Conservative Thanksgiving: Celebrate to Preserve, Feast to Build

Thanksgiving is a conservative holiday. Not so much in the mode of contemporary partisanships of “Left” and “Right” but in its broadest, purest sense. Ultimately, true conservatism seeks to preserve. It desires to safeguard and sustain elements both past and present into the future. And Thanksgiving — well, it’s right there in the name: It’s an acknowledgment and celebration of the blessings that enrich our lives.

Today, America needs Thanksgiving more than ever. So much of our social and political climate is built on — and animated by — its opposite: condemnation. At nearly every turn, our culture seems to want to uproot, destroy, and rebuild up from the ensuing ashes, to the point of reproving the most fundamental aspects of our society and our politics.

About the Author

Adam M. Carrington

Adam M. Carrington is an associate professor of politics at Hillsdale College.

Thanksgiving is a conservative holiday. Not so much in the mode of contemporary partisanships of “Left” and “Right” but in its broadest, purest sense. Ultimately, true conservatism seeks to preserve. It desires to safeguard and sustain elements both past and present into the future. And Thanksgiving — well, it’s right there in the name: It’s an acknowledgment and celebration of the blessings that enrich our lives.

Today, America needs Thanksgiving more than ever. So much of our social and political climate is built on — and animated by — its opposite: condemnation. At nearly every turn, our culture seems to want to uproot, destroy, and rebuild up from the ensuing ashes, to the point of reproving the most fundamental aspects of our society and our politics.