Posted on 01/16/2013 7:24:35 AM PST by SeekAndFind
It’s hard for a lot of people, particularly on the right, to recognize that the conservative movement’s problems are mostly problems of success. But the Republican party’s problems are much more recognizable as the problems of failure, including the failure to recognize the limits of that movement’s success.
American conservatism began as a kind of intellectual hobbyists’ group with little hope of changing the broader society. Albert Jay Nock, the cape-wearing libertarian intellectual — he called himself a “philosophical anarchist” — who inspired a very young William F. Buckley Jr., argued that political change was impossible because the masses were rubes, goons, fools, or sheep, victims of the eternal tendency of the powerful to exploit the powerless.
Buckley, who rightly admired Nock for many things, rightly disagreed on this point. Buckley trusted the people more than the intellectuals. Moreover, as Buckley’s friend Richard Weaver said, “ideas have consequences,” and, consequently, it is possible to rally the public to your cause.
It took time. In an age when conservative books make millions, it’s hard to imagine how difficult it once was to get a right-of-center book published. Henry L. Regnery, the founder of the publishing house that bears his name, started his venture to break the wall of groupthink censorship surrounding the publishing industry. With a few exceptions, Regnery was the only game in town for decades.
That’s hardly the case anymore. While there’s a higher bar for conservative authors at mainstream publishers (which remain overwhelmingly liberal), profit tends to trump ideology.
And publishing is a lagging indicator. In cable news, think tanks, talk radio, and, of course, the Internet, conservatives have at least rough parity with, and often superiority to, liberals. It’s only in the legacy institutions — newspapers, the broadcast networks, and most especially academia and Hollywood — that conservatism is still largely frozen out. Nonetheless, conservatism is a mass-market enterprise these days, for good and for ill.
The good is obvious. The ill is less understood. For starters, the movement has an unhealthy share of hucksters eager to make money from stirring rage, paranoia, and an ill-defined sense of betrayal with little concern for the real political success that can come only with persuading the unconverted.
A conservative journalist or activist can now make a decent living while never once bothering to persuade a liberal. Telling people only what they want to hear has become a vocation. Worse, it’s possible to be a rank-and-file conservative without once being exposed to a good liberal argument. Many liberals lived in such an ideological cocoon for decades, which is one reason conservatives won so many arguments early on. Having the right emulate that echo chamber helps no one.
Ironically, the institution in which conservatives had their greatest success is the one most besieged by conservatives today: the Republican party. To listen to many grassroots conservatives, the GOP establishment is a cabal of weak-kneed sellouts who regularly light votive candles to a poster of liberal Republican icon Nelson Rockefeller.
This is not only not true, it’s a destructive myth. The Rockefeller Republicans were purged from the GOP decades ago. Their high-water mark was in 1960, when the Goldwater insurgency was temporarily crushed. Richard Nixon agreed to run on a platform all but dictated by Rockefeller and to tap Rockefeller’s minion Henry Cabot Lodge as his running mate. When the forebears of today’s tea partiers threatened to stay home or bolt the party in 1960, Senator Barry Goldwater proclaimed, “Let’s grow up, conservatives!”
It’s still good advice. It’s not that the GOP isn’t conservative enough, it’s that it isn’t tactically smart or persuasive enough to move the rest of the nation in a more conservative direction. Moreover, thanks in part to the myth that all that stands between conservatives and total victory is a philosophically pure GOP, party leaders suffer from a debilitating lack of trust — some of it well earned — from the rank and file.
But politics is about persuasion, and a party consumed by the need to prove its purity to its base is going to have a very hard time proving anything else to the rest of the country.
— Jonah Goldberg is editor-at-large of National Review Online and a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Did I just imagine Boehners pre-budget deal committee Putsch?
This is the money quote. I been pointing this unfortunate fact out for a while, like 2 years now..
Dems are not doing this(what Rs are on this) , they are more concerned with winning, with beating Rs then playing silly games.
Its all about getting voters on your side, and against the other side. Dems now always win because they know this.
Its delusional to believe that Bohner or McConnell(uggh) , or even Newt in 2005/2006 wont cave when public opinion turns against the GOP, or that someone would try to get weak Bohner's job. He is the goat.
That delusion leads to a a few protest fantasy votes for Donald Duck as Speaker, and loss after loss.
