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Pax Americana Institute

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke

We are often asked the following question: “What does it mean to be a classical conservative?” These principles below will assist in explaining the basic beliefs and maxims of classical conservatism.

Classical Conservative Thought

Positive Principles

  1. All mankind, including nations and groups, are subject to the divine will.
  2. Divine will is expressed in natural law and natural rights.
  3. Our Creator endows natural rights.
  4. A government that violates natural law or natural rights is illegitimate.
  5. The greatest expression of natural law and natural rights is in the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution.
  6. Modern Americans must seek to conserve the principles in these two documents specifically and the American Revolution in general.
  7. Objective truth exists.
  8. Tradition is inherently important to preserve, so long as that tradition does not violate natural law and natural rights.
  9. Loyalty, duty, honor, obligation, and responsibility are the maxims to which classical conservatives must live by on a personal level.
  10. A true gentleman and lady stands for the above tenets and exemplifies the philosophy of chivalry, compassion, and courtesy.
  11. Love of the United States.
  12. The protection of the American people and the American Civilization.
  13. Foreign Affairs are dealt with from both an idealistic and realistic notion. The idealism that American values will and should triumph, and the realism that there can be no peace, stability, prosperity, or goodness absent the supremacy of American power.
  14. The classical conservative believes in the power of the freedom of ideas, the sanctity of private property, and the free market of commerce. However, he realizes that his obligation is to his community, his people, and his country and shall never allow economic interests to rule over these obligations.
  15. A meritorious natural aristocracy governs the progress of individuals and groups.
  16. Classical conservatives believe that the foundation of good education is the Western canon.
  17. Classical conservatives realize the obligation to do what is right for the people.
  18. Liberty under law.
  19. The best governmental expression of these principles is a Federal Republic.

Negative Principles

  1. Tyranny in any form is evil.
  2. The specific evils of communism, fascism, socialism, and nazism should be actively opposed.
  3. Nihilism and Narcissism are anathema.
  4. Relativism is both illogical and immoral.
  5. American civilization cannot co-exist with totalitarianism, whether it be religious such as that preached by Al Qaeda or political such as communism.
  6. The Constitution is not a suicide pact. Foreign and Domestic enemies of republican liberty are, by definition, a threat to liberty for all.

Cornerstone Thinkers and Leaders

Aristotle, Plato, Tacitus, Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, St. Paul, St. Thomas Aquinas, John Locke, Edmund Burke, John Adams, George Washington, Thomas  Jefferson, Alexis de Tocqueville, Abraham Lincoln, Walter Bagehot, Theodore Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, Michael Oakeshott, Russell Kirk, Harry Truman, and Ronald Reagan.

Literary Traditions

Homer, Virgil, Sophocles, Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, John Milton, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Henry Adams, C.S. Lewis, & J.R.R. Tolkien.