Affirming principles for America’s best days coming forward, a group that includes multiple ties to North Carolina is united in a liberty movement.
The Freedom Conservatism project is described as a response to escalating “authoritarianism from the left and right.” North Carolinian John Hood, president of the Pope Foundation, and Avik Roy, of Texas and president of the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity, led the working group to draft the principles and recruit signatures that number 83 and come from a wide array of leaders across the nation.
The principles with explanations are liberty; pursuit of happiness; foundation of prosperity; full faith and credit; a nation of laws, not men; Americans by choice; out of many, one; America’s promissory note; shining city on a hill; and freedom of conscience.
Those signing are intentional in saying the statement signed speaks “only for themselves as individuals, and not for any institutions with which they are affiliated.” For information only, affiliations are attached to their names.
In a commentary written for Real Clear Politics, Hood says of the effort, “It is a conservatism informed by the timeless principles enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, and the United States Constitution. But it is also a conservatism refreshed and revitalized to meet the challenges of the 21st century.”
Others from the Old North State include the John Locke Foundation’s Andre Beliveau, who is also with the National Taxpayers Union Foundation, and Donald Bryson, the organization’s CEO.
Bryson said there is concern “over the escalating wave of authoritarianism from the left and right, which threatens the United States and extends its ominous reach around the globe.”
He wrote in the Carolina Journal, “We are witnessing a disheartening trend of self-described conservatives saying that the conservatism of the American Founders and Friedman-esque capitalism are no longer relevant in the 21st century. Their answer is to redefine conservatism in such a way that government power should be embraced to alter society. And this redefining of conservatism, sometimes called national conservatism, forsakes America’s distinctive creed. This creed upholds the intrinsic value of individual liberty as indispensable to the nation’s moral and physical strength.
“Conserving individual freedoms is essential for preserving American greatness and virtue in the years ahead.”
Hood says, “We call ourselves Freedom Conservatives not because freedom is our sole interest but because without it, our other fundamental values and institutions will prove impossible to sustain. We are FreeCons because we are Americans – and what we seek to conserve is that which has and will always make America great.”
