Featuring the author Donald J. Devine, Vice Chairman, American Conservative Union; with comments by Matt Welch, Editor-in-Chief, Reason Magazine; moderated by Gene Healy, Vice President, Cato Institute.
How can America find its way back from economic stagnation, fiscal
calamity, and national “malaise”? In his new book, American
Conservative Union vice chairman Donald J. Devine argues: the same
way it has before, through “a restoration of the constitutional
synthesis of freedom and tradition” at the heart of the American
experiment.
In America’s Way Back, Devine makes “the case for 21st century ‘fusionism’ ” — a reinvigoration of the Cold War-era conservative-libertarian alliance that employed “libertarian means for traditionalist ends.”
In America’s Way Back, Devine makes “the case for 21st century ‘fusionism’ ” — a reinvigoration of the Cold War-era conservative-libertarian alliance that employed “libertarian means for traditionalist ends.”
But the politics of the new century have strained that alliance
significantly. In the gay marriage and immigration debates,
conservatives decry libertarians’ rejection of “traditionalist
ends,” while libertarians point to the Bush years as depressing
evidence of conservatives’ lack of commitment to “libertarian
means.”
Have the differences become too vast to bridge, or can
libertarian-leaning Republicans like Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Justin
Amash breathe new life into post-Cold War fusionism? Join us for
what promises to be a lively discussion of these issues.