User:Jaydavidmartin/David Frenchism

David French-ism or David Frenchism is a term coined by Iranian-American conservative political commentator, editor, and author Sohrab Ahmari, in reference to American attorney and conservative political commentator David French. Originally intended as a disparaging label for a conservative mindset that values politeness and decency over unsparingly engaging in political battles, it has been adopted by supporters of French to positively describe a belief in civility and liberalism.

Definition
Critics use the term to describe a political persuasion within conservatism that they allege has lead to political and cultural losses for conservatives. In particular, David French-ism is a way of approaching politics that values decency and civility—values they believe liberals do not uphold in political debate. Mathew Boose describes David French-ism as a sensibility that "frets that reaching for the levers of power may backfire. You can’t just ban things that are immoral and bad for society. What if our opponents try to do the same thing?"

Supporters also use to term to describe a civil approach to politics, however they view this as a decidely positive quality. In addition, the debate emanating from Against David French-ism has lead supporters to link support for classical liberalism with the term. French himself describes French-ism as containing "two main components: zealous defense of the classical-liberal order (with a special emphasis on civil liberties) and zealous advocacy of fundamentally Christian and Burkean conservative principles".

Background
The dispute first began on May 26, 2019, when Sohrab Ahmari expressed on Twitter his frustration with a Facebook advertisement for a children’s drag queen reading hour at a library in Sacramento, California, which he described as "transvestic fetishism", and argued that there is no "polite, David French-ian third way around the cultural civil war". This prompted a response from French in a May 28 essay published in the National Review entitled "Decency Is No Barrier to Justice or the Common Good". The dispute escalated significantly after Ahmari published the essay "Against David French-ism" in the conservative religious journal First Things on May 29, 2019. The direct targeting of French and the impromptu creation of the "David French-ism" political philosophy led the essay to gain a significant profile, prompting a response from French and the publication of numerous commentaries. On September 5, 2019, French and Ahmari engaged in an in-person political debate moderated by New York Times columnist Ross Douthat at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C., again prompting a flurry of commentaries.

Reception
The essay in which the term was coined sparked considerable debate in intellectual conservative circles.

The term itself has faced criticism among both supporters and critics of Ahmari's original essay for falsely or unfairly characterizing French. Jonah Goldberg writes in The National Review, "French’s allies — including me — saw Ahmari’s attack in the pages of the journal First Things as a kind of character assassination. His description of French as a conservative quisling more eager to get along with the Left than to fight it bore little resemblance to the man." Rod Dreher writes in The American Conservative, "I wish Ahmari had not unjustly accused French of 'keeping his hands clean, his soul untainted.' David French has fought hard in courtrooms, as a lawyer, for religious liberty, as an ADF lawyer. If that’s not getting your hands dirty, what is?"