So each confrontation results in the same repeatable pattern
: 1) public Boasting (’we wont give an inch this time!’) ,
2) symbolic votes that never see law,
3) caving to O,
3)circular firing squad ('That darn Bohner sold us out again') ,
4) GOP”s approval takes another dive.
RUSH LIMBAUGH has it right.
The Conservative movement does not have a leader... not a leader that is articulate, dedicated, capable of explaining, educating and convincing Americans that we are correct and able to gain respect or trust from the “low information” voter.
LLS
I see this as a tactical weakness in the GOP.
The marxists have a goal in mind and are willing to accept an incremental movement toward their goal. Over the last century they have inched their way toward the goal line when in the opposition and made giant gains when in control.
The GOP, not so much.
Oh really> Then what is Mitt Romney?
Democrats are not that concerned about beating republicans. Don’t get me wrong, they will and do cheat to win. All the same they are not that concerned when they lose, because they have infiltrated and diluted the republican party.
When they run against someone like Allen West, the democrats pull out all the tricks.
However, they also promote the weak, unprincipled GOPe. These republicans often run unopposed, or against a lightly supported candidate. This is a reward for “playing ball.”
And thus, the political class is born.
The last thing the democrats want is a true principled opponent. So, they support, mildly, the GOPe, keeping it in place as a blocking force to true opposition, such as the TEA Party.
The democrats are not as dumb as their policies indicate.
The last election was proof that Nock was correct.
To listen to many grassroots conservatives, the GOP establishment is a cabal of weak-kneed sellouts who regularly light votive candles to a poster of liberal Republican icon Nelson Rockefeller.
I'm still waiting for some verifiable evidence to support this statement.
Those who are willing to believe they have accomplished something by voting "third party" come to mind. This empowers Democrats and the left and further weakens the only chance we have at defeating liberalism and that is through the Republican party.
Correction:
I'm still waiting for some verifiable evidence to support that the view held by grass-roots conservatives is wrong.
You are completely correct, but many people just don’t want to hear it. They think if we fire Boehner things would suddenly be better. They don’t understand that if we as a conservative movement can’t move public opinion, no matter who we have in elected leadership will cave to public opinion turning against them. They’ll feel they have to or they’ll infuriate the public and lose their seats.
This article is excellent too. The idea that there was some magic time in the 50’s or 60’s or 70’s where Republicans were more conservative is nonsense. Republicans used to be LESS conservative. Ike was fine with FDR’s tax rates and most of his policies, Nixon gave us the EPA and price controls, etc.
As a party we are probably more conservative than ever (though certainly not where we ultimately need to be), but as a movement we are not sufficiently moving the needle of public opinion. We can’t get anywhere if we can’t convince the public we are right. Unfortunately it seems we largely ceded the education, media and entertainment establishments completely to the left. It makes it much easier for them to beat us in the fight for public opinion.
I think its true that the GOP does not represent the base of the party very well, the problem is the base of the party isn’t representative of the overall United States. We need to change that before we are really going to start winning these fights with the Democrats at the national level.
Sorry, Jonah, this is a stinking pile of manure. “American conservatism began as a kind of intellectual hobbyists’ group with little hope of changing the broader society.” What kind of statement is that? American conservatism began with the Mayflower Compact and went on to the Declaration of Independence. It wasn’t a group of hobbyists that sacrificed everything they had to come to these shore in search of religious freedom. It was passionate Christians in a love relationship with their God willing to risk it all. Finally, in the last paragraph we get to the “real” agenda, “...the myth that all that stands between conservatives and total victory is a philosophically pure GOP…” The founders had a back bone, thank you very much, and among this lot we’d be hard pressed to find one vertebra. Jonah’s problem is that he has never met the God of the pilgrims and never wants to - but his day is coming. The King is coming and he doesn’t need a good PR campaign. We’ll see who wins the day then. In the mean time, the GOP needs to decide what they are going to be - limp wrist pretty boys - or real men passionate for the truth and willing to die for it if that time should come. So far it doesn’t look good.
Allen West was intentionally re-districted to lose by the FLGOP.
Democrats blahblahblah... the Republicans shivved West in the back.
My point is that the GOPe is merely a tool of the Democrats, or perhaps I should say socialists.
The GOPe sometimes does the direct bidding of the Democrats/socialists. Other times they put up enough opposition to justify their existence, and prevent the rise of the TEA Party.
