What Do Conservatives Believe?
An evening conversation with Mike Pence and Betsy DeVos
On Wednesday, May 31, 2023, The Russell Kirk Center made institutional history by hosting nearly 300 leaders, students and educators, friends and supporters at an event featuring a conversation with former Vice President Mike Pence and former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.
The evening’s theme was “What Do Conservatives Believe?,” spurred in part by the 30th anniversary of Russell Kirk’s popular book, The Politics of Prudence. Held at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, in Grand Rapids, the gathering was optimistic in the best sense, engaging the imaginative conservative tradition of Russell Kirk with two of America’s most principled conservative leaders.
The select gallery of photos below captures some the outstanding Grand Rapids crowd seeking to renew conservatism in its theoretical, historical, religious, economic, and educational dimensions. We hope you enjoy the discussion and we’re grateful for your support of the Russell Kirk Center.
More From Our Highlights & News
Talks Engaging Kirk’s Thought Elsewhere
Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire Ministries, delivered the 2023 Russell Kirk Lecture at the Heritage Foundation on "The Breakdown of the Tocquevillean Equilibrium." Saving Elephants podcast interviewed John Wood Jr. on finding commonality between Kirk and...
Otto von Habsburg Foundation connects with the Kirk Center
In a 1959 letter to Russell Kirk, Otto von Habsburg, Archduke of Austria-Hungary, wrote: “I am very much interested to learn from your letter that you devote so much attention to the development of [the journal] ‘Modern Age.’ I think that you do here a tremendously...
The Great Books podcast features Luke Sheahan
On The Great Books podcast, host John J. Miller was joined by Luke Sheahan, editor of The University Bookman, to discuss Robert Nisbet’s landmark book, The Quest for Community. Sheahan gives a wonderfully lucid presentation on Nisbet’s argument that the human drive...
TFAS Fellows Seek Sources of Conservative Renewal
On October 20-23, the Russell Kirk Center welcomed participants from The Fund for American Studies (TFAS) to its first program held at the Kirk Center in Mecosta. An impressive class of their Public Policy Fellows, most of whom are early career professionals working...