf to current needs. For example, many restaurants today find ways to cater to common allergens, and In-N-Out Burger is no exception. Those with a gluten sensitivity, or who wish to reduce the overall calories of their meal, can order their burger “protein-style” – sandwiched between fresh leaves of lettuce.
In-N-Out’s embrace of traditional methods is not a lack of imagination or an unwillingness to keep up with modernity. It’s merely the recognition that these traditional techniques of making food are, in fact, the best ways.
A third thing In-N-Out Burger conserves are good values. Underneath their cups, fry boats, and wrappers, the company prints scripture references. Not the whole text of verses — simply the book, chapter, and verse. On the soda cup you’ll find John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…” On the wrapper for their famous Double-Double burger, you’ll notice Nahum 1:7 and the reminder that the Lord is “a stronghold in the day of trouble.” The subtle family touch began in the 1980s with Richard Snyder, son of the founders, and has been expanded by granddaughter and current CEO Lynsi Snyder.
The practice is a nod to the Judeo-Christian faith tradition that undergirds America’s founding. It’s a rare acknowledgment from a successful American company that there’s something even greater than profit or even a tasty hamburger, something we can trust even in difficult or confused times. Conservatism has been described as an inclination to cherish the permanent things. Timeless Bible verses printed on disposable cups and wrappers bound for the garbage can are a small but effective reminder of such lasting ideas. They remind us that the grass withers and the flowers fade, but some things endure.
In today’s charged political climate, the definition of conservatism is up for grabs. “What do self-described conservatives stand for in 2023?” asks NPR in a recent headline, while Bloomberg declares “American and British Conservatives Are Frozen in Failure.” Although many of our political and cultural battles are rooted in the current moment, conservatism calls us to go deeper: to be stewards of our inheritance and builders of a better future. With its conservation of worthy goals, methods, and values, In-N-Out Burger shows us what a vibrant American conservatism looks like, and it’s delicious!
Andrew McDiarmid is a senior fellow at the Discovery Institute. His writing has recently appeared in The New York Post, Houston Chronicle, RealClearPolitics and The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @AMcDiarmid and read more of his work at www.andrewmcdiarmid.org.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Hollywood Exteriors And Landmarks – 2021

Why In-N-Out Burger Is What Vibrant Conservatism Tastes Like

Conservatism

Food

Judeo-Christian Values

Readers Pass

Restaurant

U.S.

Fox News political analyst Gianno Caldwell criticized North Miami, Florida, restaurant owners Sunday after the food establishment asked the conservative commentator to leave the eatery due to his political views.
Paradis Books and Bread owners kicked Caldwell out of the restaurant Saturday morning, claiming the &#8220;behavior&#8221; and &#8220;words&#8221; of the group he dined with made the employees and other patrons in the space &#8220;very uncomfortable.&#8221;
Caldwell <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/gianno-caldwell-blasts-restaurant-kicking-him-political-views-target-back">explained</a> the situation to &#8220;Fox &amp; Friends Weekend&#8221; host Rachel Campos-Duffy, noting that the group had discussed several topics, including working at the legacy media outlet, values, violent crime, and progressive district attorneys.
Restaurant owners then approached Caldwell and his companions, saying they were &#8220;not welcomed there because we aren&#8217;t politically aligned.&#8221;
&#8220;This situation reminds me of something that MLK said in 1963, a very simple truth,&#8221; he said, &#8220;Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere — and what I experienced yesterday, me and some of my neighbors, who I&#8217;m just getting to know, was an injustice.&#8221;
&#8220;It was a grave injustice,&#8221; he added.
Caldwell further compared the situation to the Jim Crow South era — a group of laws that legalized racial segregation.
&#8220;If this was not the Jim Crow South, I can&#8217;t tell much of a difference,&#8221; he said, &#8220;There&#8217;s a target on the backs of people who happen to be Black — who happen to be conservative — and it needs to come to an end.&#8221;
After the interaction, Caldwell called Paradis&#8217; handling of the situation &#8220;outrageous&#8221; on social media, garnering approximately two million views.
&#8220;They said, &#8216;Are you a conservative?&#8217; I said, &#8216;yes,'&#8221; Caldwell said. &#8220;In fact, I have a book called &#8216;Taken for Granted: How Conservatism Can Win Back the Americans That Liberalism Failed.&#8217; You should get the book.'&#8221;
Caldwell told the owner about his brother, who was shot and killed in Chicago, Illinois, last summer.
Recently, Caldwell spoke with congress members on Capitol Hill about seeking justice for his brother and other violent crime in America, which he claims to have further explained to the restaurant owners.
Paradis responded on Instagram, saying that Caldwell&#8217;s group had been &#8220;talking about women in degrading ways, as well as using eugenic arguments around their thoughts on Roe v. Wade.&#8221;
&#8220;Once it was clear that they were finished with their meal, we told them that our views don&#8217;t align, and that the language they were using was unwelcome in our space,&#8221; the statement reads. &#8220;One person in the group said, &#8216;That is your business model, and I respect that.'&#8221;
&#8220;As a space co-owned by black folks and women, we firmly stand by our zero tolerance policy,&#8221; the statement added.
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“I Have A Dream” Foundation’s 5th Annual Los Angeles’ Dreamer Dinner

Miami-Based Restaurant Asks Fox News Analyst To Leave Over Conservative Political Views, Interaction Resembles ‘Jim Crow South:’ Commentator Says

Miami-Based Restaurant Asks Fox News Analyst To Leave Over Conservative Political Views, Interaction Resembles 'Jim Crow South:' Commentator Says

Fox News

Liberalism

Media

Miami

Alarming proportions of conservative college students at more than 200 American universities said in a <a href="https://5666503.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/5666503/CFSR_2022_Report.pdf">national survey</a> they self-censor their views inside and outside of the classroom out of fear of damaging their reputation.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a nonprofit organization defending free speech and free thought, released its third annual College Free Speech rankings through a commissioned survey of 44,847 students at 208 colleges about students’ perceptions and experiences regarding free speech on their campuses.
Among several key findings, the survey revealed 63% of students fear speaking their minds could result in damaging their reputation, 42% of conservative students report that they “often” feel uncomfortable speaking freely, and 40% of students feel uncomfortable disagreeing with a professor — in public or in a written assignment.
“That so many students are self-silencing and silencing each other is an indictment of campus culture,” FIRE Senior Research Fellow Sean Stevens said in a <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/just-released-2022-2023-college-free-speech-rankings">news release.</a> “How can students develop their distinct voices and ideas in college if they’re too afraid to engage with each other?”
Out of all the topics discussed on campus, students find abortion, racial inequality, and COVID vaccine mandates to be the most difficult.
The study also found that most students believe campus speakers who oppose liberal ideologies should not be allowed to speak on campus.
About 75% of students do not support a campus speaker stating transgender people have a mental disorder or believe that Black Lives Matter is a hate group, and approximately 70% shun those who claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen or support making abortion completely illegal.
FIRE CEO Greg Lukianoff said in a <a href="https://www.thefire.org/news/just-released-2022-2023-college-free-speech-rankings">news release</a> said the situation for freedom of speech and academic freedom has been in trouble on campus long before the foundation of the nonprofit in 1999.
“That situation has gotten far worse in the last few years,” Lukianoff said.
According to the report, 59% to 73% of the students surveyed oppose allowing controversial conservative speakers on campus — depending on the speaker. However, only 24% to 41% said they oppose specific controversial liberal speakers.
“More than three-in-five students (62%) said that students shouting down a speaker to prevent them from speaking on campus was acceptable to some degree, down from 66% in 2021, and one-in-five (20%) said this about using violence to stop a campus speech, down from 23% in 2021,” the report reads.
Adam Goldstein, FIRE’s vice president of research, told <a href="https://www.thecollegefix.com/nearly-half-of-students-uncomfortable-expressing-controversial-views-on-campus-new-fire-free-speech-report/">The College Fix</a> in an email last week, “large numbers of students demanding censorship is a relatively young phenomenon.”
“Not more than a decade old, really, whereas schools have been censoring student speech as long as they’ve existed,” Goldstein said. “So I’m somewhat skeptical of the schools who say they had to censor something because students complained.”
Goldstein added that censorship measured based on student demands or administrative or faculty control is “a chicken-and-egg problem.”
“Some students demand censorship, and schools occasionally justify their policies by saying the students demanded it,” Goldstein said.
The report indicated Columbia University ranked as the lowest school for free speech “by far” with a score of “Abysmal.” Other lowest-ranking schools included Georgetown, Skidmore College, and the University of Pennsylvania.
The University of Chicago ranked highest for freedom of speech for the second time in three years.

