The Summit on Principled Conservatism: What it is, what it isn’t, & why we need it
Next Saturday, grassroots conservatives will convene in Washington, DC to discuss the meaning and the future of conservatism. The gathering won’t be in a fancy resort, but it won’t cost hundreds of dollars to attend, either. There won’t be staged plays called “UnderCovers” about the “Deep State” and Lisa Page’s text messages. If what you’re after is a chance to huddle with folks who all think the exact same way — who gather to cheer one candidate that they all support or to own the libs — this won’t be your cup of tea.
The Summit on Principled Conservatism will be a day-long series of panels featuring discussion and debate over the meaning of conservatism. It will include our grassroots activists who have been meeting in small gatherings across the country this year, and thought leaders who are volunteering their Saturdays for no fee to join us.
This seems to be a difficult concept for our critics to grasp, so let me repeat it for clarity’s sake: none of our speakers is being paid a single penny to appear, and no one is being paid to host or to promote this conference. The cost of a ticket is just $10 to ensure attendance and defray the cost of lunch and a venue. No one is grifting, or selling books, or turning a profit off this day. It’s a Summit by grassroots conservatives for grassroots conservatives — period.
Here are few things to expect:
The make-up of attendees will be extremely diverse — not just people who can afford $300 tickets. We’ll have teachers, service-sector employees, farmers, lawyers, business owners, stay-at-home parents, and college students. There will be old-guard conservatives, new-guard conservatives, libertarians, Trump supporters, and, yes, even a Democrat or two who care about having a healthy conservatism in this country — a conservatism that can handle competing ideas and provide a genuine answer to the serious questions we face as a country. We welcome everyone ready to engage with ideas and arguments, instead of name-calling. We won’t turn anyone away who engages respectfully and we won’t ridicule those who vote differently.
This is not a Summit about who we support or oppose — it’s a Summit about what we believe. The conservative movement is currently in the throes of an identity crisis that is largely a result of personality-driven politics. The crisis is so severe that few can even tell you what conservatism stands for anymore. Our chief goal, then, is to retrace and define the first principles of conservatism in the 21st century.
This won’t be merely another homage to Reaganism, though. We recognize that our principles will have to be applied in new ways to solve the unique challenges of this new century. Should conservatism aim to maximize opportunity at every turn, or should it focus on deploying government resources to wall off American culture and enterprise from new forces? How important is human freedom relative to human security in this new era? Do the Constitution and the rule of law pose any real limits on the power of the Executive? It’s time to revisit these questions anew.
We don’t claim to have all the answers, nor do we purport to agree with everything each of us have ever said. But this is another reason the Summit is important: it gives us a chance to prove that people with different views can meet face-to-face in a room and discuss ideas in a productive way. Americans have almost stopped listening to each other altogether, which loosens the bonds between us. The simple courage to converse with people harboring different perspectives has almost gone extinct in our politics — but we hope to take one small step next Saturday towards restoring it.
We aren’t setting out to create a label for who does and doesn’t count as a conservative, either. That endeavor would fail and ultimately result in a pretty small room. Indeed, a different version of that same exercise is why the current Republican Party is shrinking. But, we can jointly acknowledge that the conservative movement has woefully lost touch with the basics: freedom, constitutionalism, limited government, honesty, and decency.
The loss of basic principles spells troubling consequences for our republic. When our political choices cease to revolve around what we believe, we lose our independence and our voices as citizens matter less. Politicians realize that they can leverage their brands to do whatever they wish and their voters will fall in line. This is antithetical to our concept of self-government.
That’s why principles are so important. They anchor our politics to core values and ensure that those we elect today wield power tomorrow according to some blueprint larger than themselves. They don’t care which party’s letter sits next to your name. Principles define who we are, what we believe in, and the type of country we’ll become.
That’s why we’re choosing to put them first — before politicians and before party.
We do this because we love America. We love its ideals, traditions, and aspirations. We love its complex history and the never-ending pursuit of a more perfect Union. Our patriotism is rooted in appreciation, not for a particular version of American culture or an ancestral lineage, but for our shared commitment to freedom.
The Constitution places a duty on each of us as citizens to play a role in shaping the course of our government. We plan to put principles first next week as part of meeting that duty and to commit to holding our government and ourselves accountable to them.
