On the Square Today

Leroy Huizenga on our creative minority moment :

Barack Obama’s victory has crushed conservatism, ended the Republic, and ushered in a thousand years of darkness. Or such was the mood last week among many political conservatives, who saw this election’s results as the sign of the death of our free republic, the people surrendering the risks and rewards of liberty for the certain thin gruel of a dole. And many traditional Christians spoke about the reelection of our American President in even darker, apocalyptic tones, as if the man were Nero redivivus .

Also today, Matthew Hennessey on rights language and the Right :

The entire intramural debate currently raging among conservatives and Republicans about abandoning social issues, appealing to Hispanics, and compromising on taxes will be moot if progressives and Democrats continue to hold the moral high ground in the minds of the majority of Americans. If conservatives want to get back on top, they must define the high ground and take it. And that means understanding their own policy goals the way liberals view theirs: as a defense of human rights. Construct a rights-based argument, provide evidence to support it, and make it, repeatedly.