Where is Conservatism Headed?

The Imaginative Conservative ^ | October 12, 2014 | Claes Ryn

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

It is headed down the tubes if Trump becomes its standard bearer.

[NormsRevenge]

Ask Wiley Coyote.. Meeep meeeep

[central_va]

If conservatism doesn't include controlling the immigration invasion and the rape trade that is killing the industrial base then maybe conservatism doesn't rally mean anything. IMO You have to be a an America first Patriot to be a Conservative.

A gloBULList libertarian may (confusedly)think he is conservative but really he has nothing to do with the attitude and goals of the founders. This is a good discussion to have .

[x]

Real freedom grows out of historically evolved character traits and institutions. It cannot strike roots in inhospitable soil. This is as true in the marketplace as in politics. You want maximum economic freedom? Then make sure that there is morality and culture that foster a maximum of individual responsibility. In an economy manned increasingly by gamblers and crooks and dominated by greed and short-sightedness the line between honesty and crime dissolves, and the misuse of economic freedom invites the imposition of external controls.

Has the conservative movement long protested the kind of economism that ignores the moral and cultural preconditions of a sound economy? Has it bemoaned the emergence of a crass, callous new economic elite? Has it called for the moral and cultural reinvigoration that might shore up economic and other freedom? Those setting the tone have not.

One problem is that all this is global, not merely local or national.

The trends that Ryn criticizes may be more a part of our world than the "soil" he wishes to preserve.

Another problem is that politics are so polarized that cutting across political lines as Ryn does is hard to do.

If you feel free markets are threatened, you're less likely to condemn culturally deplorable aspects of free market society.

[FourPeas]

Reading the article is a good idea. Really.

[Psalm 144]

A very good article, and timely. Thank you for posting it.

[Slyfox]

The just-quoted conservative hero is Ronald Reagan. His speeches were filled with the romantic rhetoric of freedom. Like Locke, Reagan had little grasp of the moral and cultural preconditions of freedom. He proclaimed: "Liberty, just as life itself, is not earned but a gift from God."

Who is this guy who wrote this? Ronald Reagan is right about liberty. It is a gift. Liberty is from God. Rights and freedom are what we do with that liberty given to us by God.

"Little grasp of the moral and cultural preconditions of freedom"?

This man knows so little. I would be ashamed to have signed my name to this article.

[don-o]

You are welcome. It is good to get away from the present moment and think more broadly.

[Psalm 144]

Author’s point is that it already has. Forget the politics. The foundation culture is laid waste.

[central_va]

Some so called expert is missing the boat, i did a search for wall, fence, illegal immigration, legal immigration, H-1B and found nothing. So how good can this turd sandwich be?

[Psalm 144]

Yes it is. Very old school, and refreshing.

[central_va]

GloBULLists, open border whores and the Cheap-Labor-Express took over the Conservative movement. That is the problem.

[don-o]

The answer is right there in the essay

Unlike Burke, Locke has little or no awareness of what ordered liberty owes to history. He explains the existence of freedom in the state of nature by conveniently reading back into that state personality traits and ideas that could have evolved only in an advanced society.

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

Conservatism is broader than one issue. IMO, you get the big picture conservatism with one candidate. We shall see if conservatism is alive or dead with this vote.

Court appointments is probably the biggest issue of all. For as long as liberals have been packing the courts with leftist ideologues, there may be nothing we can do on any issue that the liberal justices won’t knock down. Trump insulted Scalia. For years and years the battle has been fought by the liberals in the courts. Conservative nominees have been blasted and dragged through kangaroo confirmation hearings trying to take them out, some successfully and some not. They are then still blasted endlessly by the left. To take Scalia’s words out of context and imply he was a racist is just unforgivable. It is fundamentally NOT conservative, NOT seeing the big picture and history of the battle, and NOT at all what we need going forward.

[KeyLargo]

[The Ghost of FReepers Past]

There is still hope unless we give up.

[Psalm 144]

I quite agree with you, but the real war is cultural rather than political. A healthy culture will produce and healthy polity. There is no such thing as a healthy political structure arising from a corrupted culture, or being imposed on one.

[FourPeas]

Pretty much says it all, right there.

You exemplify the problem quite well.

[don-o]

Bulls eye.