I despise the cowardly clinging to life, purely for the sake of life, that seems so deeply ingrained in the American temperament.

The attempt to redefine the family as a purely voluntary arrangement grows out of the modern delusion that people can keep all their options open all the time.

The left sees nothing but bigotry and superstition in the popular defense of the family or in popular attitudes regarding abortion, crime, busing, and the school curriculum.

Most women are pragmatists who have allowed extremists on the left and right to manipulate the family issue for their own purposes.

The left has come to regard common sense - the traditional wisdom and folkways of the community - as an obstacle to progress and enlightenment.

Ostensibly rigorous and realistic, contemporary conservatism is an ideology of denial. Its symbol is a smile button.

The hope of a new politics does not lie in formulating a left-wing reply to the right-it lies in rejecting conventional political categories.