For decades, religious Americans have been the core of American conservatism. Every cycle, they faithfully turn out to the polls, understanding their civic duty in terms of Christian responsibility. But in return, the GOP too often steamrolls them.
Party elites hollow out the towns and neighborhoods of ordinary Americans with policies that serve Wall Street. Supposedly “rock-solid” Supreme Court picks do their best to drive faith out of the public square. And on Capitol Hill, religious concerns are relegated to the backwater of “values” issues, as if policymaking is somehow value-free.
At the end of the day, the GOP consultant class is simply embarrassed by the fact that so much of their base actually believes in God.
If objecting to this betrayal means that I’m advocating some form of Christian nationalism—well, I am. Is there any other kind worth having? Most nationalisms have a bloody history, from Rome’s militarism to pagan ethnocentrism to fascist totalitarianism. But the Christian version of nationalism—the healthy patriotism that built America—was something altogether different. Christian nationalism is not a threat to our democracy. Quite the opposite. Christian nationalism founded our democracy.
As first articulated by St. Augustine, the Christian idea of the nation is founded on common affection. A nation, Augustine said, is nothing other than a multitude of rational creatures united by common loves. In America, that means the dignity of labor, the sanctity of home, and the love of family and God.
This Christian nationalism has given us much. For instance: limited government, liberty of conscience, and popular sovereignty. Thanks to our Christian heritage, we protect the freedom of all to speak and assemble. It is only because of our Christian tradition that we welcome people of all races to join a nation constituted not by blood but by common loves.
The crisis of our time springs from the left’s determination to destroy the loves that unite us, to replace God, home, and work with the religion of the trans flag.
But it is the right that is failing our country more acutely. When they should be defending the nation, by defending the things that make us a nation, they’re busy tending the dying embers of neo-liberalism. They reread dog-eared copies of John Stuart Mill and Ayn Rand, and invoke the “three-legged stool” of fusionism with all the pathos of a verbal tic.
That will no longer suffice. To save the nation, conservatives must recover the Christian tradition on which the nation subsists. That means listening to voters—not the consultants who want to wish them away.
Republicans can start by defending the common man’s work. Republicans of the Bush-Romney era have too often championed libertarian economics and corporate interests over working people. Their fusionist faith has become one-note: money first, people last.
That must change. In the choice between capital and labor, between money and people, it’s time for Republicans to get back to their Christian and nationalist roots and prioritize the working man. Why should labor ever be taxed more than capital? Why should families get less tax relief than corporations?
One reason Republicans in recent years have not put the working man first is that they haven’t been willing to put the working man’s family first. A party of a Christian nation must defend the family. Happy and hopeful people have children. Yet fewer and fewer Americans do. Perhaps that’s because the economy Republicans have championed—the globalist, corporatist economy they helped create—is bad for the family.
To put family first, make it easy to have children. And put Mom and Dad back in the home. Conservatives should make it our policy to get American workers a family wage. That means one wage a family can live on—and that will enable parents to raise their children themselves, as they see fit.
Finally, conservatives must defend the common man’s religion. Of all the affections that bind together society, none is more powerful than religious affection, a shared vision of transcendent truth. Every nation observes a civil religion. Even the left wants religion: witness their insistence on Pride Month and pronouns. We want the old-time religion of the Bible.
I have a suggestion. Take the trans flags down from our public buildings and inscribe instead, on every building owned or operated by the federal government, our national motto: In God We Trust.
And here’s another idea: Don’t back down on the moral questions that matter. Don’t give in to the pressure to redefine marriage or disregard unborn life. Never turn your back on working people. Stand up for the perennial principles that transcend this and every election.
Work, home, God. These are the things Americans love together, that sustain our common life—that make us a nation. Not every citizen of America is a Christian, obviously. But every citizen is heir to the loves, to the liberties, to the common purpose our Christian tradition gives us.
Working Americans deserve a Republican Party willing to fight for that inheritance.
This essay is adapted from a speech delivered at the 2024 National Conservatism Conference.
Josh Hawley is a U.S. senator for Missouri.
First Things depends on its subscribers and supporters. Join the conversation and make a contribution today.
Click here to make a donation.
Click here to subscribe to First Things.
Image from Flickr, licensed via Creative Commons. Image cropped.
