We are thrilled to introduce The Vital Center.
A new journal dedicated to defending and reforming the liberal tradition that will be launching this June. We will publish essays on a host of political and cultural topics from both center-left and center-right perspectives.
The Vital Center is very proud to announce that a couple of weeks ago our economics editor
@micah_erfan
was elected to the steering committee of
@CNLiberalism
Please join us in giving our warmest congratulations to Micah!
"When [radicals] do not get what they want, they abandon the cause of constitutional democracy altogether. But if America is to have a long future, we need more patience and a renewed faith in persuasion."
“A society that does not recognize that each individual has values of his own which he is entitled to follow can have no respect for the dignity of the individual and cannot really know freedom.” - F.A. Hayek
A fundamental principle of political prudence is that you should always judge political arrangements and policies in comparison to viable alternatives, not to abstract ideals.
The Vital Center is thrilled to announce that
@ThomasDHowes
will be moving from the position of Senior Contributing Editor to Managing Editor.
Thomas is currently a postdoctoral fellow and lecturer at Princeton University and a specialist in natural law theory.
"For liberalism to happen, there was a long history of contributions, among which were those made by Catholic scholastics. And this, I am convinced, is a story young Catholics need to hear."
@ThomasDHowes
premier piece in The Vital Center.
Deneen's regime change "fundamentally misconstrues liberal ideas, butchers the thinkers it claims to incorporate, and makes obvious errors in the history of political thought."
Check out
@FrankelGarion
's review of
@PatrickDeneen
new book.
"Sometimes the country needs a unifier-in-chief.
@NikkiHaley
offers an opportunity for primary voters to find a nominee who can do exactly that. By staying in the race, Haley has a chance...to make America normal again."
@david_cowan
If America is to survive, we need two sane and competitive parties.
We don't have that.
If you're sensible and informed, please pick a primary and vote.
Imagine a substantial center to our political community, a hefty portion of the community that handles disagreement with civility, reciprocity, free debate, respect for law and procedure.
Help us build that center.
Retweets welcome.
We have some exciting news to share about new directions The Vital Center will be taking!
In the coming months, we will be moving to a quarterly journal with our first fall issue released sometime in October.
"The state is not the only agent for securing the common good, and excessive state activity may even threaten it. A close analysis of what we owe each other within a political community highlights this fact."
@ThomasDHowes
Former Canadian Prime Minister and political theorist Pierre Trudeau on the meaning of liberalism.
Do you think he is right? How would you define liberalism?
The Vital Center accepts more than political and economic writings. We also welcome: cultural criticism, historical analysis, art, and poetry.
So if you have a poem that has been knocking around or a review of a favorite movie, send it our way!
America needs two sane parties. We don't have that.
If you're sane, please pick a primary and vote, even if it doesn't matter.
This won't get better until we hold ourselves to standards we expect from others.
"The film’s depiction of its title character is a rebuke of the self-worshiping ‘girl boss’ archetype, but it also serves as an important reminder against overly narrowing the scope of women’s vocations." -
@Cluffalo
Reviving a reformed version of liberalism requires bringing into dialogue thinkers and ideas that have not historically mixed. As a result, The Vital Center will publish a variety of viewpoints. However, we are united by five core principles:
"The central conservative truth is that it is culture, not politics, that determines the success of a society. The central liberal truth is that politics can change a culture and save it from itself. Thanks to this interaction, we’re a better society." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan
Reminder that our first issue will be available to download next Wednesday.
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Centrist liberal follow train. Post your handle below and retweet.
“Say that civilization is a tree ... The radical says ‘Cut it down.’ The conservative says “Don’t touch it.” The liberal compromises: “Let’s prune, so that we lose neither the old trunk nor the new branches.” - Franklin Roosevelt
Today we remember the extraordinary Christmas Day Armistice during World War I, a powerful moment of peace amidst conflict.
#WWIChristmasTruce
#History
🧵
Too often it feels like every aspect of our lives is dominated by ideological extremes. We hope to solve this problem by offering a place where moderates of all stripes can come together and discuss topics such as religion, politics, literature, and everything in between.
“Romney seems to resemble the Roman statesman Cicero more than any duplicitous Crassus or Wolsey. Cicero was doggedly dedicated to the Republic and battled against the extremist forces of the left and right to try and preserve the country that he loved.”
Happy Memorial Day. On today of all days, we give thanks to those who gave their lives for the cause of peace.
