Seems to me that the hardliners are the ones rationalizing. You can rationalize your positions and hold firm, and get nothing near what you feel the country needs.
As a conservative, I don’t like conceding either. However, it’s better than the alternative which is communism. Sad as that is. Gay people marrying isn’t as important as losing ground in the world.
Just as Krauthammer stated that the unions haven’t waken up to the reality that the world has caught up with us after WW2, Republicans haven’t woken up to the reality that gays marrying, or whatever social issue (aside from abortion, that is murder) isn’t as important as letting the Democrats take over.
So you can stubbornly hold firm, and stubbornly lose. Sad as that is.
Hmm. THIS conservative is not warning you but telling you BECAUSE the Republican Party DID dispense with social issues; the Party itself HAS BEEN dispensed with.
It was indeed a Grand Old Party while it lasted. But its over.
One other thing. Duke's headline is wrong. It's not Conservatives who are rationalizing, but Republicans.
Working at the grass roots makes a lot sense. One problem. We are so successful as a civilization (for the moment) that basic truths can be concealed and are not easily transfered to the next generation. Church can help but it’s tough. Oh well, “Never give up, Never surrender” is still my motto.
I look at it from the perspective of the turn-based strategy game Civilization V.
Every so often you’ll get a “Golden Age” where you accrue food, population, wealth, and power at double the normal rate. When the golden age is over, you go back to the norm, whatever that may be. As you get farther along in the game, the golden ages don’t last as long, but they provide the same benefits.
America, as I see it, is much the same way. The first golden age was in the late 18th century with our founding. We had our golden ages pretty consistently in the 19th century. We saw the ushering of a new Republic, the industrial revolution.
We had some moments of greatness in the 20th century with the industrialization of our military, the rise of nuclear power and the space race. We went through a vast vacuum of nihilism and hedonism in the 60s and the subsequent hangover of the 70s and ushered the most recent golden age under Reagan.
Sadly, while we had a few golden ages under Republican control of the legislative branch in the 90s and even a small boon under GW, the fact is that we’re not due for another golden age for a while, and even if it does come about, it’ll be short lived.
I do see war on the horizon. Whether it’s a protracted international scuffle among disparate rebel groups and NATO or a full on offensive in Iran with our dwindling and tired military, something’s coming. The storm clouds are there, and it’s really a matter of how we, as a culture, define ourselves going forward.
The pre-war US in the early 1900s was like an adolescent teen, awkward and scrawny. With 2 wars under our belt, we were scarred but strong. We persevered. We literally shot for the moon. Then, like an alcoholic taking his first drink, we let the national tragedy of a president’s assassination and the death of notable national figures such as MLK turn us into a besotted old fool pining for the past.
The latest generation of Americans has lived with cradle-to-grave entitlements and handups or handouts throughout the cycle of life. They’ve never had to live on “condiment sandwiches,” to use my wife’s term. At some point the gravy train is going to come grinding to a halt as the wheels fall off and the tracks buckle from the weight of the load. At that point, we’ll see a surge of welfare zombies, incapable of even basic self-sustenance, trying to bring down the prepared and knowledgeable among us. We could even argue that’s already happening on a “civilized” basis through the redistribution efforts of this administration.
If international war doesn’t tear us apart, an internal, bloody, and socially destructive war will rend this nation in two and turn American against American in a war that will likely leave millions in the streets, the aristocrats surrounded by armed security and the US military, and the bourgeousie among us fighting for our very survival on the streets and in our neighborhoods.
I pray to God it doesn’t happen, but I fear the only way to bring America back around to the light is to free her from the shackles of the dependent and allow her to rise from the ashes poured upon her by the aristocrats whose only goal is self-sustaining power and riches fed by a working class who are about fed up with the bullshit.
despite all the points made in the article, i think conservatives have the future advantage because of the following: the credit cycle that started in the mid 1930s is getting close to the end.
We must be pretty close because unsustainable debt levels, unsustainable deficits, QE^n etc. are barely producing economic growth. Maybe its got a few more years, but is not long term sustainable.
In the 1930’s, and in previous depressions, social and cultural and religious behavior took a dramatically more conservative turn, even as gov’t got bigger.
I suspect in the next depression, we will see the same return to conservative values because, after the economic collapse, it will be easier to believe that the liberalism and permissiveness were part of the cause.
one thing we do know, if there is another depression, government is not going to grow. The welfare state is going to collapse under its own debt and the democrat party will collapse along with it.
conservatives need to be ready to seize that moment, as there will be plenty of non-conservative political elements that will try to gain from the chaos.
In the late 1920’s i’m sure the democrats were feeling depressed, and thinking that trends in the future were against them. In fact, they were in the best possible position... out of power when the SHTF
Deport Sean Hannity
Illegal Alien Amnesty is Anti-American Bigotry.
Lets see the GOP win elections with a coalition of Illegal Aliens and “Fiscal Conservatives”. Good Luck
I thought this was a good article by Selwyn Duke. He says much the same things you say on FR.
This is a “good” article SIL. It’s hard to stomach, but he’s right on the mark.