DALLAS, TEXAS – Published today, the spring 2025 edition of The Catalyst: A Journal of Ideas from the Bush Institute explains why conservative values such as humility, respect for tradition, and prioritizing human dignity remain important. In The Case for Conservatism, The Catalyst brings together political scientists, pollsters, foreign policy experts, human rights advocates, journalists, and more to describe the current political and geopolitical landscape, why conservatism still matters, and what the philosophy must do to adapt.
In the issue’s first piece, Kristen Soltis Anderson – a pollster and the founding partner of Echelon Insights – explains that even though the Right is enjoying some newfound popularity among young American voters, the GOP must adapt and evolve if it hopes to keep that popularity. Despite recent voting trends, Gen Z has not become conservative in the classical sense, she argues, and conservatives need to respond to young Americans’ frustration and isolation.
Andy Smarick, a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, argues that conservatism’s traditional focus on preserving fair process is no longer sufficient to today’s challenges. Unlike other countries where society is held together by blood, soil, throne, or altar, the United States is hodgepodge of different origins, faiths, and views. Conservatives need an agenda that responds to that fact and to our times.
In recent years, conservative foreign policy has shifted toward isolationism, warns Kori Schake, Senior Fellow and Director of Foreign and Defense Policy at the American Enterprise Institute. But traditional U.S. values require advancing freedom around the world, she writes. Jonathan Tepperman, The Catalyst’s Editor-in-Chief and a Senior Fellow at the Bush Institute, argues that before abandoning the rules-based international order, conservatives should look hard at the benefits that system brings – benefits that far outweigh the costs to America. Paul Miller, Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Georgetown University, writes that the best U.S. foreign policy is the one that recognizes the synergy between power and idealism. “The free world is not a globalist infringement on American sovereignty,” he explains, but “an American export to make the world friendlier to us.”
Nicole Bibbins Sedaca, the Kelly and David Pfeil Fellow at the Bush Institute, argues that human rights should remain at the forefront of conservatism. Protecting freedom abroad protects American values at home, she writes – and the spread of freedom and democracy benefits everyone.
The United States has a long history of granting individuals and businesses more freedom than most countries. Cullum Clark, Director of the Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative, explains the origins of economic conservatism, dissects today’s populist trend and makes a case for how conservatives should respond.
William McKenzie, Senior Editorial Advisor of the Bush Institute, shows how pluralism keeps America strong, and how disagreement benefits everyone. He argues that America’s diversity is part of the country’s greatest strength and shows how the United States is actually managing to combat polarization well at the local level.
The issue concludes with an essay by Abby McCloskey, a podcast host and columnist for The Dallas Morning News, in which she criticizes modern conservatism for thinking too hard about what it opposes, not what it’s for. “Republicans and Democrats currently struggle to define themselves in the absence of the other,” she writes. To avoid become a mere echo, today’s conservatives should clearly articulate what they support, not just what they reject.
To read the full edition of The Catalyst visit https://www.bushcenter.org/catalyst/the-case-for-conservatism
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About the George W. Bush Institute
The George W. Bush Institute is a solution-oriented nonpartisan policy organization focused on ensuring opportunity for all, strengthening democracy, and advancing free societies. Housed within the George W. Bush Presidential Center, the Bush Institute is rooted in compassionate conservative values and committed to creating positive, meaningful, and lasting change at home and abroad. We utilize our unique platform and convening power to advance solutions to national and global issues of the day. Learn more at bushcenter.org.
