What is the New Outlook?

At the New Outlook, we’re dedicated to re-discovering and rebuilding the concept of industrial democracy, and what it means to protect it in the modern age. Our contributors will certainly not reflect all the views of the staff or organization, but we hope to platform new perspectives, debates, and ultimately inject fresh ideas into the bloodstream of the conservative movement. Our precursor, The Outlook, was the magazine where Theodore Roosevelt himself – as an associate editor – shared his commentary on all questions, whether political or cultural, and developed a narrative that would help connect him with the average American.

In a special message to Congress in the last year of his Presidency, President Roosevelt referred to “industrial democracy,” saying:

The function of our Government is to insure to all its citizens, now and hereafter, their rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. If we of this generation destroy the resources from which our children would otherwise derive their livelihood, we reduce the capacity of our land to support a population, and so either degrade the standard of living or deprive the coming generations of their right to life on this continent. If we allow great industrial organizations to exercise unregulated control of the means of production and the necessaries of life, we deprive the Americans of today and of the future of industrial liberty, a right no less precious and vital than political freedom. Industrial liberty was a fruit of political liberty, and in turn has become one of its chief supports, and exactly as we stand for political democracy so we must stand for industrial democracy.

The years ahead will call for true leadership – decisive action, moral character, and honest communication – and the only way to ensure this movement lasts beyond the short-term is to build a clear vision of what America should be, and why.