‘That Situation Has Gotten Far Worse In The Last Few Years’: Most College Students Self-Censor, Fear Disagreeing With Professor

National Survey Suggests Most College Students Self-Censor, Fear Disagreeing With Professor

College Republicans

Education

Free Speech

The following is a transcript excerpt from Dr. Jordan Peterson’s conversation with Eric Duhaime on political trends in young people. You can <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast/quebec-and-the-conservative-youth-revolution-eric-duhaime">listen to</a> or <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/quebec-and-the-conservative-youth-revolution-eric-duhaime">watch</a> the full podcast on DailyWire+.
Podcast time: 39:55
There’s a principle that governs conservative thinking that’s actually derived from the Catholic Church, and then even more deeply, derived from an older biblical tradition based on the Old Testament Exodus story, that proper governance — proper distribution of responsibility — should follow the principle of subsidiarity. Edmund Burke developed this as well. It’s a very good notion, and I think it’s correct. It’s one of the things that attracts me in some fundamental sense to conservative thinking.
Imagine a state where there’s a single executive who has all the power and the people have none. You would think of that as a tyranny, and that’s obviously not desirable. And then you might think, ‘What’s the alternative to a tyranny?’ You might say, ‘Well, direct democracy where the voice of the people rules supreme and the leader must follow the whims of the crowd.’ But the problem with that is that it’s not that easy to figure out what the crowd thinks, and the entire system can fall prey to suddenly arising, poorly organized, deviant impulses.
So what the founders of the American state did, and many other states as well, is set up a series of intermediary structures of power. You can sort of list them up hierarchically. There would be the domain of responsibility of the individual. There would be the domain of the responsibility of the married couple, of the family, of the local community, then the town, then the state or province, and then the country. Each of those levels would be requested to take as much responsibility for what they could at the local level. The relationship between all those levels should be governed by the principle that if it can be decided at a lower level — then it should be. 
The reason that that’s useful is twofold. One is that it’s a really good way of delegating responsibility. It’s very efficient if everyone plays their role. The second is — this is another thing the conservatives really have on their side — if the state does everything for you, let’s say, well, in a sense you’re secure, although you’re not because you’re beholden to the benevolence of the state. That can be taken away arbitrarily. But the downside is — this is one of the downsides of universal basic income proposals — it’s like, what the hell is there left for you to do if the state does everything for you? Well, you’re secure. But what’s your life, then? You have no purpose. If the purpose of life — and this is another thing that the more libertarian conservatives could be offering — imagine that the purpose of your life isn’t security and satiation because you’re not just an overgrown infant. Imagine instead that the purpose of your life is something like responsible, productive, generous adventure.
Then the call would be: Make space for people to manifest that in the particularities of their own life. And then everyone has a real part to play, and no one in some real sense is subordinate to anyone else. There would be a hierarchical structure, and some people like you would be leading at the more abstract levels. But your power would be — your authority and your responsibility — would be properly delimited and everything else everybody else was doing all the way down the hierarchy right to the level of running their individual enterprise would in some sense be just as meaningful and just as crucial. That strikes me as an extraordinarily useful vision of governance, especially in the aftermath of the COVID fiasco.
To hear the rest of the discussion, continue by listening or watching this episode on <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch/browse">DailyWire+</a>.
<a href="https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/">Dr. Jordan B. Peterson</a> is a clinical psychologist and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. From 1993 to 1998 he served as assistant and then associate professor of psychology at Harvard. He is the international bestselling author of Maps of Meaning, 12 Rules For Life, and Beyond Order. You can now <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/podcasts/the-jordan-b-peterson-podcast">listen</a> to or <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/watch/jordan-peterson">watch</a> his popular lectures on DailyWire+.

JP imagery-04

‘An Extraordinarily Useful Vision Of Governance’: The Basic Principles Of Conservative Thinking