Our cover image is taken from the U.N. "Peace Window." This piece of art was commissioned to honor the many throughout history who have died in this noble quest.
Our founder and president
@tylersyck
is only 49 followers away from 3000.
You should follow him because he's a good writer and a bridge builder.
Please retweet.
New today to our blog:
"A New Liberalism" by Vital Center editor
@micah_erfan
"The public must know that the perils of the status quo are not the product of liberalism but rather a failure to live up to its ideals."
Note how the prophets in the Bible almost always call out the in-group.
Calling out the out-group is easy, but it's not nearly as effective.
Calling out the in-group is effective, but it takes courage.
"Catholic scholastics developed a social contract theory in conjunction with their account of natural law and a desacralized account of the political community,"
writes
@ThomasDHowes
.
We risk losing the art of friendship if we do not take serious steps to reach across the political divide and embrace those we do not always agree with.
From
@nikedhi95
A long and outstanding essay on the liberal legacy of the French Revolution by
@AustrianEn
President
@rhonheimer
Bookmark it, print it, and share it with your friends!
This is a good one, y’all. Bookmark it, pre-order, it’s worth it. Releasing October 12, and keep an eye out for my forthcoming review in
@FrontPorchRepub
We received a thoughtful blog submission defending Nikki Haley as the future of the GOP.
We would like to run it, but balance it with a piece defending a center-left politician who might represent the future of the Democratic Party.
Anyone interested?
1. Culture, not just politics is a vital component of sustaining liberalism.
2. Constitutional democracy is a key aspect of human flourishing.
3. Liberalism requires freedom in all of its forms.
Relevant for debates about postliberalism:
We include an article by Angel Rodríguez Luño, who has served as a moral consultant in the Vatican's doctrinal office for over thirty years.
And he argues against Aristotelian paternalism and in favor of a more limited politics.
“Autocrats are unified in more ways than we can imagine. A vast kleptocratic financial network sustains them with material resources.”
@freedomlovererh
America doesn't need the center-left and center-right to join hands in a grand coalition (except on foreign policy).
What it needs is for the center-left and center-right to compete with each other in a healthy manner while each works to marginalize its own party's extremists.
At 1100 followers, we will continue to promote liberal centrism and, along with it, a healthier political community.
Could we get a little help from our friends?
We are conservatives and right-of-center moderates who believe in civility, reciprocity and the importance of norms and procedural fairness.
We are also attentive to the long-term health of our constitutional republic.
That is why we oppose the MAGA establishment.
“Autocrats are unified in more ways than we can imagine. A vast kleptocratic financial network sustains them with material resources.”
@freedomlovererh
Attacks on liberalism are more common than ever, but what does the term really even mean? We asked a number of scholars and authors what they thought and here are there answers.
Who do you most agree with? How do you define liberalism?
What can the dark history of a small town in Louisiana teach us about the nature of evil and the inadequacies of liberalism?
Check out
@mcinthedc
's recent essay in The Vital Center to find out!
This publication takes its name from a 1949 book by historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr.
But what did he mean by the term The Vital Center? Foreign Affairs editor
@joestieb
answers that question below. Check it out.
"The Woke Left and Populist Right are fueling division and intolerance when the nation needs empowerment," writes David Cowan.
"Rather than entrenching people’s sense of victimhood, more should be done to help people take back control over their lives."
New to our blog:
“Whereas the standard narcissist of today tries to project an image of a seamless whole, an ideologically consistent self, St. Paul looked within and noticed that his self was, in fact, contradictory.”
@SamBuntz
"The fact is, to the generation who drafted and ratified the Constitution—a constitution that empowers Congress to “suppress insurrections”—January 6th could not have been perceived as anything but an insurrection."
@TMruczinski
"It seems unlikely though that America could ever return to its more republican past but for all its issues democratic society which created them has a lot going for it."
@tylersyck
settles the debate: is the United States a republic or a democracy?
If America is to survive, we need two sane and competitive parties.
We don't have that.
If you're sensible and informed, please pick a primary and vote.
Excited to announce I’ll be joining
@OleMiss
’ new Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom as a multi-year Post-Doc Research Associate in the Fall. While I’ve loved my time
@Ashland_Univ
with
@AshbrookCenter
, I am really excited about this opportunity!
America needs two sane parties. We don't have that.
If you're sane, please pick a primary and vote, even if it doesn't matter.
This won't get better until we hold ourselves to standards we expect from others.