Phil’s Executive Summary
Scholars continually evaluate the political divide effected by parties: Republican, Democrat, and Independent, the first pursuing conservativism and the second pursuing liberalism. The first led by civic faction of the people, the second ruled by elite politicians, and the 3rd often urging less governance. Recently, parties are further divided, for example pitting, capitalism v socialism, classical liberalism v license, responsibility v rights, tradition v progressivism, necessary goodness versus ideology, Protestantism vs wokeism, and many more internal competitions.[1]
I long since declined to promote, as a political party, A
Civic People of the United States, a Louisiana Education Corporation. Yet I work
to persuade fellow citizens to consider civic integrity, which I define:
responsible pursuit of necessary goodness. Necessary goodness is subject to the
laws of physics, and humankind’s opportunity is to research those laws and discover
how to use them to benefit life on earth.
The articles I studied [2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
fail to disclose the collaboration for necessary goodness that humankind may
and can pursue. Each person’s choices to act produce consequences that are
constrained by the laws of physics and progeny. Progeny includes forces,
chemistries, biology, psychology, and imagination. Individuals use imagination
to construct reason, in other words rational mystery, in the absence of
ineluctable evidence. Humankind’s opportunity is to do the research that is
required to discover the ineluctable truth and how to pursue necessary goodness.
Valid reporting and records prevent repetition of error. As discovery
transpires, reason and mystery lose utility. For example, research proved that
the sun is a natural nuclear reactor, obsoleting history’s sun gods.
Every newborn baby has the
opportunity to comprehend and intend human being (verb), even though education
systems make it unlikely. Practicing human being places an individual above all
other species. People past, present, and future collaborate to not repeat
mistakes.
The ancients – people who lived before 4000 years ago –
suggested that female and male Homo sapiens is the species that may and can
pursue necessary goodness on earth. For example, the law codes developed in
Sumer civilization, beginning about 5500 years ago, advocated public support to
widows and orphans. Since then, some nations have improved law codes, and the
United States Constitution that was ratified in 1791 accommodates the pursuit of
statutory justice “to ourselves and our Posterity”. Statutory justice is
pursued by eliminating discovered injustices in the written law.
Today, at the leading edge of
some 200,000 years’ Homo sapiens development, humankind is beginning to acknowledge
if not accept the power, the authority, and the responsibility to purse
statutory justice on earth rather than attempt to impose a higher power to
usurp humankind’s role. The civic faction of We the People of the United States
realize that a utopia is not possible. The laws of physics reliably constrain
human choices. Referring to the United States Constitution, “ourselves and our
Posterity” may and can aid people who cannot help themselves, constrain
criminals, and eliminate evils.
Today’s world seems at an abyss and needing pivotal leadership
by the United States. The key to success is educating youth as well as adults to
pursue and practice necessary goodness as individuals, as interest groups, and
as nation, each collaborating to practice human being – civic integrity. Every political
party may and can accept the responsibility to collaborate to practice human
being. Future voters may and can influence parties to demonstrate collaboration
to achieve necessary goodness.
Phil’s Key Points
Scholars write in language developed over centuries of
debate and cite recognized authorities of that language. For example, “common
good” might reference Plato, John Locke, and many others. Scholarship leaves it
to the reader to acquire understanding. I try to develop language that may be
representative yet comprehensible without education in political philosophy.
The key points and comments that follow are intended to transition to my
writing from the scholarly review I undertook. It isn’t easy, and the reader
needs patience to relate to historical documents. One option is to skip my
evaluations and go straight to the documents I studied.
1.
The western world seems to favor responsibility
to humankind rather than to progressive ideology. Humankind is comprised of
individuals.
a.
Most human-beings pursue necessary goodness
despite spiritual, religious, or ideological doctrine. Reliably responsible
citizens can be both religious and civic (pursuing necessary goodness).
b.
People tend to politically self-order on key
issues: good, bad, or evil behavior; the pursuit of civil order; wealth; race
or ethnicity; gender.
2.
The individual who pursues the responsibility of
home ownership ineluctably accepts civil risks -- local regulations, national
security, and world peace, in addition to physical threats like weather.
a.
