Posted on 07/22/2008 6:16:58 PM PDT by AnnGora
Just started watching Larry King for a lark. There are no larks on the show, but the harridan, Joy Behar, is hostessing. Her guests are three liberals and one supposed conservative, Ben Stein. First question: How did Obama do on his Tour of Iraq? The question goes to Ben Stein who falls all over himself praising Obama, gushing how wonderful and masterful he is, and ending up drooling over how Obama is the best he has ever seen in his lifetime. Naturally, the panel of libs agreed immediately and offered Stein free membership in the club.
With conservatives like these representing us, we are sunk. On the other hand, maybe these psuedo conservatives are finally being exposed for what they really are, so it's a good thing.
Just change the channel - LOL
Are There Any Real Conservatives Out There?
I am!!
Why in the heck are you watching Joy Behar? Are you a masochist?
Ben stein is developing dementia.
CNN is not the Conservative News Network so don’t look for any real conservatives on there.
Look at any McCain love-fest thread and you'll say no.
Define the term "real" conservatives, and maybe we can discuss the answer to your question.
The best got shunned by the media... Duncan Hunter
Yah, but not all of us feel qualified to lead the revolution.
Next...?
I’m drinking Kentucy Bourbon from one of my Redwing hunting boots and pi**ing on a picture of Barack Obama. Tell me I ain’t conservative, girl.
“Just change the channel.”
I did...
I have already seen that episode of the Beverly Hillbillies on TVLand, tho. LOL
Well, Glenn Beck was on there last night...I figured, what the heck, maybe lightning will strike twice...at least Larry wasn’t there.
Just look right here on FR and see the fawning over Mitt Romney and you can ask the very same question.
You got my vote!
There are few grounded Conservatives out there.
Look, it’s been since 1984 that someone actually ran nationally on a Conservative platform. It’s not that big a surprise that folks don’t know what it is.
As for Obama, he’s an empty suit. Stein may be well meaning, but he is feeding into the leftist propaganda machine.
That’s the problem. We are not drilled on how to perform on these shows. We do not have talking points prepared. We walk in, sit down, and make bonehead move after bonehead move.
If a person isn’t prepared, they should defer to someone who is.
All too often we get a Ben Stein, Billy Crystal, or God forbid John McCain and these folks blow it constantly. They fall all over themselves trying to be liked. To hell with that. How about sticking it to the Democrats the same way they stick it to us.
To heck with being Mr. Nice Guy. We need a few Carvilles on our side. Leave out the nasty, but beat folks with a Conservative stick until they are bloody.
“Conservative stick”
Hey, I don’t ask for volunteers to lead the revolution. How about somebody that can stare down three limp wristed libs on Larry King?
Is that too much to ask?
I heard that Glenn Beck was on last nite.....today.
would have watched had I known.
Glenn Beck is the ONLY show on CNN I watch. Surprisingly he has lasted longer than I could have ever imagined. There is still hope!
It’s a crying shame when the only conservative with the cajones to face the liberal jokers on the evening cable yak fests is a woman.
Ms. Coulter, please step up to the plate once again!
Well, that’s an improvement!
I've disconnected far enough I don't even know if you're talking radio, teevee or cable.
Who or what is Larry King?
Speaking of dementia, I go over to my mom’s frequently and she’ll have on the View. I tell her they’re all a bunch of liberal Bush bashers (except for little Elizabeth), yet my mom says “no”, they would never speak against the President, etc.
God only knows how many other elderly people have their TVs turned to that program and don’t seem to know what is being said. I hope my mom is in the minority, but I fear a lot of people watch that show and just listen to the so called entertainment and guests without picking up on how vitriolic these witches really are.
Also, I’m disappointed to hear Ben Stein falling all over the Messiah’s overseas travel. I thought he was one of the good guys.
You are charming in your innocence. It’s better you stay that way. However, if you must know who Larry King is, ask your grandmother.
That is my point. Stein is always there as the token conservative, but when he opens his mouth, it’s just another RINO, pawing the ground to be noticed and liked by the libs.
And here I thought the definition was someone who agreed with me 100% of the time!!
Pshaw
When we are children, we base our decisions based on emotion. In our middle life, survival requires us to make good choices based on facts. After retirement. many revert to emotion. My in-laws vote straight line Democrat because “Democrats are for the working man and Republicans are for the rich.” It doesn’t matter that they are pro-life, pro-gun, pro-military, anti-tax people on earth.
You tell me.
Ahhh...I asked for a definition of "real" conservative. What you've defined (hopefully in jest/sarcasm per your smiley) is an automaton.
JMO, but the campaign directors are a big part of the current political climate.
There hasn’t been a true conservative running a national campaign since Lee Atwater passed away. Nowadays, they all sound the same. Who they back depends on who’s paying the most.
I would just like to see a conservative not apologize for being conservative. Even Atwater apologized later on for being “too mean.”
There was a little sarcasm, but it seems that’s the going definition in this house. Conservatism is a useful philosophy. As a philosophy is can only guide toward a general principle. True conservatives can not legislate, however, for legislation requires the persuasion of a thin majority of equally dogmatic fellows. Quite a task. The first to assent can no longer wear the mantle of “true conservative”. (The 100% rule.)
