A brief summary of the soul for conservatism:
One side, represented by Continetti, believes that American conservatism is a variety of liberalism and that right-wing populism is at best a necessary evil, at worst altogether foolish or evil. The other side believes that American conservatism has been crippled by its deference to liberal dogmas. Hazony’s book is intended to free conservatives from thinking of themselves as liberals.
The current battle within the GOP and the conservative movement is conservatism as another branch of liberalism (i.e. right liberalism) or a non-liberal conservatism. I think any kind of liberal-conservatism will necessarily fail for it will inevitably be consumed by the more advanced liberal movement. Once liberal premises are accepted there is no rational way to limit its scope. Any attempt by the right-liberal to do so is always an unprincipled and arbitrary exception. It is here where I agree with Hazony, although I do not agree with him entirely. Here is the basis of what I think conservatism is:
1. A rejection of the liberal premise that the primary purpose of government is to advance the equal freedom of each individual.
2. An understanding that the primary political unit is not the individual, but the family.
3. An understanding that the very essence of government is "authoritative discrimination" where authority is the capacity to make moral demands that subjects are obligated to obey. In other words, government necessarily must resolve controvertible issues according to some conception of the good and use its authority and power to do so. Based on this understanding of what government is, the conservative must also understand that government cannot be neutral on issues of morality, theology and religion for the three are inseparable from a correct understanding of the common good.
4. A natural law understanding of the common good.