Neighborliness or civic integrity can be
constrained or prevented by unfavorable local, state, or national governance or
by alien-foreign assault. Hopes and comforts proposed by religious institutions
offer benefit only when the believer is civically self-positive.
b.
The prudent individual either chooses a nation
that pursues his or her preferences, or aids the nation they were born into, to
develop statutory justice, meaning the gradual elimination of injustices in the
law or civil regulations.
3.
Given one life (amidst the dead, the living, and
the unborn) the conservative aids deliberative lessening of interconnected
civil injustices, in order to limit unexpected bad-consequences. On the other
hand, the liberal imagines and seeks immediate relief, often without confirming
that injustice existed. For example, the religious person would impose his/her
God’s view, neglecting humility to The God, which is: whatever constrains the
consequences of human choice.
a.
Politics addresses the individual’s power to
pursue necessary goodness. Each person may choose to grant their power to
fellow citizens.
b.
In these political considerations, the
individual is a person, with mind, body, and intentions, informed to humankind
or not. Introduction of mystery, such as soul or divinity, lessens the person’s
attention to politics.
4.
The modern writers I considered in this study
help me conclude that conservatism is more reliable than progressivism to
preserve individual opportunity to choose necessary goodness.
a.
The administrative state bemuses, distracts, and
discourages responsible goodness.
i.
Wilson’s un-joined league of nations, Roosevelt’s
New Deal, Johnson’s great society, Biden’s green new deal.
ii.
Bureaucratic inertia avoids and resists civic
accountability.
iii.
The left turns colonial America’s Declaration of
Independence from England and its claims to individual rights on its head to
propose freedom from civic integrity.
1.
The people in their newly independent states
authorized and specified the United States republic in the 1791 US
Constitution, amending the 1787 draft as intended.
2.
The provision for amendment facilitates the
pursuit of statutory justice.
b.
American freedom from Western impositions and
others requires civic integrity.
i.
Rational religion yields to reason, which
promotes actual-reality.
ii.
Redistribution of wealth prevents generation of
shared well being.
iii.
Citizens have the right to pursue necessary
goodness, risking life, property, and fortune.
iv.
Celebrate civic citizens, reform slackers, limit
criminals, and eliminate villains.
v.
U.S. Constitutional civic integrity to increase
as history unfolds.
1.
Necessary goodness discovers and reforms
injustice.
2.
Progressives pursue big government, threatening
statutory justice.
3.
May constrain entrepreneurial ventures using the
laws of physics
a.
DNA evidence may prove crime
b.
Gender change is not to be civilly supported
c.
Military for defense rather than imperialism
d.
Drug and sex trafficking outlawed
e.
Female generates ova, male inseminates the ova,
and female gestates and delivers a dependent infant. Together, the couple
nourish the infant unto human being (verb) then aid the resulting adult unto
wanted family expansion.
4.
Reform Education Departments to inform and
inspire human being (verb).
a.
Many choose to aid US pursuit of statutory
justice.
b.
Neither a God nor a government will usurp human
duty.
c.
Use the laws of physics, as the impact human
history, to guide personal vote. For example, we now explore “the heavens”.
d.
Great Books seem too subjective to aid young
adulthood: teach the chosen principle and challenge the student to better it.
i.
What’s great about Twain’s, Huckleberry Finn?
ii.
Who’s speech seems civic in Plato’s, Symposium?
iii.
What’s the point of Chekov’s, Rothschid’s Fiddle?
e.
Education Departments cannot admire modern
chaos.
c.
Some writers are bemused by Christianity
i.
Yeshua, a political philosopher above all
others, because he alone recognized the potential for humankind to develop
civic integrity, was born in 4 BCE. For example, human being (verb) can pursue
necessary goodness (Matt 5:48).
ii.
A small faction of Jews imposed Yeshua onto the
Messiah, the prophesied king of the Jews, including mysteries competing with
Elijah, Moses, and others.
iii.
A Torah defender, Paul, promoted Yeshua to the
pagans (non-Jews), constructing inculcation of divine blood to be sacrificed
for believers’ souls: past, present, and future.
iv.
Consequently, the object of Christianity is in
the mind of the pursuant: G-d, God, Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, Church, the
Eucharist, the Holy Spirit, The Trinity, or, rarely, Yeshua’s civic influence.
v.