Canada

Founding Fathers

Jordan Peterson

Quebec

United States

The central political crisis of our time is not the debt, Hunter Biden’s laptop, or even inflation — it is the weakening state of the American Family and the democratic decay accompanying. Crime, loneliness, a declining birthrate and much more signal a society that no longer knows how to use its freedom in a meaningful manner, tragically conflating freedom with nihilism and individualism with hedonism.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/whatever-maxine-says-i-agree-with-biden-speaks-of-hard-left-maxine-waters">Our president’s</a> use of a particular “F-word” is humorous because he seems to do it at the most inopportune times — while <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HHKq9tt50O8">introducing President Obama</a> during a White House celebration of the passage of the Affordable Care Act or on a recent trip to Florida to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32L1qmI8ZWg">view the damage</a> in the wake of Hurricane Ian.
It’s good for a chuckle and little else.
And yet, the most important three words in the modern political lexicon are very different “F-words:” freedom, family, and fortitude. The necessity of appreciating the interplay among the three is not just good social science and a prerequisite for crafting wise statecraft, but is especially relevant to our current national dialogue as traditional conservatives continue to lose faith in the basic tenets of the classical liberal tradition.
Almost every <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/homicides-hit-hollywood-as-los-angeles-scrambles-to-control-crime">damning headline</a> about how broken and unhappy our society has become in the past decade — <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/20/nyregion/loneliness-epidemic.html">lonely</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/11/us/politics/overdose-deaths-fentanyl-meth.html">addicted</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/12/business/economy/labor-participation-covid.html">jobless</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/opinion/marriage-decline-america.html">single</a>, uneducated, incarcerated — can somehow be traced to the modern reality of freedom becoming unmoored from virtue and liberty, degenerating into unapologetic orgies of licentiousness. Or, to put it another way, America the nation has become fundamentally broken because American citizens fundamentally do not know how to use their freedom.
To be blunt: this modern form of democratic decay is nothing less than the central and animating issue of our time—not the national debt, not Hunter Biden’s laptop, or even temporary inflation. A nation dedicated to freedom, whose paramount virtue is individual liberty and the celebration of robust individualism, cannot endure, much less thrive, when millions of its citizens do not use their freedom in a meaningful, productive, or worthy manner.
From communist authoritarians to Wahhabis clerics, a frequent critique of the West is that it is fundamentally hollow at its core, exalting freedom without answering the underlying question, “Free to do, what, exactly?” A regime that cannot answer this question is one that is prone to conflate freedom with nihilism and individualism with hedonism. It takes claims of equality much too far, celebrating a diversification of value systems that are decidedly destructive of both individual lives and the broader social fabric.
Distorted liberty and radical egalitarianism are how we arrive at a place in our politics where our commitment to freedom is absolute, almost to the point of being thoroughly unhinged, where commitments of any variety — familial, communal, fraternal, moral—are anathema to the modern sensibility. It explains why marriage is passe and parenthood is being abandoned. It illuminates why students frown when religion is even mentioned and how terms like “body autonomy” become a verbal talisman. It is why we rush to decriminalize felony offenses at the same time we convince ourselves that moral judgement is to be avoided at all costs. We fetishize the self and demonize the institutions, relationships, and commitments that allow the self to flourish.
This is the central paradox of the American Experiment and it is causing many of the Right to lose faith in the founding philosophy of the country. In the middle of the last century, two philosophic heavyweights of the West, Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojeve, engaged in a spirited debate about classical philosophy, historicism and Hegel. But today the most fascinating debate in our particular era is an intra-party squabble between a newfangled conservatism that views liberalism as inherently hostile to family, faith, community, and thus civilizations itself, versus traditional American conservatives who want to conserve the society imagined by the likes of Thomas Jefferson and John Stuart Mill. 
This is where the next “F-words,” family and fortitude, are central to understanding our problematic moment in history. 
Freedom is our highest value, and yet, it is in our most intimate attachments, family, where we learn how to use our freedom in ways that nourish the elements of life beyond self-interest, narrow ambition, or petty indulgences. The advocates of classical liberalism famously asserted that humans are naturally free, and yet nature does not bequeath the knowledge or fortitude to use freedom so that it results in human flourishing.
Family life and the emotional fortitude it provides is the God Particle of liberalized society, imbuing future citizens with the substance of individual constraint and illuminating the parameters of how free citizens should behave in both the private and public realms of life. Aristotle recognized that the family unit is a political unit — structured with rules, roles, consequences, and duties. Learning how to live and thrive in families is a dress rehearsal for our behavior in broader society.
Look around our schools and our cities and it quickly becomes apparent what happens when children are reared in situations with little to no family stability or structure. The socialization that teaches children how to be free and the adult relationships that model it are simply missing from their lived experiences.
 Mountains of research confirm time and time again that the best predictor of educational success, economic mobility, and avoiding destructive behaviors is the family structure of children. Progressives prattle endlessly about race and gender and sexual orientation. The “Post-Liberal Right” wants to blame modernity itself. 
But the problem isn’t white privilege or John Locke. The problem is the utter decline of coherent and stable family life for young Americans desperately in need of guidance who often live with a struggling parent, or a parent battling substance abuse, or a parent who brings new men into the household but who are temporary father figures, at best.
A revitalized conservative movement doesn’t need to replace classical liberalism. It needs to support it with the weight of tradition and the authority of wisdom. Policies that serve these ends could be the next chapter in the conservative movement, understanding that revitalization is not a function of spending money, but of strengthening the families that make us strong.
Jeremy S. Adams is the author of Hollowed Out: A Warning About America&#8217;s Next Generation, recently released in paperback. He has taught American civics for 24 years in Bakersfield, California and was the 2014 California Teacher of the Year (DAR). You can follow him on Twitter @JeremyAdams6.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Jefferson Memorial

 The Three Most Important ‘F Words’ In American Politics

America

American History

Crime

Freedom

Marriage

Current and former conservative officials outlined an eight-pronged plan on Wednesday to encourage <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economic</a> development under a Republican Congress.
The United States witnessed two consecutive quarters of negative output growth, while recent data from the Federal Reserve indicate that the economy will <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/american-economy-shrank-in-the-first-two-quarters-and-will-likely-stagnate-in-the-third">likely remain stagnant</a> in the third quarter. The American Small Business Prosperity Plan, launched by Job Creators Network, called on various <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/taxes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax</a> and regulatory reforms that Republican lawmakers ought to endorse, according to a press release obtained by The Daily Wire.
Among other elements, the framework calls for exempting small businesses from all new regulations, establishing able-bodied requirements for welfare recipients, and making the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. The law, currently scheduled to incrementally expire, is among the most important legislative accomplishments from the administration of former President Donald Trump.
&#8220;The Job Creators Network has put together a unified plan to help small business, fix the economy, and provide opportunity for all Americans,” former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said in a statement. “The current state of the economy is hurting hard-working Americans who depend on the economic engine that the small business community provides.”
The plan also calls for an increase in oil production. President Joe Biden has <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-severely-cuts-back-on-oil-and-gas-leases">leased less federal land</a> for drilling than any of his predecessors since the end of World War II. The national average price of gasoline was $2.38 per gallon when Biden assumed office and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gas-prices-are-1-50-higher-since-biden-took-office-cnn-business-america-got-a-raise">increased</a> to $3.53 per gallon by the start of the Russian invasion. After surpassing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/gas-prices">$5.00 per gallon</a> in early June, prices have subsided to $3.68 per gallon as of Wednesday, according to <a href="https://gasprices.aaa.com/">data</a> from AAA.
“Tax certainty, regulatory certainty, an end to wasteful inflationary spending, and unleashing domestic drilling to lower energy prices are just a few key aspects of the plan that will especially help small businesses that are the economic backbone of our great nation,” former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin added. “Every American should encourage and support the dignity and pride that comes from working. The health of our economy is not a partisan issue.”
The Biden administration has provoked criticism from conservatives by hiring relatively few high-level officials with significant business experience. According to a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/most-top-biden-officials-have-0-years-of-business-experience">report</a> from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, the top 68 individuals in the administration have spent an average of 2.4 years in the business world, with only one in eight boasting “extensive business experience.” The median length of business experience for Biden officials is zero years.
“Surely we want our political class to have a diversity of backgrounds. We want lawyers, grassroots activists, those with political and policy experience, scientists, health experts, and academics with required specialties,” the report argued. “But we also want people who have experience running large operations with hundreds and thousands of employees and who understand logistics.”
Economic issues are particularly salient as Americans prepare to vote in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-polling-cnn-analysis-spells-disaster-for-democrats-in-midterm-elections">midterm elections</a>. Inflation has reached levels last seen four decades ago, with price levels increasing 8.3% between August 2021 and August 2022, according to a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm">report</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Though year-over-year inflation slightly moderated, month-over-month prices for food, shelter, and medical services <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/august-inflation-report-shows-several-nasty-surprises-biden-claims-victory-anyway">ticked upward</a>, while core inflation — a metric that excludes food and energy prices, which tend to be more volatile — continued to rise.

