Mike Pence, vice president during Donald Trump’s first term, wants to help shape the thinking of young people who “may be more familiar with the forces of right-wing populism and big government Republicanism than with the principles of conservatism.”
In “What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience,” Pence sets out to define values that once dominated the Republican Party. And he aims to articulate a vision for the post-Trump era.
The book’s title echoes Sen. Barry Goldwater’s 1960 book, “The Conscience of a Conservative,” and Pence makes clear his debt to that earlier volume. Indeed, many of the topics that the Arizona Republican addressed nearly 70 years ago – federalism, taxes, budget deficits, foreign policy, and education – are reprised in Pence’s book.
Why We Wrote This
In two recent political books, Mike Pence and Raphael Warnock each draw inspiration from their reading of Scripture. The former vice president sets out to define values that once dominated the Republican Party. Senator and pastor Warnock stresses that the challenges Americans face are fundamentally moral issues that involve human dignity, justice, and responsibility.
While acknowledging that times have changed since Goldwater’s book launched the modern conservative movement, Pence argues that conservative principles have not. He identifies 16 precepts and addresses how they should be applied to today’s challenges. Some of the ideas – like a constitutional amendment to ban abortion – touch on polarizing issues. Others, like his call for integrity, character, and civility in public life, should be welcomed by readers of any political persuasion.
“What Conservatives Believe: Rediscovering the Conservative Conscience” by Mike Pence, Center Street, 304 pp.
He discusses foreign policy with an eye toward American strength and engagement with the world. He wants the United States to stand up to China, oppose Russian aggression in Ukraine, and confront countries like North Korea and Iran. “America First,” he writes, means “America in front, leading the free world with strong allies in defense of our freedom and national interests, inspiring people everywhere with our liberty and prosperity, and advancing the cause of freedom.”
Pence treats President Trump as carefully as one would expect given that criticisms of the president by fellow Republicans are often career-ending. Pence writes with understatement that “things did not end well between us.” But he says little about the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol, with many chanting, “Hang Mike Pence,” a sentiment that the president has never denounced.
Pence emphasizes the importance of returning integrity and civility to both the public square and the halls of Congress. Bipartisan support is needed to enact legislation, and civility is required to negotiate common ground. His tendency to criticize “progressives” and “left-wing radicals” in hyperbolic terms shows the difficulties in achieving this goal.
Pence’s own integrity is unquestioned. At the most trying moment in his political career, he showed that his commitment to the Constitution could not be shaken, even at great personal cost. Readers may not agree with all his views and ideas, but he is a thoughtful politician and deserves to be taken seriously.
A vision of equity
Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution/AP/File
The Rev. Raphael Warnock delivers the eulogy for Rayshard Brooks, a young Black man killed by police, at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, June 23, 2020.
Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia, for his part, argues that a commitment to social justice and to the protection of the most vulnerable is the most important moral issue of our time. As the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, the congregation that Martin Luther King Jr. once led, Warnock looks to the Bible. His book, “The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America,” draws inspiration from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. “Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill brought low; The crooked places shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth; And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”
At the heart of the book are six issues that have an especially devastating impact on low-income and minority populations: voting rights; the climate emergency; the persistence of poverty; gun violence; mass incarceration; and dark money in politics. His descriptions of each are insightful, passionate, and compelling. Warnock marshals an enormous amount of information to describe the impact of these issues and to underscore the need to address them. Even those knowledgeable about public policy debates will be struck by the detailed and far-reaching information he cites to anchor his arguments.
“The Crooked Places Made Straight: Reflections on the Moral Meaning of America” by Raphael G. Warnock, Penguin Press, 224 pp.
At the center of Warnock’s vision lies the idea of equity. Or, to paraphrase Isaiah, “the low places are enabled to come up a little higher, and the high places come down a little lower,” he writes. Equity, however, is a hot-button issue in today’s charged political climate.
At the end of the day, solving social problems requires practical and widely accepted solutions and an ability to work together. Warnock, like many leaders on both sides of the aisle, finds it easier to document the challenges than to tackle them.
To Warnock, the challenges Americans face are fundamentally moral issues that involve human dignity, justice, and our common responsibility to the less fortunate. His plea is that we clarify and refine our shared values by finding workable public policy solutions to these seeming intractable problems. Few will dispute the seriousness of the problems that he describes or the desirability of finding a common path forward.
