In 2012, I came across a scholarly article in a journal on rhetoric on "The Conservative Canon and Its Uses."  The author, Michael J. Lee, undertook to explain why the American conservative movement had put together a "secular canon" featuring its leading thinkers.  According to Lee, this selection of books and seminal authors has been designed to forge a "spiritual bond" among groups that otherwise have exhibited sharp disagreement.  Conventional libertarians, social traditionalists, and anarcho-capitalists, to name just three such groups, have been able to cooperate on common purposes because a canon has been created that embraces figures from all of these traditions.  Certain rhetorical phrases, moreover, have been repeatedly identified with this shared heritage, including references to "permanent things" and "values."  This canon has been periodically updated, and with the...(Read Full Article)