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&#8220;This is not my victory. It is yours.&#8221;
A smiling Pierre Poilievre made the promise with passion as he delivered his election victory speech to an exuberant crowd of supporters earlier this month.
The fiery new leader of Canada&#8217;s Conservative Party was elected on Sep. 10 in a landslide 68-16% vote over his more moderate opponent.
&#8220;Tonight begins the journey to replace an old government that costs you more and delivers you less with a new government that puts you first, your paycheck, your retirement, your home, your country,&#8221; Poilievre <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGn-E826dAU" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vowed</a> to applause and chants of &#8220;Freedom!&#8221; at the downtown Ottawa convention center.
Poilievre, an energetic firebrand populist, has aggressively taken aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau&#8217;s progressive agenda. Now, the newly-minted Conservative leader is positioned to be a thorn in Trudeau&#8217;s side at the very least and a formidable force that torpefies the Liberal Party prime minister&#8217;s agenda at most.
Although only 43, Poilievre is a career politician of nearly two decades whose ambition and appeal to the everyday Canadian have catapulted him to the top of government. Born in Calgary, the former cabinet minister has been a member of Parliament since age 25 and led his campus conservative club at the University of Calgary.
Poilievre&#8217;s moderate opponent Jean Charest likened his opponent&#8217;s scorched-earth style to the American right wing, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/09/10/canada-conservative-pierre-poilievre/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">chastising</a> his party for seemingly following America&#8217;s lead with &#8220;a divisive approach based on slogans.&#8221; Indeed, Poilievre has been compared to former U.S. President Trump in opinion <a href="https://theweek.com/canada/1016628/does-canada-have-its-trump">pieces</a> and even <a href="https://thetyee.ca/Analysis/2022/09/09/Spring-Election-Pitting-Trudeau-Against-Poilievre/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cartoons.</a>
Poilievre did attempt to extend an olive branch to progressive members of the party, <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/pierre-poilievre-wins-conservative-leadership-on-first-ballot-1.6063223" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a> they are &#8220;one party serving one country.&#8221; However, he has shown no signs of backing down from a fight with what he considers an oppressive Liberal government, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-62882751" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promising</a> to &#8220;fight tooth and nail&#8221; for Canadians.
Over his seven-month campaign for party leader, Poilievre attacked Trudeau on everything from vaccine mandates to Canada&#8217;s spiking inflation, which he <a href="https://twitter.com/PierrePoilievre/status/1537870263358001158" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dubbed</a>  &#8220;Justin-flation.&#8221;
Earlier this year, Poilievre voiced <a href="https://twitter.com/pierrepoilievre/status/1488264488457367552" target="_blank" rel="noopener">support</a> for the anti-vaccine mandate trucker convoy that blocked the U.S.-Canada border, even <a href="https://twitter.com/PierrePoilievre/status/1542610025834655744?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1542610025834655744%7Ctwgr%5E93b091c2eda4ba061b0c035928949bebf75eb540%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&amp;ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fglobalnews.ca%2Fnews%2F8959365%2Fcanada-day-convoy-james-topp-far-right-pierre-poilievre%2F" target="_blank" rel="noopener">walking</a> with an army veteran who marched to Canada&#8217;s capital in protest of the mandates.
His election comes as Canadians look back on over two years of draconian health restrictions that were spawned by COVID but seem to <a href="https://news.paxeditions.com/news/buzz/us-lawmakers-push-ottawa-scrap-arrivecan-feds-should-improve-communication-says-coates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">never end</a> and have harmed Canada&#8217;s post-pandemic economic recovery. One Canadian pastor made international headlines for being repeatedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pastor-jailed-for-holding-church-service-during-canadas-lockdown-wins-legal-victory" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrested</a>, fined, and jailed for weeks, including one dramatic arrest in the middle of a busy highway, after defying Canada&#8217;s restrictions on church services.
Government overreach in Canada appears to have expanded beyond pandemic restrictions as well. In one horror story, a father was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jailed-canadian-father-still-fighting-childs-gender-transition" target="_blank" rel="noopener">jailed</a> for opposing his minor daughter&#8217;s medical gender transition and is still fighting a daunting and expensive legal battle as his money dwindles.
More recently, <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220622/dq220622a-eng.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spiking</a> inflation and overall uncertainty have demoralized Canadians further.
Poilievre has <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/11/pierre-poilievre-fire-tiff-macklem-canada-bank-debate-00032012" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> he would fire the head of Canada&#8217;s central bank for failing to control inflation and has <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-10-15/bank-of-canada-becoming-atm-for-trudeau-conservatives-warn?leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> the bank Trudeau&#8217;s personal ATM machine for his &#8220;insatiable spending appetites.&#8221;
&#8220;When government ruins the finances of the nation, it ruins the lives of its citizens,&#8221; Poilievre <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2022/09/12/trudeau-poilievre-inflation-canada-00056231" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last week during his first caucus address as party leader.
&#8220;We know that people are hurting across this country,&#8221; he said.
Later in the day, Trudeau made a plea for unity.
“Now is not the time for politicians to exploit fears and to pit people one against the other,” Trudeau said at a Liberal caucus retreat.
The prime minister could not resist a barb at his brand new opponent though.
&#8220;Buzzwords, dog whistles and careless attacks don’t add up to a plan for Canadians,&#8221; Trudeau added.
Trudeau has touted a progressive wishlist of policies.
The prime minister has an aggressive climate change <a href="https://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2022/eccc/En4-460-2022-eng.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plan</a> that includes slashing oil and gas emissions to 42% below 2005 levels by 2030. He has also <a href="https://pm.gc.ca/en/news/statements/2022/06/21/statement-prime-minister-national-indigenous-peoples-day" target="_blank" rel="noopener">prioritized</a> woke checklist items like government support for Canada&#8217;s indigenous population. Trudeau also scored a major win for his agenda earlier this year when his mammoth $8 per day government-subsidized child care <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/canada-secures-subsidized-child-care-deal-11648498008" target="_blank" rel="noopener">package</a> was approved.
Canadians are not responding with the enthusiasm Trudeau hoped, though.
Trudeau&#8217;s job approval has sunk to around 40%, even lower than President Biden&#8217;s 43% approval, <a href="https://morningconsult.com/global-leader-approval/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Morning Consult. More than half of Canadians say they do not approve of Trudeau&#8217;s job performance.
If those numbers signal Canadians are ready for a change, Poilievre has an opportunity to be the architect.