By 400 CE, there were nearly 10 Christian canon
and today there are 45,000 Christian sects among 31% of the world’s population.
vi.
Christianity is about personal and church
doctrine rather than morality; it is institutional civility rather than human
civicality; it is church faith and church morality rather than civic integrity.
vii.
To the civic citizen, none of these
controversies justifies exclusion from US republicanism: believers can and may
choose to practice civic integrity.
viii.
Civic presidents may and can be religious, e.g.,
Reagan and Carter, because they are first civic citizens.
ix.
Despite religious tradition in U.S. ceremonies, “Christianity”
can prioritize neither republicanism nor voter regulations.
1.
The hope for Protestant Nationalism resists the
pursuit of civic integrity.
2.
5.
Pursuing statutory justice
a.
Recognize that human being (verb) involves both
trust and commitment to purpose.
i.
The individual may and can discover their
preferences for their unique life.
1.
In childhood, my parents and community
mysteriously convinced me that if I mastered Holy Bible interpretation, I’d
control my life.
2.
Beginning my 9th decade, all I want
to do is use my mind, body, and person to pursue and practice necessary
goodness.
a.
The message in Genesis 1:26-28 affirms the laws
of physics as humankind’s guide to necessary goodness, and I doubt either
“creator” or “God” is the correct term for its cause.
b.
Not knowing the ineluctable truth, I pursue
Yeshua’s civic influence. See the Wikipedia article.
c.
I read about Yeshua in the Complete Jewish Bible
and talk with willing citizens to improve my understanding.
i.
I like to talk to people who trust-in the New
International Version’s “the Lord Jesus”, which extends Genesis 1:26-28 to
divine miracle working.
ii.
I do not advocate “Christ”, which imposes Paul’s
church onto Yeshua’s civic influence yet do not object to other opinion.
iii.
I appreciate civic citizens who pursue either
Jesus or Christ or Jesus-Christ, whether as The God or not.
iv.
I would like to consider Yeshua with Messianic
Jews, whether they regard the Messiah king of the Jews or blood sacrifice for
all believers.
v.
Indeed, I would like to talk with non-believers
about Yeshua’s civic influence.
d.
I would like to talk with non-believers some
label “atheist” about necessary goodness and perhaps about Yeshua’s civic
influence.
3.
I seek conversation with people who care nothing
for competitive philosophies reported in the Holy Bible, as long as we mutually
advocate voluntarily necessary goodness. When someone responds with violence, I
retreat to local topics -- LSU sports, weather, attire, and such.
4.
I think my being represents the ovum my mom
produced and dad inseminated, my developing person, my pursuit of necessary
goodness, and my achievements.
ii.
Likewise a nation may and can discover its
preferences.
1.
The United States Constitution affirms Genesis
1:26-28’s political philosophy: female and male human being (verb) may and can
rule to necessary goodness on earth.
2.
Morality is guided by the laws of physics and
progeny.
a.
Religions may voluntarily accommodate physics.
b.
The laws of physics prevail over both reason and
rational faith.
c.
The individual pursues trust-in and
commitment-to necessary goodness.
3.
A nation cannot, ought-not, sponsor competitive
mystery.
a.
The ultimate human license
i.
Protestantism
1.
The Good yields to necessary goodness.
ii.
Sexual license, gender change, or genetic
preference
iii.
Self-ruinous wealth
iv.
Self-loathing; ensoulment
b.
Civic classifications beyond good, bad, and evil
(reliably responsible, criminal, and tyrant)
c.
Opposition to the laws of physics and progeny
i.
Resistance to capitalism.
ii.
The welfare state or administrative state.
iii.
United States political parties cannot
compromise the nation.
1.
They may collaborate to accelerate discovery-of
and benefits-from the ineluctable truth “to ourselves and our Posterity”.
2.
They may catalogue lessons learned in the past
so as not to repeat them.
3.
Democrats, Libertarians, Republicans and others
may and can be first: civic citizens.
iv.
Humankind may and can pursue perfect justice, in
other words, ultimate necessary goodness.
1.
It is essential to not expect to reach a utopia.
