The political pertinence of personal preference
Over at England's Sword, I ask whether moral choices and personal responsibility can be considered separately from politics:
What social conservatives recognise is that culture cannot possibly be divided from the political circumstances of a country in this way, that its impact is if anything greater than that of legislation. For a cultural conservative, the history and traditions of a country are what define the circumstances in which all political choices and all political decisions are exercised. We reject absolutely the ahistorical and ultra-rationalist belief that one can impose a set of political arrangements on any people at any point in time, and if they are at all workable then they will work irrespective of the cultural backdrop. That is why it is imperative for anyone who cares about politics also to care about culture and worry about the direction in which a society is headed.
