The election of 2016 exposed some fundamental divisions within conservative intellectual culture.

It is perhaps somewhat urgent then for us to consider the deepest theological and philosophical roots

of our policy prescriptions and political activities.

One of the central debates within American conservatism, at least at Hillsdale College, is over the role

of natural rights and tradition in a coherent political philosophy.

Some conservative advocates of a politics

based upon natural rights point

to the healthy classical liberalism of the American founding

and even John Locke contend that many of the problems of modern political discourse find their roots in German idealism,

and argue that a return to the principles of the Declaration of Independence will renew our politics.

Of course, these principles are that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain

unalienable rights, and that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving

their just powers from the consent of the governed.

I'm surprised we didn't recite that together.

Victor Munoz has sensibly referred to this perspective as natural rights statesmanship.

Others have called

a sustainable or natural law liberalism for ease of discussion with all of its problems.

I'll refer to this way of thinking as natural rights conservatism. On the other hand, those

advocating the thought of Edmund Burke and Russell Kirk, traditionalist conservatives or

paleo conservatives

are today hesitant about natural rights,

in part because of the excesses and abuses

...