“Social conservatism, like economic conservatism, can at times become an offensive caricature of its best self. Cultural pride can freeze into bigotry; a forgivable hostility to “big guys” can degenerate into a mere envious hatred of rich or otherwise successful individuals. The all too human desire for better material circumstances can be warped, by a really artful demagogue, into such dangerous claptrap as Huey Long’s famous slogan, “Every man a king.” But social conservatism can also serve to moderate the near-Puritan severity of traditional conservative economics without undermining its basic structure. And that is a contribution almost beyond price.”
Source: The Making of the New Majority Party (1975)
Keywords: culture-wars,policy,social-change