Under no circumstances will the socialists/democrats/GOPe tolerate true opposition when it comes along, such as Allen West. These parties share a common goal of stamping out grassroots conservative political representation.
Conservatives must come to the conclusion that the GOPe is as much a roadblock to a return to conservative principles in government as is the democrat party. I think that the GOPe must be taken down first, because of the way they pull the air out of the TEA party’s sails (under false pretenses).
“We can’t get anywhere if we can’t convince the public we are right.” - LB69
What is with this ‘we’ nonsense? Aren’t you the one that thinks all court challenges to Obama’s eligibility should be dropped, and that the long form birth certificate PDF posted on the whitehouse.gov site is fully legit?
Don’t you also mock sheriff Arpaio’s investigation?
Don’t you also claim that the clearly forged selective service document for Barack Obama is just fine? (Even though it is the only one in existence with a 2 digit date stamp for the year.)
“We” Really?
I will tell you right up front, *YOU* are not part of *MY* we.
(Fogbow)
Absolutely, yes. I think birther nonsense is stupid and counter productive. This is a good place to start. The conservative movement does not need wackadoodle conspiracy theorists. Take that stuff to Alex Jones' InfoWars.
We are not going to make headway with the public with a bunch of silly conspiracy theories.
I will tell you right up front, *YOU* are not part of *MY* we.
Yes, and Mark Levin, Rush, Hannity, etc, don't want anything to do with your birther conspiracy theories either. You start trying to spew that nonsense on serious conservative outlets and you'll get your butt kicked right off. That's for a reason. They know conservatives suffer if crazy birther conspiracy types become associated with the movement.
Just so we are clear - You think Arpaio and his task force are a bunch of Kooks.
That lawfully asking for the Obama birth certificate to be presented to a court under penalty of perjury is damaging to the credibility of the *republicans*. (Not those that do everything in their power to avoid presenting it.)
You think the 2 digit secret service date stamp is legit - that anyone who questions it is a kook. (even though there is *no* other example.
You are exactly the type of person that should be expelled from any group that is trying to oppose the socialist/political class that is crushing the USA and its constitution.
Just so we are clear - You think Arpaio and his task force are a bunch of Kooks.
That lawfully asking for the Obama birth certificate to be presented to a court under penalty of perjury is damaging to the credibility of the *republicans*. (Not those that do everything in their power to avoid presenting it.)
You think the 2 digit secret service date stamp is legit - that anyone who questions it is a kook. (Even though there is *no* other example.)
You are exactly the type of person that should be expelled from any group that is trying to oppose the socialist/political class that is crushing the USA and its constitution.
This article is a load of crap, and NY just proved it. The Republicans in NY just voted to limit gun magazines to 7 rounds. Feeeeelings . . . . ..
Sick - I don’t want Democrats having to compete with us - or for us to compete with them. I don’t care if Democrats are effective or we are. I don’t want to live with them, compromise with them, or anything. Let them create their own country with their own rules and show us how wonderful a country can be when it’s run by elites.
Yeah, we won’t hold our breaths...
It’s time for the United States to be split into two countries. Dems can put all their ideas into action the moment the ink on the agreement is dry. Dems can have it all their way...in their half.
When the country;s divided into two parts Dems can do the following in their NEW country:
They can have abortion on demand and free up until a day after the baby is born.
Unlimited FREE birth control.
Marriage between any and all groupings... human, animal, siblings... whatever.
Dems can open their borders and let every third world loser into their country. Millions can walk, run or fly in - all will be given citizenship. They’ll also be issued Social Security cards for their elderly third world parents.
We won’t try to stop them from giving everything away because it’ll be THEIR stuff they’re giving away - not ours..
Guns, bullets, and people who might want to defend themselves can be banned.
Unions can control all work places - and minimum wage will be raised to a hundred dollars an hour.
Stroke of the pen - law of the land. Why bother with legislatures? Hitler and Stalin didn’t bother going the ‘slow’ way... they could act quickly... the same day. No voter ID laws either. And they can throw out the Constitution - dems are waaaaaay to smart to need an old white guy document like that ....
We need to get out... let dems ‘win’.
**************************
Democrats will get what they want and we get what we want. Why fight them? Why should they fight us?
Divide the country. Give them what they want - one last shakedown then let’s get the hell of of this place.
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