Defenders of Truth
Recently I had dinner with a French scholar who studies the influence of Catholicism on American politics. She was an avid reader of the work we’ve been doing at Postliberal Order because she said that we don’t think conservative politics should be about the defense of party, but the defense of truth. Exactly right.
The Catholic vision of politics, she continued, had been distorted by liberalism both in France and America — where she cited Gallicanism and Americanism as the tell-tale signs of the distortion which turned Catholics into partisan pawns to be sorted into either the left or the right side of liberal order. But what is clear is that this order is collapsing now, and Catholics will need to think differently about their political action in the world. She was, of course, preaching to the choir — but it was nice to hear it in French.
As it happens, the day before, I had a very similar conversation with a very prominent Catholic woman who works in conservative …