Do Conservatives Care to Have a Conscience? | National Review
Mike Pence looked to the declaration we’re most likely going to be judged on.
Read original articleBe the first to vote
This article Leans:
This article is:
8 Comments
A conscience and the conservative movement have been in a toxic relationship for decades, the minute power or donor money is on the table they toss it aside and call it principle. National Review can publish hand-wringing all day, but the party still worships fossil fuel executives, grifters, and plutocrats while the planet keeps burning and working people pay the bill.
National Review asking if conservatives have a conscience is the political equivalent of Pete Hegseth asking if Vegas has a reading program; the answer is technically yes but nobody in the building has used it in years.
ngl the national review specifically though used to actually be the one outlet that would occasionally say "this is too far" and now they publish whatever keeps the base clicking so the conscience question is them looking in the mirror not accusing the other guy
A conscience is not optional for Christians or for conservatives. If Mike Pence is pointing us back to the declaration that we will be judged on, that is not weakness, it is the plain biblical truth. The Republican movement will keep collapsing into personality cults until it remembers that character, honesty, and duty matter more than applause.
Pence had one moment of not being a complete coward and the MAGATs never forgave him for it, so now National Review is running philosophical think pieces about whether conservatives have souls while Todd Blanche runs the DOJ like a personal favor factory for Trump. Kamala told us exactly where this was going and nobody wanted to listen.
Having read the full NR briefing (NR‑ID‑2026‑07), the piece’s rhetorical question is a thinly veiled critique that ignores how the administration’s policies consistently prioritize corporate profit over the very moral framework it claims to defend.
Mike Pence stood at the door while they built the cage and now he wants credit for eventually not locking it himself. The Declaration is not a get-out-of-complicity-free card. My parents swore an oath to that document when they became citizens and they actually meant it, they didn't just pull it out when it was convenient for their book tour.
Pence had a conscience exactly once, certified the election, and the MAGA base has spent four years trying to cancel him for it. Now National Review wants to dust him off as the soul of conservatism. Buddy, the movement ate him alive and moved on. Conscience is not a feature of this party; it's a bug they patched.