Phil’s Comments
1.
McGinnis on classical liberalism and new political
right vs post WW2, 12/31/2024
a.
Events in 2024: Trump reelection, Le Pen party
weakened, UK Reform Party beat tradition, and other conservative party
revisions from Italy to Slovakia.
b.
Variations on national identity, historical
grievances, and local traditions.
c.
Gaulist large and dominate state, cultural
unity, and national independence: Rassemblement National tightened control,
embraced Russia, anti-Muslim.
d.
US founded on individual liberty, free markets,
and religious pluralism morphed to neither personal responsibility nor civic
integrity, “decaying into license and disorder”.
i.
Trump brings opposition to “the administrative
state”
ii.
Aiding past GOP reform of unaccountable
bureaucracy, the New Deal, procedural change, and un-beneficial expenditures.
iii.
But bureaucracy dominates domestic agencies like
EPA and HHS.
e.
2nd Trump adm. needs to curb agencies
independence and use Schedule F to replace unwanted bureaucrats; civic
accountability vs bureaucratic inertia
f.
GOP pushed tax cuts and limited government last
100 years, but now not restricting entitlements. It’s a gamble.
g.
“Political movements cannot stand still; they
must adjust to new circumstances while remaining rooted in enduring principles.”
h.
Trump to answer in policy and politics
i.
Policy: radical deregulation pays for
entitlements
ii.
Politics: Federalists and Whigs learned virtue
cannot defeat political majority.
iii.
Break cultural elites’ monopoly by replacing the
institutions like HHS.
iv.
Replace elite media through conservative owners
v.
Minimize overseas involvement
1.
WW2 demanded involvement.
2.
Founders discouraged “entanglements” and John
Quincy said, “Wherever the standard of freedom and Independence has been or
shall be unfurled, there will her heart, her benedictions and her prayers be.
But she goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy. She is the
well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and
vindicator only of her own.”
3.
Cold War resisted threat.
4.
Modern bids for local dominance deserve sharp,
decisive response but not nation-building
5.
Tariffs not new, but application to sustain
entitlements is
i.
“For friends of liberty in America as opposed to
France, this is a time for careful reflection rather than uncritical celebration
or wholesale rejection.”
i.
Can “economic independence coexist with . . . free
markets and limited government?”
ii.
Can “conservatism remain compatible with
pluralism”?
2.
Claes G. Ryn, “Why Conservatism Failed”,
8/9/2023
a.
Russell Kirk’s 1953 book, The Conservative Mind, established influence
b.
William F. Buckley’s National Review (founded
1955) sought practice
i.
Libertarians, traditional Catholics, and other
traditionalists consented
ii.
Ancient Greek, Roman, and Christian alliances
opposed the Leviathan state
iii.
Limited Constitutional government by people in
their counties and states
c.
Big government being advanced by progressives
i.
Threatened the rule of law
ii.
Fiscal discipline in government
iii.
Universities suppressed conservatism
d.
Reagan presidency seemed successful, but universities
prevailed
i.
The fed expanded and decentralized through
agencies, like EPA
ii.
US Constitution effectively abandoned
1.
President rather than Congress can go to war
2.
National security can constrain citizens’ speech
3.
“the military-industrial complex” is strong
4.
Big banks and big corporations prevail
5.
There’s a gender-change industrial complex
iii.
Constitutional republic gave way to plutocracy
(wealth)
1.
Accumulation of debt to the majority
2.
Legalizing crime; legalizing drug use
3.
Goodness culturally canceled by wokeism
4.
Conservatives focused on elections rather than
on civic people
a.
Tried to make The God responsible for goodness
b.
Kirk had “religion, the universities,
literature, movies, music, the other arts, and the media” influencing morality
c.
Peter Viereck, influenced by Irving Babbitt, d.
1933, re “imagination plays a central role in forming the lives of individuals”,
promoted traditionalism to preserve US Constitutional order.
5.
Wrote to win presidential elections, neglecting
the philistine culture
iv.
Victory in the 1980s masked New Left and Counter
Culture of the 1960s & 70s
1.
Undermining classical and Christian beliefs
2.
Woke and cancel merely continuations
3.
Produced progressive radicalization of US
politics
4.
