Welcome to Reasonable Right! My goal with this site is to help American conservatives understand, articulate and defend the conservative point of view.
I suspect when you either stumbled upon this page or had it recommended to you, you thought to yourself, “Another conservative blogger?!” My goal with Reasonable Right is to be a different kind of conservative blogger.
After the 2020 election and then again in 2024 I was concerned about the state of conservatism in America. It seemed what we were seeing wasn’t necessarily a conservative movement, but a populist movement. The popularity of conservatism, as represented by the Republican Party, was more based on a feeling about President Trump than actual understanding of conservative principles and values. Popular opinion is a fickle thing and can swing widely and quickly. It just so happens right now there is significant overlap between the populist views and conservatism. There didn’t seem to be a lot of discernment around some of the issues like abortion and tariffs. Conservative, or more properly stated Republican, opinion on issues seemed to be based on what Donald Trump said without a lot of processing.
Furthermore, the other thing I saw was a lot of “conservatives” simply parroting what popular bloggers and influencers were saying. Again, just adopting the influencers opinion or talking points without really understanding how the talking head arrived at those conclusions. People like Ben Shapiro, Charlie Kirk, Dave Rubin, Jordan Peterson, Larry Elder, and many more are great conservative thinkers, but for the most part, we let them do our thinking for us. We just repeat what they say.
That’s when the seed of Reasonable Right was planted. I asked myself, “how can we capitalize on this populist movement and actually get people to think like conservatives?” The seed began to germinate as I started looking back on the writings and work of thinkers like William F. Buckley, Russel Kirk, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, and Dennis Prager. One author in particular was a huge inspiration for what I believe to be the foundation of Reasonable Right, Russle Kirk. If you haven’t read Kirk’s The Conservative Mind, do yourself a favor and read it. Also from the Kirk Center are his 10 conservative principles. With some modification, these 10 principles are the backbone of what’s to come.
I also have to give credit to another group of thinkers who have very much influenced this page and my thinking, Christian apologists. I began studying Christian apologetics in 2016 and loved the critical thinking, and steadfastness of the field. How these men and women stood their ground not because of stubbornness but because of principles. Men and women like William Lane Craig (who’s Reasonable Faith inspired the name of this page), Greg Koukl (who’s tactical approach will be employed throughout), Frank Turek, Steven C. Meyer, Alisa Childers, Natasha Crain, and Mike Winger. These men and women taught me how to think and process using principles and facts. They taught me to shape my stance on issues based on principles rather than my desires or feelings. And a funny thing happens when you apply principles and facts to form your opinions, your desires and feelings come in line with those principles.
What I intend to present here isn’t brilliant new insights or ideas. What I hope to accomplish is to synthesize and simplify the work of all the people mentioned and many others into something that is coherent and easy to understand. More than that and with your help, let’s learn how to articulate those conservative principles so we can then defend our point of view in a rational, and yes, loving way.
Once again welcome, and thank you for joining me on this journey.