Posted on 06/23/2012 1:39:40 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Political science professor Corey Robin became interested in the conservative movement during the years leading up to the war in Iraq. His new book, “The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism From Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin,” challenges conventional wisdom regarding the very identity of conservatism.
In critiquing conservatism, most liberals concede the movement was once an intellectual force full of interesting and thoughtful people (from Edmund Burke to William F. Buckley), but argue that this once-respectable philosophy metastasized into a movement full of populist demagogues.
Robin soundly rejects that premise (which in many circles has become conventional wisdom), calling it a “radical misreading.” Instead, Robin insists Burke was no traditionalist who believed in slow, evolutionary change, but instead, a “radical critic of the established order.”
Robin admits his is a “revisionist reading of Burke,” but insists he has discovered a heretofore unknown truth about the founding father of modern conservatism:
“Burke was a radical critic of — not just the French Revolution — but of the establishment, the established order that was defending itself against the French Revolution. And his position was…that the established order was ill-equipped to actually defend itself against the French Revolution. And it needed to be radically overhauled…often times modeling itself on the very Jacobins that it was opposing, in order to really meet the challenge …
…
The punchline here is, when Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck sound these incredibly populist, radical notes, they are, in fact, very much in keeping with the entire tradition of conservatism, going back to its founder Edmund Burke.
Another MUST book, it seems.
He is light years ahead of what is on TV.
On Sarah, we all know most people would be dead on her attacks and Obama would have claimed the MSM were racist if he would have gotten half the treatment she got.
Both National Treasures.
I first heard of Sarah Palin on Glenn Beck Show.
I can not remember the website I found her on, but it was about 8 months before she was even on the VP short list. After about two days research, I fell from like to, seriously in love. :-)
I don’t know what to make of the reviewer.
Says the book sees conservatists as instead, reactionary but then substitutes radical for reactionary. Words have meaning.
Back then, I recall a discussion, perhaps on FR, about possible Veeps for McCain. We agreed that in order to back up a Senator candidate, a person with executive experience, a governor, would be a good idea. At the time, Sarah was the most popular governor in the US. So she was a natural pick, on the face of it. Many of us fell in serious like as well :) She was a darling of many freepers long before she was picked.
Truth is truth, and truth is NOT found in “progressive”/Marxist ideology, only lies and oppression.
There were early threads on Palin at FR, and freepers proposing her for veep in February and January of 2008.
Here is a thread from 2005. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1505062/posts
May, 2007. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1842041/posts
Here is an excellent article from 2007 on her by Fred Barnes.
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP’s Newest Star http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288722,00.html
No thanks.
On page 41, the author repeats the myth that Palin wasn’t vetted or was hastily vetted.
That is a lie.
Research A.B. Culvahouse and 2008 VP on C-Span and www.startpage.com to see the truth.
This author is merely another in a long line of Users using Palin’s name to both sell books and gain creds with his lib followers by denigrating Palin.
It’s called having no personal ethics.
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