Conservative Party Of Canada Leadership 2022 Announcement Event

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If we genuinely believe that someone is hurting our country, which means hurting our families and friends, hurting others, hurting us, how can we genuinely love them? We love the person we marry. We love our children. We love our close friends. But loving our enemies? How can we do that?
For followers of Jesus, loving your enemies is not an option. Jesus  commands us to do this very thing, saying, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.” (Matthew)
Paul echoed these same sentiments, writing, “Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse,” and, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” He even quoted the ancient wisdom of Proverbs which exhorted us to feed our hungry enemies and give drink to our thirsty enemies (Romans).
Really? God expects us to show love to our enemies, even in practical, tangible ways?
Absolutely. The Bible is quite clear on this, and Jesus, by dying for the sins of the world, set the highest example for us.
How, then, can we put this into action and follow this lofty ethical command?
First, let’s understand what Jesus is not saying.
He is not saying that we should stop opposing destructive ideologies. He is not calling for moral or cultural or political apathy. He is not requiring us to soften our convictions or lower our standards.
Quite the contrary.
Love does not mean passivity. Love does not mean compromise. To quote Paul again, “Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.” (1 Corinthians)
But the Lord is calling us to be different than the world, not to repay insult with insult or attack with attack, not to fight nasty with nasty. He is calling us higher. In fact, this is what sets us apart: Our enemies might get downright dirty, but we don’t throw dirt in response. Our opponents might engage in slanderous mudslinging, but we don’t slander them in return.
And this brings us back to the question of “how.” How do we put this into practice?
First, we must remember that none of us are perfectly righteous and that, if God gave each of us what we deserve, we would all be in trouble. Compared to God’s perfect standards, every one of us deserves judgment. In that regard, we should walk with a limp, not a strut.
That was part of the reason Paul urged the Christians in Crete “to slander no one,” since, “At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another,” until Jesus forgave them and transformed their lives. (Titus)
We, then, who received so much mercy when we were ignorant, foolish, and full of hatred, should show mercy to those who, in our opinion, are ignorant, foolish, and full of hatred. Perhaps they too are just moments away from a life-changing conversion. Perhaps our godly example can help move them in the right direction.
Secondly, let’s recognize that, as <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/loving-your-enemies-sermon-delivered-dexter-avenue-baptist-church">Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said</a>, “there is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.” And so, “every time you begin to hate that person and think of hating that person, realize that there is some good there and look at those good points which will over-balance the bad points.”
In some cases, it is very hard to do this. What “good” is there to be found in someone who gets rich from trafficking children?
But most are not like this.
Most LGBTQ+ allies genuinely believe they are standing on the side of love and tolerance. Most pro-abortion advocates really think that they helping women and doing what is best for the child (as crazy as that may sound to us). Many are caring spouses and devoted parents and loyal friends and good neighbors.
Let us not lose sight of our shared humanity just because people vote differently than we do.
Third, we can cultivate love for our enemies by praying for them regularly. When we do, we begin to desire God’s best for their lives. We want them to have a change of heart, not simply so “our side” wins but for their own good as well. When it comes to the child trafficker, for example, loving him would mean that we would rather see him repent and turn himself in than die in a shootout with the police.
And if we have the opportunity to show our political opponents  acts of kindness – from the heart, not just as an outward display – we should do so.
Fourth, we must understand that when we repay hatred with hatred, we become part of the problem rather than part of the solution. We lower ourselves and we defile ourselves.
We also lose credibility in the eyes of a watching world. “You’re no different than the ones you criticize! All of you are acting like little children!”
To quote Dr. King again, “If I hit you and you hit me and I hit you back and you hit me back and go on, you see, that goes on ad infinitum. It just never ends. Somewhere somebody must have a little sense, and that’s the strong person. The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil.”
Let’s be determined to be the strong person in the room. And strength requires restraint.
Proverbs states that, “A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” And, “Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.”
Anyone can spout venom. Tearing people down is easy.
But speaking the truth with love – without compromise or sugar-coating or watering down – takes discipline and maturity. It will also win the day.
To <a href="https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/meaning-forgiveness">quote</a> King once more: “Here then is the Christian weapon against social evil. We are to go out with the spirit of forgiveness, heal the hurts, right the wrongs and change society with forgiveness.”
In the end, we will reproduce who we are.
What kind of movement do we want to birth? Let us live it out and model it ourselves.
Dr. Michael Brown (<a href="http://www.askdrbrown.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.askdrbrown.org</a>) is the host of the nationally syndicated <a href="http://www.lineoffireradio.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Line of Fire</a> radio program. He holds a Ph.D. in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures from New York University and has served as a professor at a number of seminaries and is the author of 40 books. Connect with him on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/AskDrBrown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/DrMichaelLBrown" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a>, or <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbINn3x-intLp88Zrf8acpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">YouTube</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Brown – How We Can Love Our Political And Ideological Enemies

How To Love Your Political And Ideological Enemies

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Every time a conservative bemoans Hollywood’s liberal groupthink a few exceptions jump to mind.
What about Tim Allen? Bruce Willis? Kelsey Grammer? Oscar-winner Jon Voight? Yes, all four lean to the Right, but Voight’s name matters most of all.
Why? 
The 83-year-old legend may be the most vocal of any Tinsel Town conservative, and his body of work is comparable to many screen icons, past or present.
But how did Voight rise to the top of not just Hollywood, but the industry’s microscopic community of right-leaning talent?
