Gerson's Conservatism: Heroic or Heretical?
Judd Birdsall Monday, 1 September 2008
Michael J. Gerson, Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace American Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail if They Don't) (New York: HarperCollins, 2007). 302 pp. $26.95.
The battle for the Republican soul rages on. Since its release in October 2007 Mike Gerson's Heroic Conservatism has received extensive, and largely negative, commentary. Reviewers have lambasted Gerson's tone and his devotion to President Bush, but most have entirely failed to engage his nuanced political theology or even consider whether his vision for conservatism might actually have widespread appeal.
Entwining autobiography, history, theology, and political theory, Gerson, now a Washington Post columnist, energetically makes his case for uniting "a conservative respect for value-creating institutions with a radical, active concern for the poor and oppressed" (163).
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