The Principled Fight

October 2022November 11, 2022By Bruce P. Frohnen

Those on the right would do well to look to Edmund Burke as a common example in discerning the principles at stake in our present struggle, as well as the character and conduct needed to win . . .

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Comments (13)

I too feel as Mr. Frohnen does, and would locate myself politically just about where he is. I’ve wondered and have been disconcerted to witness the divisions among conservatives when there is a loathsome, leftist monster ravening about our country devouring whatever it can of our cultural, familial, and political heritage.

October 14, 2022 Doug Asbrock Reply
I can devise an infallible prescription for curing the factionalism on the Right: discuss Burke. Yes, instead of discussing Sam Francis (or James Burnham)–both of whom are a million times more relevant! That’s why we (sic?) are divided: a minority of us know that Sam Francis was right on just about every topic; while the majority (including National Review) is content to label him a “racist” or “supremacist.” That’s the division. No need to dig up the Burke fossil. What I find characteristic of the Right, as instanced by Frohnen, is recourse to historiography in lieu of organizing and storming–what the Left does.

October 24, 2022 Nick Reply
Yeah the “right” is fractionaolized by the RINOs that claim they are for smaller government (conservative) as the run deficits ad nauseum…and the media still skewers them as racists for not spending more…

October 24, 2022 Mike Herzog Reply
I frankly think it is a problem when we mention Harry Jaffa in a discussion of conservatism except, perhaps to point out that he wasn’t a conservative and his adherents aren’t either.

October 25, 2022 William Gaddis Reply
Well written, but I can’t understand why you would leave out Burke’s eminently relevant quote:

“All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”

October 25, 2022 Peter Michael Perceval II Reply
The more I learn of Edmund Burke, the more attractive I find his ideas. He has been portrayed by some as a supporter of monarchy which has been used as a sleight against him. In fact he wasn’t in favor of absolute monarchy like what was found in France before and after the Revolution. He was for classical republicanism with political powers separate or decentralized. I agree reading more of his thoughts would help the conservative cause of today. However, I don’t think Never Trumpers will listen. They are in fact Imperialists and Leftists.

https://thecrosssectionrmb.blogspot.com/

October 25, 2022 RMB Reply
Mr. Perceval: you notice the flaw embedded in the Burke line: their doing nothing has exposed that they’re not good. (Sheltered virtue type of phenom.) We had only thought ourselves good…until we did nothing. I have ceased to think the majority on the Right (including myself) can claim to be decisively more virtuous than the Left. Less evil? Won’t cut it.

October 25, 2022 Nick Reply
Burke was a traditionalist, but his wasn’t a narrow traditionalism. He recognized the need for change as it was inevitable in all human endeavor, so long as it was gradual. Rapid, uncontrolled social change was an anathema to Burke.

October 25, 2022 Hans Bosse Reply
I am in the midst of wondering what is there to conserve. I notice conservatism is split into a hundred modes of complexity. When I read American history I am disturbed by what appears to be a foundational beginning that may not have been correct. It seems like America has pinned its hope for objective truth on three pillars of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of happiness from which nothing objective can be derived. If one listens to the discourse especially during the recent debates there is no foundational, objective nor absolute belief system inherent in this land that forms any basis for a tradition or a culture to defend. We are hitting the logical extreme of our own assumptions.

October 27, 2022 Robert Schmitt Reply
Mr. Schmitt, the object of your well-taken observation reminds me of France in 1940, as described by William Shirer: “Only the hopelessly naïve can imagine that France fell so swiftly because of the mere mechanical strength of the Nazi war machine that might have been sufficient in a longer run, but not to destroy a great nation with a colossal military establishment in a few weeks. France collapsed so swiftly because its people had no heart for the war as every observer had remarked, even through the censorship, from the beginning of the war. And they had no heart for the war because the bourgeois ideologies by which they were appealed to no longer had power to move their hearts. Men are prepared to be heroes for very foolish and unworthy ideals; but they must at least believe in those ideals.” In America 2022, however preposterous the Left’s ideals, they inspire action.

October 29, 2022 Nick Reply
Nick, thanks for the response. I often get rather depressed when I consider the deep entrenchment of those who seek to do this awful destruction. I try even to consider their perspective to gauge if they see something I do not and I fail at that. I have long ago figured out that something must have been fundamentally wrong to have enables such a trajectory as we have endured. My best answer is somewhat ancient I suspect. I think we have grafted upon ourselves a wrong metaphysics which has led to a false reality.
I am at a loss as to how our fundamentals lead to anything other then final chaos. I think we have a false relationship or understanding to the meaning of liberty, happiness, equality, rights etc. Until we address that we will continue to flounder along. As the great Chesterton once said “if you dont know where you are going any road will take you there.”

October 29, 2022 Robert Schmitt Reply
Mr. Schmitt, two books which helped me gain some clarity about why we SHOULD be in our current state: Burnham, Suicide of the West; Bloom, Closing of the American Mind. I myself re-read both of them very recently. Pardon my impertinence if you already did as well. Thanks for that delectable Chesterton aphorism. That man was incapable of turning off his wit!

October 29, 2022 Nick Reply
Thank you Nick for the recommendations. I read Blooms book but it must have been 40 years ago. I recall finding it very significant. I think it may have consciously or unconsciously effected my entire life afterward as I survey who I became since reading it. Your mention now has me thinking it is time to re-read it. Have read a little of Burnham, but again awhile back. Good suggestions, both will go on my reading list.

October 30, 2022 Robert Schmitt Reply

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