Voight started his show business career in– where else?–New York City. The future star studied at the Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre. He honed his craft under the tutelage of Sanford Meisner, who also worked with <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/04/theater/sanford-meisner-a-mentor-who-guided-actors-and-directors-toward-truth-dies-at-91.html">Diane Keaton, Robert Duvall, Gregory Peck and Steve McQueen</a>.
The young actor <a href="https://www.thewrap.com/jon-voight-midnight-cowboy/">had confidence, if not swagger,</a> at the dawn of his career.
“Once I made the decision to go to New York and start school again and learn to act, I was at peace,” he says. “I never had the thought that I was just testing it. I knew what I needed to do and I knew that I wouldn’t give up.”
He made his Broadway debut in 1961 courtesy of “The Sound of Music,” and spent much of the decade working in both theater and television. He snagged two minor 1967 film roles (“Fearless Frank,” and “Hour of the Gun”) before landing the part that changed, well, everything.
He teamed up with fellow rising star Dustin Hoffman, fresh from the actor’s bravura turn in 1967’s “The Graduate,” to play an unlikely duo swallowed whole by the Big Apple.
Michael Sarrazin officially landed the role of Joe Buck in 1969’s “Midnight Cowboy” before a money squabble led the creative team to go with someone else: the 6’3” neophyte with presence to burn.
Suffice to say they made the right choice.
“Midnight Cowboy” snagged an X rating for its frank sexual content, but Voight’s performance as a young man’s attempt at the gigolo game earned him his first Academy Award nomination. The film walked away with the Oscar for Best Picture and, with that, Voight’s Hollywood life officially began.
The 1970s didn’t just cement Voight’s fame. It enhanced it. He bounced from future film classics like 1970s “Catch 22” and 1972’s “Deliverance” to work on the Great White Way. He capped the decade with an Oscar victory for “Coming Home,” the 1978 drama about a wounded Vietnam veteran’s romance with the wife of an enlisted man.
Voight kept on working, but over time he expanded his canvas to include supporting roles and the occasional villain. He landed another Best Actor nomination for 1985’s “Runaway Train,” even if the ‘80s weren’t as kind to Voight. He suffered box office disappointments like “Lookin’ to Get Out” and “Desert Bloom” during the Reagan era, but his “Runaway Train” nomination kept him top of mind for Hollywood observers.
He opened the 1990s by tackling some small-screen work, including appearances in “Return to Lonesome Dove” and “The Rainbow Warrior.”
His villainous turn in 1997’s “Anaconda” showed a new side of Voight, a scene-stealer who understands how to embrace genre movie-making sans apology. More respectable roles in “Heat” (1995), “The Rainmaker” (1997) and “Rosewood” (1997) ensured he stayed on everyone’s radar.
He entered the new century without missing a professional beat (“Zoolander,” “Holes” and “Ali,” snagging another Oscar nomination for his portrayal of Howard Cosell).
Some actors slow down over time. Others struggle to find consequential roles worthy of their gifts. Voight shrugged off both of these real-world concerns. His Emmy nominated work in “Ray Donovan,” the long-running Showtime series about a Hollywood fixer, gave Voight one of his greatest roles to date.
Playing Mickey Donovan, a character with a thick Beantown accent and an amoral code, he powered the series through seven eventful seasons. Fans loved to loathe Mickey, a deficient father figure who kept trying to connect with his adult children.
Voight even joined Hollywood’s franchise frenzy, snagging sizable roles in series like “National Treasure,” “Transformers,” “Mission: Impossible” and “Tomb Raider.”
Through it all, Voight kept the focus on his beloved craft even when tabloid headlines invaded his complicated ties to daughter Angelina Jolie. The actor’s approach started to change at the dawn of the Obama administration, when Voight decided the time was right to weigh in on political matters.
He opened up about his <a href="https://deadline.com/2014/08/jon-voight-political-statements-impact-on-emmy-chances-813793/">move to the Right around 2007</a>, showing vigorous support for Israel and slamming then-presidential candidate Barack Obama along the way. He later supported Mitt Romney in his unsuccessful quest to make Obama a one-term president. 
He’s grown louder, and less inhibited, since then.
Voight risked everything years later by throwing his full support behind former President Donald Trump, calling him the <a href="https://people.com/politics/jon-voight-argues-trump-greatest-president-since-lincoln/">best American leader since Abraham Lincoln</a>.
In 2021 he explained why he’s speaking up after decades of focusing solely on his craft.
“I know where I stand, and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jon-voight-i-have-to-say-my-piece/">I have to say my piece</a>,&#8221; the actor told CBS News while promoting his pro-life feature “Roe v. Wade.” He also said in 2019 that the modern Democratic Party “<a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/465052-jon-voight-democratic-party-doesnt-represent-america-anymore/">doesn’t represent America anymore</a>.”
Voight sat down with The Daily Wire in 2021 to talk about Leftism in Hollywood.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Jon Voight Reveals How Leftism Ruined Hollywood" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NwQr0uAgxq0?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Voight, who was the recipient of the <a href="https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals/jon-voight">2019 National Medal of Arts</a>, understands that art comes before politics. He even made an informal pact with “Ray Donovan” star Liev Schreiber <a href="https://tvline.com/2022/01/17/liev-schreiber-jon-voight-politics-trump-ray-donovan/">not to talk politics between takes</a>.
“I love Jon … I would do anything for him,” Schreiber said of his long-time co-star.
His “Coming Home” co-star, Jane Fonda, took a different approach. <a href="https://etcanada.com/news/689539/jane-fonda-says-shes-no-longer-friends-with-jon-voight-due-to-his-political-views-he-changed-into-an-extreme-right-winger/">She cut Voight out of her life</a> due to their differing political views. And there’s a very good chance he’s missed out on some juicy roles for similar reasons. His stunning lack of an Emmy win for “Ray Donovan” speaks for itself (he earned but two nominations for the celebrated role).
Media outlets routinely <a href="https://www.avclub.com/francis-ford-coppola-megalopolis-cast-adam-driver-1848918668">take cheap shots at Voight</a> for daring to be an open conservative.
But even so, Voight appears to have few regrets about his political persona and he continues to find work into his 80s.
The newly empowered Voight is also willing to put his name, his legacy behind right-leaning projects. He follows up “Roe v. Wade” with “Reagan,” the 2023 biopic of the nation’s 40th president. Voight will play a fictional KGB agent while Dennis Quaid stars as the commander in chief.
Voight’s politics could have slowed, if not entirely ended, his Hollywood career. Instead, he keeps on working, including a potentially major new feature from Francis Ford Coppola called “Megalopolis.”

