The Crisis of the 'Moderate' Conservative Public Intellectual

I have become interested in the spiritual and emotional crisis being experienced by a certain strain of moderate conservative “public intellectual.”

The crisis is articulated by Andrew Sullivan in a New York Magazine essay on “coping with Trump.” 

Sullivan declares, “There are moments when everything I have come to believe in -- reasoned deliberation, mutual toleration, liberal democracy, free speech, honesty, decency, and moderation -- seem as if they are in eclipse.”

Along with Sullivan, I would add Ross Douthat, Bret Stephens, and of course David Brooks to the list of public intellectuals in the midst of this public crisis. The commonalities among this group are obvious: their prominent platforms, their lives starting from the pole position, a “moderate” conservatism rooted in Enlightenment (rational) values infused with religious faith, and of course they're all strongly opposed to Donald Trump and “Trumpism.”