It Takes a Family Review: The beginning at the end.
I would like to start at the end. About a quarter of the way through this book I was so moved and inspired by Senator Santorum’s insight that I contacted Chris Lilik and brought up the idea of a review posted on SantorumBlog.com. He wholeheartedly agreed and from that point on I began to form the outline in my head of how I would go about reviewing It Takes a Family. Up until the Conclusion I thought I had it figured out.
I was going to write about a new Santorum-led socio-political theory, a neo-traditionalism if you will. This neo-traditionalism would be focused on primarily on the family and the government’s role in building and nurturing families. Unfortunately for me, Senator Santorum was a step ahead of me. In the final chapter of the book Senator Santorum specifies that this is not what he was attempting to do. He insists that the ideas in the book are Conservative and nothing more.
Oh well, back to the drawing board.
For the past week or so I pondered the scope of the Senator’s admonition. This book talks almost entirely about family. Isn’t the Conservative movement about opening markets, keeping government small, and most importantly keeping government off our backs and out of our business? How does talking about family accomplish those basic tenets?
Then I had a eureka moment. The tenets mentioned above are secondary motivations of the Conservative movement. One of the basic fundamental building blocks that allow us to talk about these secondary items is Liberty. Senator Santorum reminds us that in order for Liberty to be successful we must agree to certain norms and give up a small piece of that liberty for the common good. In past generations, the Family has always been the place where Liberty has been nurtured. It has also been the place where those social norms have been instilled in us. The idea of the lack of the family structure was something previous generations did not have to consider.
The erosion of the family unit over the past fifty years has had debilitating effects on our economy, our social order, and most importantly, the safety of our Liberty. Recognizing this, Senator Santorum is attempting to refocus our efforts on this much more basic building block of Conservatism.
I plan on taking you through this book in order to further illustrate Senator Santorum’s ideas on how to do this. Sometimes I’ll do this a chapter at a time, sometimes a few chapters at a time. I also may bounce around as the news of the day may dictate. My only hope is that I do justice to the ideas and premises that Senator Santorum has so clearly laid out in the book. I also hope that you'll be able to use my posts as a sort of "Cliffs Notes" and reference to the original.
I was going to write about a new Santorum-led socio-political theory, a neo-traditionalism if you will. This neo-traditionalism would be focused on primarily on the family and the government’s role in building and nurturing families. Unfortunately for me, Senator Santorum was a step ahead of me. In the final chapter of the book Senator Santorum specifies that this is not what he was attempting to do. He insists that the ideas in the book are Conservative and nothing more.
Oh well, back to the drawing board.
For the past week or so I pondered the scope of the Senator’s admonition. This book talks almost entirely about family. Isn’t the Conservative movement about opening markets, keeping government small, and most importantly keeping government off our backs and out of our business? How does talking about family accomplish those basic tenets?
Then I had a eureka moment. The tenets mentioned above are secondary motivations of the Conservative movement. One of the basic fundamental building blocks that allow us to talk about these secondary items is Liberty. Senator Santorum reminds us that in order for Liberty to be successful we must agree to certain norms and give up a small piece of that liberty for the common good. In past generations, the Family has always been the place where Liberty has been nurtured. It has also been the place where those social norms have been instilled in us. The idea of the lack of the family structure was something previous generations did not have to consider.
The erosion of the family unit over the past fifty years has had debilitating effects on our economy, our social order, and most importantly, the safety of our Liberty. Recognizing this, Senator Santorum is attempting to refocus our efforts on this much more basic building block of Conservatism.
I plan on taking you through this book in order to further illustrate Senator Santorum’s ideas on how to do this. Sometimes I’ll do this a chapter at a time, sometimes a few chapters at a time. I also may bounce around as the news of the day may dictate. My only hope is that I do justice to the ideas and premises that Senator Santorum has so clearly laid out in the book. I also hope that you'll be able to use my posts as a sort of "Cliffs Notes" and reference to the original.
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