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In February of 1984, I took the train to New York with a young woman named Julie, who would later be my wife. We were both freshmen at Princeton, and we were on our way to Irving Kristol’s Institute for Educational Affairs, where we hoped to find funding to start a conservative student magazine. Once there, we were ushered into an office where a man behind a desk was looking over the paperwork we had sent him. He smiled and said: “It looks like someone has been reading Burke.” We won our first year’s funding at this meeting. The first issue of our magazine, The Princeton Tory, appeared in October and was followed by five more issues during the academic year. The magazine is still being published at Princeton today.
Why found a magazine instead of doing schoolwork? It cannot have been the obvious thing to do. We’d been on the campus for only five months at that time, and our lives were already quite full. Julie and I had met in physics lab a few weeks after arriving on campus. It was the conservation of momentum experiment, in which you used a camera and a strobe to capture a series of images of hockey pucks colliding on an air table. If you did it right, you could measure the velocity of the two pucks before and after the collision, and show that the total velocity times mass remained the same even though the speed of the pucks had changed.
Julie had been assigned to the lab group working at the air table next to mine, and she came over to ask for help operating the camera. I recognized her immediately from the face book. In those days, before the internet, the university printed up a physical book called a face book, which had the pictures of more than a thousand incoming freshmen in it. Each photograph was accompanied by the student’s name, hometown, and birthday. I had dutifully looked up every freshman who had the same birthday as mine, June 6. There were three students in my class with the same birthday, all of them women, and I had memorized their names, thinking it might be useful in starting a conversation. And so it was. When Julie brought her camera over to my table, I responded to her by name and asked if her birthday was June 6, which was my birthday as well. We ended up moving to an empty air table and doing the lab together.
The next day, we sat together in Professor Wilkinson’s introductory physics course, which the students called “the magic show.” We applauded as he successfully performed the experiments after describing them in chalk on the blackboard behind him. That night, we met at the student-run café under Murray-Dodge Hall, where the tables were lit with a single candle and the air was tinged with cinnamon from the cookies baking in the back room. That was the first time we really talked. A couple of weeks later, we drove up to Harvard in a car full of students to take part in the off-topic debate tournament being held over the weekend. By then, we were inseparable.
Julie was as beautiful a girl as I had ever met in my life. Her smile lit up the moody gothic halls of the campus in a way that left me in awe. But what made my attraction to her so powerful was the things she said when our conversation turned to politics and religion. She had grown up a Presbyterian in rural western Pennsylvania, and though she was no longer a Christian when we met—she was reading one of Bertrand Russell’s atheist tracts at the time—she was still a Republican.
The girls I had known growing up had almost all been liberals, which meant that when the conversation turned to something important, what I had to say was rarely appreciated. I still remember telling one of those high school girls that my forefathers had thought about me, just as I was thinking about my own grandchildren and their grandchildren, and that these ancestors had prayed that I would uphold and defend certain things in which they believed. She replied: “I can’t believe you walk around carrying all of that!”
But Julie was carrying some burdens of her own. She had grown up with a half-brother who was born with a severe disability, and I think she always knew his death was coming soon. One evening we went to dinner in town with another couple from my college. In those days, abortion was a major issue in every election campaign, and so the conversation easily turned to abortion.
Before dinner was served, the other young woman at the table had already announced that she intended to open an abortion clinic so no woman would have to bear a child she didn’t want. Julie’s eyes blazed with anger as she told us about her brother Kevin. When our conversation partner said such children should be aborted, Julie rose from the table and walked out. I apologized to my friends, but in my heart, I was rejoicing. I had never known this kind of woman before. I followed Julie out.
On the surface of things, Julie and I must have looked to be in the throes of a typical college romance, just like those friends of mine from the college. Princeton had only begun admitting women ten years earlier, and by now everyone understood (if there had ever been any doubt) that if you housed young men and women in the same dormitories, many of them would end up spending a considerable portion of their time this way.
But deeper things were taking place between us that only those who were very close to us could understand. Julie’s father had left her mother when she was two years old, and her mother was already then on her way to divorcing a second time. Her stepfather had been abusive and neither parent had been able to protect her. When I heard these stories, it was my turn to grow angry, and Julie was comforted by my anger, as I had been comforted by hers. I knew a thing or two about this kind of shattered family myself.
My father had moved out of the house the year before, leaving my violent and mentally ill mother to fend for herself. That had been his second marriage, and he married for a third time before I graduated. In fact, most of my friends in high school had been suffering through the breakup of their families. They handled these hardships badly. Many lost themselves in alcohol and drugs. Some had abortions. One took his own life. Few of them ended up married with children of their own.
Where Julie grew up, her friends decided to have the babies rather than aborting them. But they were raising them without fathers.
Between Julie and me, there sprang up a bond that reflected these depths. She was poor, but proud. When it turned out that she had only one contact lens, it took weeks of persuading before she would let me buy her a pair of glasses. I had not known the warmth of my mother’s touch since I was a small child, and I experienced Julie’s care for me as something akin to deliverance. Of course, neither of us had learned what a strong relationship between a man and a woman was like from our parents. But I had some idea from the year I had lived in Israel, spending sabbaths and holidays with my Uncle Isaac and Aunt Linda, Orthodox Jews living with their six children in a prefabricated home on a hillside an hour north of Jerusalem. And Julie had some idea from having lived on and off with her grandfather and her grandmother, Owen and Varda, devout Presbyterians who had raised five children in a home filled with music that was a pillar of their church.
When we spoke late into the nights, these things filled our conversations. Our schoolwork was pale and unimportant in comparison. The bond that sprang up between us was one that was full of hope and determination, although looking back on it now, I know we were also desperate. We longed for something we had seen and knew something about, although we didn’t really understand it: that home in which a husband and wife remained faithful their entire lives, into which children were born and could grow strong, in which life was precious and God’s blessings were tangible even in the face of tragedy and hardship. It was this that we built together in excited talk.
The bond, which we discussed in muted tones, was this: That I would be there for her—no matter what. That she would stay with me—no matter what. That we would raise children and grandchildren together. That we would not break as our own families had. Each of us wanted this more than anything else. But was it real? Can you believe in a nineteen-year-old boy? In an eighteen-year-old girl?
My father asked me what I was doing. I told him: “You need to trust me more. I won’t marry a woman who isn’t a Jew.”
I knew how much I owed my father, and there was never a moment when I considered betraying him. My loyalty to him and to my people was firm. I had told Julie the same thing on the window seat in her dorm room in Rockefeller College a few weeks after we met. I still remember that conversation. It was hard to say because I was afraid to hurt her. But I said it. I would only marry her if she were a Jew. It didn’t scare her. She had left the church long before coming to Princeton. Where she had grown up, the Old Testament was what she called “old-time religion.” It had borne God’s word. It had taken the Jews to the promised land. Perhaps it would take her there as well.
It is strange, now, thinking of us speaking of the promised land in that time, and in that place. In an Ivy League school, which had abandoned its Presbyterian past and was now adrift without direction. And yet, somehow, God lingered there. This was New Jersey, after all, and Bruce Springsteen’s songs blared through the courtyards on stereo speakers turned outward in the windows of the dormitories. And these songs were, strangely, about Julie and me—songs of hard luck, songs of pain and a desperate hope. Songs about a young man and a young woman running away together:
Well, I ain’t no hero, that’s understood
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood With a chance to make it good somehow
Hey, what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window and let the wind blow back your hair
Well, the night’s busting open, these two lanes will take us anywhere
We got one last chance to make it real
To trade in these wings on some wheels
Climb in back, heaven’s waiting on down the tracks
Oh oh, come take my hand
We’re riding out tonight to case the promised land
Oh oh oh oh, Thunder Road
Oh, Thunder Road, Oh Thunder Road.
How many times did we hear that song about leaving for the promised land, and others that whispered similar things in our ears? The debate team sang “Thunder Road” on the way to every tournament, although it is hard to know why. What did these words mean to them?
I still don’t know. But for Julie and me, these words were always about us.
Yoram Hazony is the chairman of the Edmund Burke Foundation, and he serves as the president of the Herzl Institute in Jerusalem. You can follow him at<a href="https://twitter.com/yhazony"> @yhazony</a> This article is an adapted excerpt from his new book, Conservatism: A Rediscovery, (Regnery Gateway, May 17, 2022), now available in bookstores and on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Conservative-Rediscovery-Yoram-Hazony/dp/1684511097">Amazon.com</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are the author&#8217;s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

