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Jan 7, 2025 | 
rlo.acton.org | Kevin Vallier
Conservative politics in 2025 faces a defining moment. The long-standing fusion of moral traditionalism and political libertarianism has lost its once dominant influence, with the risk of becoming irrelevant. Under Vice President-elect J.D. Vance, National Conservatives prepare to reshape the movement in a populist direction. Worse, they propose an unprecedented expansion of state power to transform American culture.
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Jul 29, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Luis Parrales |Jonah Goldberg |Kevin Vallier |M. Anthony Mills
Following a decade of opposition, committed liberals gathered to tackle fundamental questions. Published July 29, 2024 If there’s one overarching story being told about the political trends of the past decade—about Brexit and Donald Trump, about an ascendant populism in Europe and South Asia, about the growing authoritarian threat of Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping—it’s this: Liberalism is in decline.
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Jul 1, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Ilya Somin |Jonah Goldberg |Kevin Vallier |Rachel Ferguson
Politics Conservatives and libertarians need to reassess their priorities. Published July 1, 2024 • Updated June 30, 2024 Many conservatives and libertarians today lament the rise of “wokeness,” even to the point of believing it to be the greatest political danger facing America. Some of these fears are well-taken.
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Jun 13, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Michael Warren |Sarah Isgur |Tom Joscelyn |Kevin Vallier
Welcome to your regularly scheduled Collision! Hunter Biden was found guilty on three felony gun charges, as our special emergency edition from Tuesday explained. Today we’ll dive a little deeper into the political implications of the conviction. Hunter Biden will face sentencing in a few weeks. While the maximum he could get is 25 years in prison, the federal sentencing guideline range will be much lower. Illegal gun possession charges usually carry some prison time, but this is not the usual case.
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Jun 13, 2024 | 
thedispatch.com | Kevin Vallier |Jonah Goldberg |Kevin Williamson |Chris Stirewalt
Liberalism has faced criticism since it emerged in the late 18th century, whether from socialists who thought it downplayed solidarity, fraternity, and equality, or from conservatives who considered it harmful to traditional institutions like the family, the local community, and the church. But by the end of the 20th century and into the 21st, liberalism had seemingly defeated its opponents. Almost everyone in the West defended liberal institutions.
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Mar 28, 2024 | 
liberaltortoise.kevinvallier.com | Kevin Vallier
Twitter is abuzz with fights about whether the claim that “Christ is King” is anti-semitic or not. A related issue is what it means for Christ to be King. I want to venture a quick answer to the second question. Let’s begin with some clarifications. (And a link to All the Kingdoms of the Worldfor discussion!)At the extreme pro “Christ is King” end, we have the integralists. The integralists think Christ’s Kingship implies that political regimes must direct their citizens to union with Christ.
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Feb 27, 2024 | 
hypertextjournal.substack.com | Kevin Vallier
For two years now, the great democracies have confronted Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Backing millions of brave Ukrainians, the U.S. and its allies have helped repel Russian conquest. This military rally symbolized the rallying of liberal order itself — though now, House Republicans’ dithering under pressure from their presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump has renewed doubt. Before 2016, liberal democracy felt secure despite our social fissures and frequent misgovernance.
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Feb 25, 2024 | 
thepublicdiscourse.com | Kevin Vallier
In my recent book, All the Kingdoms of the World, I engage in an extended critique of the new Catholic integralism. In discussions since the book was published, a number of integralists have told me that they’re happy to hold that integralism is good in theory but bad in practice. Philosopher Edward Feser calls this soft integralism. This essay explains why soft integralism doesn’t work. By its very nature, integralism is not the kind of political ideal that can separate theory and practice.
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Jan 11, 2024 | 
thetablet.co.uk | Kevin Vallier
Church politics and the common good. Kevin Vallier unpacks the story of the development of “integralism” from its origins in the scholarly work of the UK Catholic philosopher Thomas Pink into an American conservative political movement set on the destruction of liberalism. Get Instant AccessRegister for free to read this article in fullSubscribe for unlimited accessFrom just £30 quarterly Complete access to all Tablet website content including all premium content.
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Jan 10, 2024 | 
thetablet.co.uk | Kevin Vallier
Church politics and the common good. Liberal democracy is under attack across the world, not only from authoritarians, dictators and nationalist-populist parties, but from a growing number of conservative philosophers and theologians who argue that liberalism seeks to crush Christianity and must be destroyed.