Confused conservatives
a.
Suggest “great books” programs
b.
Portraying arch-elitist Plato as defender of
“democracy”
c.
Imagination dominated by “faith” in doctrine
d.
Influenced by Leo Strauss: nothing moral to be
learned from history and tradition
i.
Un-intentionally accommodated leftist
revolutionaries
e.
Edmund Burke extolled learning from history and
opposed abstract French Revolution
f.
But we can consider the wisdom of humankind
g.
James Madison opposes the “ingenious theorist”
working “in his closet”
v.
Will “deep-seated intellectual and other habits .
. . stand in the way of urgently needed self-examination and soul-searching”?
3.
Scott Yenor, “In Defense of National
Conservatism”, July 28, 2022; responding to 2 recent criticisms.
a.
Tyler Syck pits national conservatism vs
reigning civil rights regime
i.
Seeks to defend LGBTQ et.al. against traditional
family
ii.
Sexual license lessens freedom
iii.
Third-wave feminism, gender radicalism
iv.
Aggression against marriage and family
b.
Mark Tooley challenges national conservatism
regarding religious faith
i.
Seeks “to maintain a common life rooted in
Christian faith and a Christian moral vision”. [What do these terms mean? Praising the blood of Christ?]
ii.
Thinks separationism accomplishes it
c.
National conservatism issued a statement of
principles
i.
Sovereignty being attacked by globalist powers
imposing inhuman ideology
1.
Governments, global corporations, other
oligarchies
2.
Reigning civil rights regime deems merit
oppression of equity
ii.
Defend rule of law, free enterprise, family, and
evidence
iii.
Limit if not prevent foreign ownership of
domestic property
1.
Military privacy
2.
Upward pressure on pricing
3.
Protect farmland
iv.
Limit foreign participation in engineering
d.
Unresolved national conservatism needs
i.
Legislate to protect marriage and family
ii.
Classical liberal neutrality
1.
Public institutions necessarily legislate
morality
2.
Morality pursues religion (No: physics and progeny)
iii.
Hold Christianity first but allow people to
choose their religion.
1.
Take Protestant roots more seriously
2.
Legislate toward a Protestant vision of family
life, public research, etc.
3.
Tocqueville praises obscenity laws, pro-family
ethic for men and women, and female chastity.
4.
No state churches.
iv.
Oppose secular, atheist vision of the good life
v.
Replace our civil rights regime [promote civic integrity]
vi.
Promote “stable family and congregational life
and childraising”
1.
Rollback gender equality and sexual libertinism
2.
Restrict immigration, requiring natives to work
4.
Mike Rappaport re Breitbart on Libertarians
and Conservatives, February 17, 2012
a.
“Conservatives, especially right now, have a
hell of a lot more in common with libertarianism than Barack Obama and what the
progressive left stand for.”
b.
“libertarians — even those who are hostile to
conservatives — must recognize that Obama and the progressives are the great
threat now”.
c.
“Sadly, the Weekly Standard for many years was
quite unfair to libertarians.”
d.
“There is, whether we like it or not, a social
side to politics, and people — being both social and political animals —
respond to both.” [Similarly,
there is a goodness in people that appeals to both their politics and their
religion or none.]
5.
Garrett Quinn, 2/11/2012, re Andrew Britbart
speech at CPAC
a.
“called liberals the ‘the least tolerant people
you will ever meet in your entire lives’."
6. Daniel J. Mahoney, “Crutonian
Conservatism Reconsidered”, Forum, LibertyLaw, January 1, 2025, online at https://lawliberty.org/forum/scrutonian-conservatism-reconsidered/,
writing primarily about Roger Scruton, who died 5 years ago.
a.
Opposed each “the willful and indiscriminate
rejection of the Western intellectual, moral, and civic inheritance, in the
form of pathological self-loathing,
[or] “cancel culture", scientism [natural
rationalization], totalitarianism, and every ideological effort to deny the ensouled human person.
b. Upheld patriotism and humane national loyalty: the human person accountable to
himself, to society, and to a moral law not of his making. [To self, fellow citizens, and
the laws of physics with humility to its source.]
c.
1980 book, The
Meaning of Conservatism
i.
