My primary goal was to make the case that there are long-held and respected intellectual arguments for a social conservative philosophy. (It had occurred to me that this is not widely understood — or fully appreciated.) In this regard, I think I succeeded.

But while my primary argument about social conservatism may have been acute, my criticism of libertarianism may have painted with too broad a brush. Though I did note that my criticisms were aimed at “the pure libertarian (as opposed to those of us who have some libertarian leanings)” — some who read the piece clearly misinterpreted my column as an attack on classical liberalism.