Ben Stein is all over the map, he did the movie Expelled but is also a big Al Franken supporter. It's not really that surprising he supports Obama.
What a coincidence. So is John McCain.
Although good in literary terms, Stein is not a conservative. Even though his economist father was not conservative, he would be ashamed of his son.
Ben Stein is a guy only the Discovery Institute could love.
Shunned by many so-called conservatives also.
Well stated, and I completely agree with your points.
A conservative is someone who agrees with me 100% of the time. There is no room for any equivocation. Not 90%, not 98%, but 100% always, all the time, forever. If not, they are not a conservative.
This is precisely the reason the dogmatic left and right wings of the political spectrum tend to lose far more elections than they win. It's also why the broad spectrum between the two wings often seem to be "Republicrats," or "Demicans," or "RINOs," or "DINOs," etc., depending on the perspective of the person throwing around such useless labels.
I am a true conservative: a reactionary who supports the traditions and institutions of pre-Revolutionary, pre-”enlightenment” European Christian culture.
As did the great Joseph DeMaistre, I hold that only governments founded on the Christian constitution, implicit in the customs and institutions of all European societies but especially in that of Catholic European monarchies, can avoid the disorder and bloodletting that follow all rationalist political programs, such as that of the 1789 revolution. I am a believer in the principle of established authority, which the Revolution sought to destroy.
I am opposed to ideology, utopianism, or other attempts to perfect Man or achieve “heaven on Earth” through secular means.
I defend the traditional order of Western civilization (including the major role of the Catholic Church) and oppose democratic and republican ideas and institutions. I advocate the natural Christian family as the cell of society and the best form of government, outside of which I support an authoritarian, explicitly Christian State for each nation — a State limited only to those functions ordained to it by God. I vehemently oppose fascism, state capitalism, socialism, and other forms of idolatry.
I oppose unlimited corporate capitalism and state socialism alike. I support private enterprise on the smallest possible scale — the family business — and hold that a medieval, Distributist economic system is both the most natural and the most just.
I support the right of ethnic and cultural groups to self-determination, but I oppose hatred based solely upon ethnic or cultural differences.
I recognize the natural law and the natural hierarchy of power (God -> Prince -> Aristocracy –> Individual); I oppose the legal idea of positivism and the idea of popular sovereignty.
In short: as a conservative, I believe in the traditional pillars of Western civilization: Altar (the Church) and Throne (the Monarchy) and I oppose the false, Revolutionary gods of unlimited Individual Liberty and Materialist Reason. I hold Duty, Piety, and Family to be superior to Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity; and God above all.
Sadly, both grandmothers are long since gone.
“Sadly, both grandmothers are long gone.”
Basically, so is Larry. There is really nothing left but a hollow shell.
You have my vote!
Why Radical Traditionalism in Politics? by Jim Kalb
Because conservatism as normally understood is not possible in America today. Conservatism stands for loyalty to what is settled. It presumes that one belongs to a culture and civilization that is basically well-founded and coherent, so that it will return to type if a few errors are debunked and excesses suppressed.
None of that makes sense today. All authoritative American institutions are left-liberal in their principles. As such, they are profoundly at odds with the implicit habitual goods fostered by tradition and with any orientation toward the transcendent. The protection of those things must be at the heart of any orientation calling itself conservative. As a result, an American who wishes to be conservative must put himself radically at odds with the authoritative public institutions of his country. By doing so, he stops being anything that can be recognized as conservative.
America has good qualities, such as its traditions of localism, voluntary cooperation, and limited government. It has other good qualities simply because it is an enduring society. Any society would simply fall apart unless its members lived uprightly in most ways, raised the next generation adequately, and defended the social order against attack. Such things require restraint, sacrifice and loyalty, and thus implicit orientation toward goods that transcend particular desires and are capable of sustaining human life.
So there are always grounds for being conservative in some general sense. Still, something more is needed for a political position than praising the goods present in everyday life in every society. One also needs leading principles to guide attitudes and social practices. And the principles needed today must be radical, because they must be in sharp opposition to the leading principles of public life.
What we need are principles that go deeper and say more than simply announcing that they are "conservative" in some generic sense. They must catch hold of something that is sufficiently fundamental and all-encompassing to ground and provide a standard for social and political life. They must therefore be religious. It is the lack of such principles that has made it impossible for conservatives effectively to contest liberalism.
Further, the principles we need must be sufficiently concrete to give answers, and sufficiently anchored in experience to avoid utopian fanaticism. That means they must be principles supported by some particular political and religious tradition. At least for European man, it's hard to see what that tradition could be other than the central religious and moral tradition of the West, Catholicism.
If what I have said is right, it is better to be forthright about it so that the matter can be discussed, than to make use of expressions like "the American Way" or "Western Civilization" that mean everything and nothing. At Turnabout we will try to speak as clearly as possible, discuss the real issues of our time, and see where it all leads. Anyone interested is welcome to join.
Thank you. That’s a great quote.
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