Free will in property, contracts, moral
commitments, family, economics, the law, and politics; [reliable responsibility
to necessary goodness].
ii.
Hegel versions of increasing “right”: abstract,
moral, ethic practiced among family, civil society, and the state in world
history; thus, past, present
and future. It’s a possible march to freedom. [Achievement]
iii.
Furthered Burkean individuality but with the
“right” to be obedient to the rule of law. [No: the opportunity to aid pursuit of statutory
justice.]
d.
2018 book, Conservatism:
An Invitation to the Great Tradition
i.
Conservatism facilitates liberalism
ii.
[Classical liberalism must yield to necessary goodness.]
iii.
Rule of law [Pursuit of statutory justice], civic peace
[integrity],
religious tolerance [humility],
and the prosperity and abundance made possible by the market economy [capitalism], are
precious goods that have been encouraged and sustained by the modern liberal
order.
iv.
[Accept that there is no utopia – only statistical variation in
commitment to necessary goodness or civic integrity.]
v.
“Progress” is [constrained by humility-to or correction-by ineluctable
evidence].
vi.
[The Good yields to necessary goodness.]
vii.
[These principles existed and were known before Genesis 1:26-28 was
offered.]
viii.
Aristotle [trust and commitment] to: moderation,
constitutionalism and 4 virtues -- courage, prudence, justice, and temperance. [integrity, justice, safety,
strength, prosperity, and responsibility].
ix.
[Female and male humankind pursuing statutory justice to necessary
goodness rather than] a social contract by a community and [civic integrity] rather
than civilized order. [Civil
refers to humanly constructed rules, which may and can defy the laws of physics.]
1.
Choosing to purchase property requires selection
of civil-ordered land – to attach to a home a nation on earth.
2.
The secular order of property obligations [may and can accommodate]
Christian neighbor-love.
3. [Loyalty to nation accommodates
local association that lessens necessary goodness.]
4.
Scruton more like Aristotle, Kant, and Hegel
than Burke.
a.
Liberal conservatism neither revolutionary nor
ideological
b.
Burke foresaw France’s Terror (1790) and saw in
American reformation conservation or no “Year Zero”. [The US Constitution accommodates Genesis
1:26-28.]
c.
Burke saw trust, commitment, and [remembrance “to ourselves and
our Posterity”.] He was proud of England.
d.
Burke tried to maintain . . . the moral
inheritance that is Western and Christian civilization. [Better to consider the ancient civilizations, in
order to avoid mistakes already known.]
x.
Favors religion versus progressive materialism
and joins with liberals against socialism.
1.
Conservatism against its despisers – Western
political correctness and Islamic terrorism.
2.
Implies that [civic integrity] is necessary for repentance and
forgiveness.
e.
2005 chapter “How I Became a Conservative” from
memoir Gentle Regrets
i.
Need a place for ova and for soul.
ii.
Constrain progress that leaves ova and soul
behind.
iii.
Humane national loyalty above arrogant
nationalism.
iv.
A friend of May 1968 France, the Czech people under
totalitarianism, and the United States.
v.
The United States “social contract” is to amend
the Constitution unto statutory justice “to ourselves and our Posterity”.
Lincoln’s first inaugural speech, “Why should there not be a patient confidence in the
ultimate justice of the people?]
vi.
. . . rights
within their legitimate sphere . . . in free and lawful political communities
[but not in arrogance]
vii.
Left facilitates “atheistic apprenticeship”
1.
Desperate repudiation, degrading pornography . .
. assault God
2.
political philosophy, theology, and
philosophical anthropology
viii.
Returned to rational faith --- mysterious
meeting points between the sacred and the profane to encounter the True, the
Good, and Beautiful.
ix.
. . . our dignity as morally accountable
persons.
f.
2017 book, Where
We Are: The State of Britain Now
i.
Habitual neighborliness
ii.
Without religious belief despite Christian
feeling like Orwell’ 1940 essay “The Lion and the Unicorn”
iii.
Nevertheless humankind longs for the
transcendent, the sacred, and the eternal
Copyright©2025 by Phillip R. Beaver. All rights
reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the publication of all or portions
of this paper as long as this complete copyright notice is included.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_the_United_States
