Kathryn Lopez: Gratitude and Life
Conservative principles face implementation challenges as policy meets political complexity.
The coverage treats gratitude as a private virtue, a comforting mood for hard times. Lopez is right to reach for Buckley’s line about “basket cases of ingratitude,” but the point is sharper than a wellness reminder. Ingratitude isn’t just emotional clutter.
New Republican Times Editorial Board
“We are basket cases of ingratitude, so many of us.” That’s one of my favorite quotes from William F. Buckley Jr., a founding father of the conservative movement whose wisdom we sure could use right now.
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New Republican Times Editorial Board
The coverage treats gratitude as a private virtue, a comforting mood for hard times. Lopez is right to reach for Buckley’s line about “basket cases of ingratitude,” but the point is sharper than a wellness reminder. Ingratitude isn’t just emotional clutter. It warps what we demand from government and what we expect from each other.
When media narratives define “progress” as constant expansion of programs and permissions, gratitude gets recast as complacency. Conservatives see the risk: a politics that never says “enough” becomes a politics that never counts costs, never honors duties, and never admits tradeoffs.
Gratitude, properly understood, underwrites public trust, institutional stability, and fairness. It makes room for personal responsibility and the rule of law because it starts with a sober appreciation of what was built and what can be broken. The principle at stake is simple: a free society needs citizens who recognize blessings and boundaries, not just grievances.
Commentary written with AI assistance by the New Republican Times Editorial Board.