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Remembering Gertrude Himmelfarb, a Voice of Moral Clarity in a Time of Moral Confusion
The Daily Signal ^ | January 7, 2020 | Timothy Goeglein

Posted on 01/09/2020 1:01:42 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

America has lost a voice that strongly and consistently provided the road map to steer us away from the political and cultural abyss we currently face. That voice belonged to historian Gertrude Himmelfarb, who died Dec. 30 at age 97.

Gertrude spoke passionately about how our most important institutions—families, communities, churches, and private enterprise—must be “remoralized,” as it is only through a strong civil society that we can have a strong nation.

In her words, people learn to function as “free, responsible, moral adults” in these institutions and apply that responsibility and morality as citizens of a nation.

But she also knew that restoring a strong civil society would require a deliberate effort to reestablish the values as enumerated in the Declaration of Independence: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Without respect for these core values, civil society cannot exist.

She was well aware that the dominant cultural forces of our day had come to disregard these values to our peril. She wrote, “It is evidently not enough to revitalize civil society; we have the far more difficult task of remoralizing it.”

While she spoke passionately, she also urged prudence. She warned that those who desire to purge overreaching government, in their zeal, could end up belittling and delegitimizing the state. She called for her fellow Americans to not be mere dissenting critics, but instead to be active participants in reforming government and society as a whole.

She wrote: “Today, more than ever, when there are so many legitimate grievances against government, we cannot afford to delegitimize proper government. Nor can we afford the luxury of being apolitical, of depriving ourselves of the proper resources of government.”

(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: bde; churches; civicgroups; civilsociety; edmundburke; families; freemarkets; gertrudehimmelfarb; government; inmemoriam; institutions; limitedgovernment; littleplatoons; morality; privateenterprise; reform; religion; rip

1 posted on 01/09/2020 1:01:43 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

She married a Trotskyite and was most likely one herself


2 posted on 01/09/2020 1:09:28 PM PST by JonPreston
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To: JonPreston

She’s the mother of Bill Kristol. That’s all anyone needs to know about her.


3 posted on 01/09/2020 1:15:40 PM PST by Alberta's Child (In the time of chimpanzees I was a monkey.)
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To: Alberta's Child

So she’s the one responsible for Bill Kristol being a complete dick then?


4 posted on 01/09/2020 1:16:49 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Show me the people who own the land, the guns and the money, and I'll show you the people in charge.)
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To: 100American; 3D-JOY; abner; Abundy; AGreatPer; Albion Wilde; AliVeritas; alisasny; ...

PING!


5 posted on 01/09/2020 1:17:08 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Show me the people who own the land, the guns and the money, and I'll show you the people in charge.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

Smart gal, bat shiite crazy, but a very smart gal.

It is instructive to read the well-formed, well-researched and smartly delivered arguments of the left. Understanding where the arguments come from makes it that much easier to fight back.

For the High-Brows, that some of them actually believe this is mildly irritating.
That they hold sway over the Dopes, Mopes and Nopes of the Ctrl-Lft is frustrating.
That any breathing, self-aware human being embraces them as leadership is alarming.


6 posted on 01/09/2020 1:49:00 PM PST by Macoozie (Handcuffs and Orange Jumpsuits)
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To: Alberta's Child

That’s right.


7 posted on 01/09/2020 1:51:23 PM PST by JonPreston
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To: JonPreston

“She married a Trotskyite and was most likely one herself”

We aren’t supposed to mention that aspect of the neoconservative faction.


8 posted on 01/09/2020 3:59:16 PM PST by Pelham (RIP California, killed by massive immigration)
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To: JonPreston

IGertrude Himmelfarb wrote a biography of the classical liberal, Lord Actin, in the 1950s. “Lord Acton: A Study of Conscience and Politics” She was no communist, at least by then


9 posted on 05/29/2020 6:44:48 AM PDT by rmlew ("Mosques are our barracks, minarets our bayonets, domes our helmets, the believers our soldiers.")
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