For hundreds of years a great debate between “conservative” traditionalist communitarians versus “classical liberal” (or libertarian) pluralist individualists has raged on and on. I personally have closely followed it for going on fifty years. Perhaps the person who best captured the essence of the serious issues involved was the conservative sociologist Robert Nisbet (one of my favorite authors). Conservative Michael Hendrix, at National Review, has contributed a very well written piece in this centuries old ongoing debate. From the time of Edmund Burke the original “conservatives” were anti-individualist, anti-capitalist, reactionary, militaristic racists who valued throne and altar, rigid hierarchy, caste and … Continue reading The Great Debate