Republicans Must Rediscover the Ethic of Stewardship

The battle for the Republican Party’s future has begun.

The scraping sounds of blade stropping can be heard as GOP factions prepare for the battle over what the party should stand for.

In order for Republicans to get their bearings and regain the voters’ trust, they must learn the right lessons from the 2008 election. A sure way back is to rediscover the ethic of stewardship. A steward is a caretaker, entrusted with the responsibility of looking after what 20th century conservative political theorist Russell Kirk called "the permanent things.”

Such as the environment, which supplies essential services that enable our society, with all its freedom and abundance, to thrive. Many in the Republican Party, the ancestral home of America’s conservation movement, have a bad habit of giving the bum’s rush to legitimate environmental concerns. That’s a habit that they must break, for reasons of both politics and principle.