v3 Hazony – Some Notes On Living A Conservative Life

Some Notes On Living A Conservative Life

Princeton University

Human beings are not born with the necessary knowledge, experience, or habits to pursue their own happiness. Conservatism is essential, not because it teaches the contents of  “happiness,” but because it understands what is required for “the pursuit.”
I spend my life standing in front of American teenagers attempting to teach them civics, economics, and world history. Lately, I have become somewhat obsessed by a particular question: what will teachers a century from now say about our particular time in the stream of history? How will this chapter in the American saga be portrayed to our posterity?
In short, what will they teach their students about the United States of America circa 2022?
The delirium of daily news and the incessant frivolity of social media hysteria probably won’t even register as a historic blip. No one cares about an arbitrary Trump tweet or outrageous college protests at Ivy League Colleges. Given enough time and perspective, even presidential scandals—both real and imagined—will fade from the privileged perch of perpetual news coverage. 
Here’s what I think will transcend the tedium of outrage and quite possibly become the defining story of this particular moment in history: Americans were deeply unhappy. 
Present-day Americans are cynical about the future. <a href="https://mcc.gse.harvard.edu/reports/loneliness-in-america#:~:text=Our%20new%20report%20suggests%20that,outbreak%20of%20the%20global%20pandemic.">We are lonely</a>. We are mired in hapless confusion and seem to exist in a sinister fog of unending malaise about how to pursue what the Ancient Greeks called “the good life” or what University of Chicago <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Leading-Worthy-Life-Finding-Meaning/dp/1594039410">ethicist Leon Kass</a> labeled “a worthy life.”
Future Americans will probably note a tragic diversity of manifestations of modern American gloom. 
If they study our cities, they will observe rising waves of crime, chaos, and homelessness.
If they look in rural areas, they will witness surging rates of drug addiction and more than <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/05/11/drug-overdose-deaths-cdc-numbers/">one hundred thousand drug-related deaths</a> in a single year. They will uncover surges in suicide, anxiety, and self-harm — <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/teen-suicides-increased-many-states-pandemic-rcna25825">especially among the young</a>.  
If they look in our schools, they will observe teenagers who are monomaniacally obsessed with their devices, unable to concentrate long enough <a href="https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2019-08-22/death-of-reading-high-school-cellphone">to read a book</a> or even watch a movie, and largely ignorant of American history and our constitutional system — though still brazenly cocksure their society is systemically engaging in a sprawling yet clandestine campaign of endless oppression.
If they read studies about love and marriage, they will note that we are living through an existential <a href="https://www.prb.org/resources/why-is-the-u-s-birth-rate-declining/">decline of birth rates</a> fueled by millennials who are largely suspicious of marriage as an institution. <a href="https://www.studyfinds.org/gen-z-adults-pets-over-kids/#:~:text=%E2%80%94%20Generation%20Z%20may%20end%20up,people%3B%20millennials%20are%20as%20well!">Seven in ten millennials</a> claim to want a dog more than a family. The consumption of pornography has been destigmatized during the past few decades, and, to no one’s surprise, it has coincided with a profound decline in levels of interest in finding a romantic or sexual partner. Programming like “Saturday Night Live” features skits <a href="https://www.vulture.com/2022/05/your-longterm-boyfriend-is-old-enough-to-run-errands-on-snl.html">unapologetically infantilizing American men</a> in their 30s, explicitly comparing them to Japanese infants.   
What do all of these tragedies have in common?
Simply put: we Americans have forgotten how to pursue our own happiness, and conservatives should know why.
Perhaps the most detrimental facet of modern progressivism is the popular opinion it perpetuates in young people: if the world were just a little bit better, if we could just make sure the minimum wage was higher and global temperatures were lower, if everyone just treated everyone else a little bit better, if only there was less extreme income inequality, then the world would be worthy of veneration and happiness.
This belief that the “pursuit of happiness” should be a political project instead of an individual aspiration is toxic. It orients our souls toward a misplaced utopianism that will never come to pass rather than toward individual virtue, private ambition, or the cultivation of personal relationships. Even if this idealized version of society did transpire, we would just move on to a different set of problems.
When I ask my college-going daughter to explain why young people are so deeply unhappy and anxious, she never cites the absence of love, friendship, faith, or patriotism from their lives. She never catalogs the hours spent mindlessly scrolling TikTok. Instead, she talks about climate change, bad jobs, and the prominence of implicit bias. Her essential argument is, “Why would anybody be happy in this world?”
Yet, the evidence is clear. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/opinion/conservatives-liberals-happiness.html">Conservatives tend to be happier</a> than progressives.
Some argue that it is because conservatives have a built-in ideological tolerance of inequality. Others argue that it is because conservatives tend to believe in their own individual will more than liberals do, as many progressives attribute much of life’s outcomes to circumstances beyond their own control.
My argument is that conservatism is essential to the pursuit of happiness, not because it has miraculously unlocked the eternal secrets of human happiness, but because it focuses on the habits necessary for the “pursuit” itself—discipline, powerful friendships, and familial bonds to guide us and, most of all, faith in the righteousness of what we are pursuing.
American conservatism has a variety of core principles—a belief in limited government, faith in free enterprise, and a robust commitment to traditional relationships and values. Beyond policy preferences and Republican party platforms, though, the most noble and essential element in conservatism is a stentorian belief in conserving the foundational values and behaviors that empower human beings to meaningfully exercise individual liberty.
Americans are largely unhappy these days because the relationships, commitments, and institutions that domesticate excessive individualism and purposefully channel desire—churches, schools, military branches, structured families—are now frequently missing from the lives of everyday Americans. 
A Jeffersonian quest for happiness requires specific action beyond different iterations of modern identity. The American Experiment was founded on an understanding that individuals have different interests, wants, and desires and, therefore, should possess agency in order to pursue happiness on their own unique terms: I want to live in California, and my brother wishes to move to Tennessee. I want to spend my weekends watching football, and my best friend wants to volunteer at the local homeless shelter. I want one child; my neighbor wants five.  
Our current unhappiness, however, is the consequence, not from making poor choices and weak commitments, but from making few commitments altogether. We live in a time that endlessly prattles on about “rights,” but we have forgotten that “responsibilities” are where we find our deeper purpose. We obsess over “choice,” yet we seem strangely indifferent to the consequences of the choices we make—everything from eating processed foods and living sedentary lifestyles to avoiding parenthood for fear of losing autonomy. 
Liberty without wisdom becomes empty egotism. Freedom without the mitigating power of moral virtue becomes a grotesque form of narcissism. Too many Americans have been seduced into a cult of radicalized individualism where Truth morphs into nihilism, beauty becomes indistinguishable from vulgarity, and love no longer focuses on one’s beloved but rather on shallow pursuits of lazy and casual eroticism.
No wonder we are unhappy. 
Thus, the modern aspiration of conservatism must be more than riding the rising tide of anti-wokeness or defeating candidates whose policy programs we dislike. Conservatism, at its best, ensures that citizens have a driver’s license before they get behind the wheel of life. It reminds Americans that lives of deep and soaring commitments are synonymous with a substantive “pursuit of happiness.” It reminds Americans that we should value what is truly important, celebrate what is genuinely celebratory, and, above all, seek happiness and contentment in a realm largely devoid of politics.  
Jeremy S. Adams is the author of the recently-released Amazon best-selling book Hollowed Out: A Warning About America&#8217;s Next Generation. He has taught American civics for 24 years in Bakersfield, California and was the 2014 California Teacher of the Year (DAR). You can follow him on Twitter @JeremyAdams6.

Adams – Why Conservatism is the Key to the American Pursuit of Happiness

Why Conservatism Is The Key To The American Pursuit Of Happiness

Parenting

Teenagers

Australians voted in favor of a leftist government Saturday, stripping the center-Right party of its power for the first time in nine years.
Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese of the leftist Labor Party will be sworn in after current Prime Minister Scott Morrison conceded defeat, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/covid-health-scott-morrison-australia-government-and-politics-f814d240ba76c4d903cad4bc11a1b7e1">reported</a>.
“Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he quickly conceded defeat despite millions of votes yet to be counted because an Australian leader must attend a Tokyo summit on Tuesday with U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” the AP explained.
The latest counts show the Labor Party holding 72 of the 151-seat House of Representatives compared to 55 seats controlled by the center-Right Liberal Party, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/australias-center-left-labor-party-on-track-to-win-election-11653137678">according</a> to The Wall Street Journal. The Labor Party would need four more seats to gain a majority, allowing them to govern without needing to ally with minority-party or independent representatives.
Australians have increasingly supported more government action on climate change, even in conservative areas, giving Labor Party and Independent candidates an edge in the election over conservatives, the Journal explained. Inflation also played a key part in the election among urban and suburban voters, who ultimately decided on Left-leaning candidates to handle the issue.
To fight inflation and climate change, Albanese’s Labor Party has promised to increase the minimum wage and set a goal of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Albanese has also touted his name and upbringing as evidence he will bring progressive change to the Australian government.
“It says a lot about our great country that a son of a single mom who was a disability pensioner, who grew up in public housing down the road in Camperdown can stand before you tonight as Australia’s prime minister,” Albanese said in a Saturday victory speech.
The newly elected prime minister has said he is the first Australian candidate with a “non-Anglo Celtic name” to run for the office.
“Every parent wants more for the next generation than they had,” Albanese continued. “My mother dreamt of a better life for me. And I hope that my journey in life inspires Australians to reach for the stars.”
Australia’s shift to the Left also comes as its relationship with communist China continues to intensify, the Journal noted. In 2020, Morrison called for an international investigation into COVID-19 and its origins in China. The communist country then placed tariffs on Australian coal, barley, and wine imports while also being accused by the Australian government of shining a laser from one of its navy ships at an Australian surveillance aircraft.
Albanese, like Morrison, has called for tough action on China, but the prime minister-elect argued that his predecessor has not done enough to curb Chinese aggression.
According to the AP, the Labor Party has proposed starting a Pacific defense training to help neighboring countries respond to any potential threats from the Chinese military.

Australia Election

Australia Votes For Leftism; Center-Right Party Loses Control After 9 Years In Power

Australia's Center-Right Party Loses Power For First Time In 9 Years As Country Moves Left

Australia

Election

Leftism

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