Conservatives
The conservative movement is in shambles. The fall began in 2006, and the Obama sweep in 2008 threw the right wing completely out of power. Who is to blame? As one might expect, there is plenty of discussion on this point. Liberals and Democrats are certainly used to this hand-wringing, though it's a new thing for many conservatives who were looking forward to their permenant majority.
The Sarah Palin fiasco highlights the difficulties for the movement. Conservative intellectuals took a beating from the right wing for daring to question her fitness for office.
You can follow our thoghts on the subject of conservatives at North Coast Blog.
Commentary
Glenn Greenwald mocked the state of conservatism just before the 2008 elections.
The Right in this country -- meaning the faction that followed George Bush for the last eight years -- long ago ceased being a movement of political ideas and is driven by two, and only two, extreme emotions: (1) intense, aggressive rage towards their revolving door of enemies, and (2) bottomless self-pity over how unfairly they're being treated. As their imminent defeat looks increasingly likely (potentially on a humiliating scale), these two impulses are in maximum overdrive, feeding off one another in endless self-perpetuation (the more they lose, the more victimized they feel, the more they rage against their enemies who oppress them, etc.).
Conservatives vs.
Republicans
North Coast Blog comments
on George Will's argument that the GOP is destroying the
conservatives movement.
Conservatives vs. Bush
- The Miers nomination was
the tipping point for many conservatives who were dissatisfied
with Bush. Ryan
Lizza explores what's next.
Jonah Goldberg has some
interesting insights regarding the conflicts between conservatism
and populism.
Andrew
Sullivan takes on Tom DeLay and the GOP after Delay's
ridiculous statement that there was no fat in the federal
budget that could be cut - "Just when you think the ruling Republicans cannot get more self-congratulatory or off-key, we have Tom DeLay saying that there's no fat left in the U.S. budget. Er, Mr. DeLay, you have presided over the biggest explosion in pork and government spending in living memory. You and your president, in an astonishingly swift five years, have managed to add $2 trillion to the debt we and the next generation will have to pay back in taxes or inflation. "No fat left to cut?" This is what conservatism has now come to mean: the worst aspects of big government liberalism with the worst aspects of meddling in the moral decisions of people's private lives. And the people who have done this seem oblivious to it. I will remind you, Tom DeLay equated a balanced budget with fiscal sanity in the Clinton years. But now it's his budget, and his constituents and interest groups who get to feed at the trough, and the sky is the limit. A reminder to fiscal conservatives: today's GOP isn't just not what it used to be; it's your main enemy now. Conservatism has been hijacked by puritans and spendthrifts. Their unifying philosophy is meddling in other people's lives and spending other people's money."
Andrew Sullivan explains how President Bush "has done a huge amount to destroy the coherence of a conservative philosophy of American government."
Sullivan argues that conservatives
need to consider Kerry. He also argues that the old
labels don't stick in this election.
Spending Madness
The GOP proved during the Bush years that they didn't
give a damn about small government or fiscal responsibility.
They will sell out those and other principles to satisfy their
K Street and corporate friends. In the end, money talks, Cut
taxes for the wealthy, and then run up the pork spending.
John Fund blasts
the Bush administration for not cutting nonessential domestic
spending (like highway pork projects) in light of the huge
costs of Katrina spending
and the war in Iraq. He
points to FDR and Truman as presidents who made the tough
decisions. It's another example of Bush's careless approach to
federal spending,
What defines Conservatism?
Calling the conservative movement "confused," Andrew
Sullivan compares
two contradictory forms of conservatism - doubting
conservatives vs. faith-based conservatives.
Jacob Weisberg examines the new
trend of interest-group
conservatism.
Mark Schmitt asks whether
American conservatism is dead.
The
Right-Wing Revolution - Robert Reich
A
questionable kind of conservatism - George Will
What is a Neoconservative?
Split in the Neocon
movement?
Quotes
"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of
'conservatism.'"- Barry Goldwater, September 16, 1981. I wonder if Goldwater could even exist within today's Republican establishment.
Conservative Writers
George Will
He's one of the most respected voices in the conservative movement, and one of the few who was willing to call out Sarah Palin.
Peggy Noonan
The former speechwriter for Ronald Reagan consitently produces eloquent columns from the conservative point of view.
Archive
Thoughts from 2006:
Conservatives should be happy -
the Republicans control all branches of government. Yet many
conservatives are frustrated, leading to serious divisions
within the GOP and a possible meltdown in November.
The problems are numerous. Conservatives have been very loyal
to George Bush, but issues like immigration, government
spending and the Harriet Miers nomination have alienated many
intellectual conservatives. Also, many conservatives are
coming to terms with the fiasco in Iraq, with many openly
questioning the Bush administration's handling of the war.
Finally, the gross incompetence of this administration have
turned off many once-loyal supporters.
Where does the conservative movement go from here. After
controlling the presidency and Congress, the GOP has overseen
the largest growth in spending since the Johnson years.
Frankly it's a disgrace. If you hear a conservative defending
these policies, you know they're really not conservative at
all - they're just partisan Republicans who won't admit
mistakes. (Updated 4/4/06 by Gerardo Orlando)
Comments, questions and suggestions can be sent to Gerardo
Orlando at editor@orlandoreport.com.
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