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The End of Conservatives (A bitter paleoconservative has-been jumps the shark)
Outlook [India] ^ | January 31, 2005 | Paul Craig Roberts

Posted on 01/22/2005 8:12:00 AM PST by quidnunc

I remember when friends would excitedly telephone to report that Rush Limbaugh or G. Gordon Liddy had just read one of my syndicated columns over the air. That was before I became a critic of the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration, and the neoconservative ideologues who have seized control of the US government.

America has blundered into a needless and dangerous war, and fully half of the country's population is enthusiastic. Many Christians think that war in the Middle East signals "end times" and that they are about to be wafted up to heaven. Many patriots think that, finally, America is standing up for itself and demonstrating its righteous might. Conservatives are taking out their Vietnam frustrations on Iraqis. Karl Rove is wrapping Bush in the protective cloak of war leader. The military-industrial complex is drooling over the profits of war. And neoconservatives are laying the groundwork for Israeli territorial expansion.

The evening before Thanksgiving Rush Limbaugh was on C-Span TV explaining that these glorious developments would have been impossible if talk radio and the conservative movement had not combined to break the power of the liberal media.

In the Thanksgiving issue of National Review, editor Richard Lowry and former editor John O'Sullivan celebrate Bush's reelection triumph over "a hostile press corps." "Try as they might," crowed O'Sullivan, "they couldn't put Kerry over the top." There was a time when I could rant about the "liberal media" with the best of them. But in recent years I have puzzled over the precise location of the "liberal media."

-snip-


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: antiwarright; paulcraigroberts; soreloser
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To: inkling
There are a lot of people that believe it. I don't believe it but I keep it in the back of my mind just in case.

What pisses me off about some of those who proselytize that belief is the hysterics in their tone. They end up sounding like a bunch of insane freaks, no better than the ANSWER commies.
21 posted on 01/22/2005 8:34:58 AM PST by bahblahbah
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To: carlr
If the US ever abandons Israel it will be our biggest foreign policy mistake ever.

Bigger than bombing the serbians into oblivion for the benefit of muslim terrorists?

22 posted on 01/22/2005 8:35:59 AM PST by Publius6961 (The most abundant things in the universe are hydrogen, ignorance and stupidity.)
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To: quidnunc

Whoever he is, he's so wrong here that it is understandable to mistake him for a Democrat. I think we've had enough of the Ostritch strategy for one war.


23 posted on 01/22/2005 8:36:09 AM PST by thoughtomator (Meet the new Abbas, same as the old Abbas)
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To: quidnunc

I knew who Paul Craig Roberts was, but if he is opposed to the U.S. liberation of Iraq, that means that his only default position is that he would prefer to see Saddam still in power.

I submit that 25 million Iraqis would be happy to kick Roberts ignorant azz until he sees the light.

Until then, he remains an embittered has-been.


24 posted on 01/22/2005 8:37:20 AM PST by Mad Mammoth
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To: Publius6961

He was once a good supply side economist.


25 posted on 01/22/2005 8:39:12 AM PST by Honestfreedom
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To: quidnunc
And neoconservatives are laying the groundwork for Israeli territorial expansion.<<

What a moron, Israel is retreating from the Gaza. What expansion is this idiot talking about?

26 posted on 01/22/2005 8:39:57 AM PST by Honestfreedom
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To: quidnunc
Paul Craig Roberts has been a regular contributor to The Washington Times. I believe he has a PhD and was certainly a regular, outspoken critic of the Clinton Administration on many issues.

I think he overstates his case in the article but some reactions on this thread to Mr. Roberts' words do confirm some of the blind Bush zealotry posing as loyalty about which Mr. Roberts warns.

As I have said before, I don't even agree with my own mother on everything and I love her. Bush certainly isn't my mother.

People are not certifiably crazy just because they tell you things you don't want to hear or believe. That kind of reaction is closer to the beliefs of the Taliban than to those of our founding fathers.

27 posted on 01/22/2005 8:41:48 AM PST by NoControllingLegalAuthority
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To: Publius6961

A favorite antic of the hate-Bush crowd appears to be "I am a former conservative", since they realized how powerful Zell Miller and some other former Democrats' message have become.

Regarding Buchanan and his fellow Jew-haters, we have one on the radio here in Baltimore who appears to be conservative except for his support for Sadaam and opposition to Israel. He brings Buchanan on his radio show whenever possible to help him bash-Bush and especially Rumsfeld.


28 posted on 01/22/2005 8:46:34 AM PST by razzle
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To: Publius6961
According to the bio at the end of the article, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during 1981-82. He was also Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.

So he worked for The Immortal, Ronaldus Magnus about 1/2 as long as I did.

My question: "What is Outlook-India-Dot-Com, and why is Dr. Paul Craig Roberts now writing for them instead of the Wall Street Journal or the National Review???"

29 posted on 01/22/2005 8:55:35 AM PST by Sooth2222
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To: quidnunc; Publius6961; everyone

Publius6961 wrote:

Honest question: Who's Paul Craig Roberts?






quidnunc's 'honest' answer:

He's a formerly-mainstream conservative economist and journalist who has decided to wallow in the fever swamps of paleocon crankery






Actually, -
-- He's still a mainstream conservative economist and journalist who has decided to stop wallowing in the swamps of neo-con dreams of ruling the world.

He's also warning that:

"A thousand years of legal protections against tyranny are being stolen right before our eyes.
Under the guise of good intentions, personal liberties as old as the Magna Carta have become casualties in the wars being waged on pollution, drugs, white-collar crime, and all of the other real and imagined social ills. The result: innocent people caught up in a bureaucratic web that destroys lives and livelihoods; businesses shuttered because of victimless infractions; a justice system that values coerced pleas over the search for truth; bullying police agencies empowered to confiscate property without due process."

___________________________________


I think his ideas are worth reading.




30 posted on 01/22/2005 9:01:12 AM PST by jonestown ( A fanatic is a person who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." ~ Winston Churchill)
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To: Sooth2222
Sooth2222 wrote: (According to the bio at the end of the article, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was US Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during 1981-82. He was also Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review.) So he worked for The Immortal, Ronaldus Magnus about 1/2 as long as I did. My question: "What is Outlook-India-Dot-Com, and why is Dr. Paul Craig Roberts now writing for them instead of the Wall Street Journal or the National Review???"

Outlook just picked his syndicated column off the Znet wire.

One indication of why Roberts isn't writing for the WSJ and National Review is that Dennis (call me 'Justin') Raimindo runs his columns on Antiwar.com.

31 posted on 01/22/2005 9:02:27 AM PST by quidnunc (Omnis Gaul delenda est)
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To: Publius6961
Bigger than bombing the serbians into oblivion for the benefit of muslim terrorists?

I would say yes,but not by a lot.Your point is valid and well taken.
Should also include the Clinton/Carter fraud of North Korea.That may be the biggest that has been made.Gets hard to qualify after a while.

32 posted on 01/22/2005 9:02:56 AM PST by carlr
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To: jonestown
jonestown wrote: Actually, --- He's still a mainstream conservative economist and journalist who has decided to stop wallowing in the swamps of neo-con dreams of ruling the world. … I think his ideas are worth reading.

Dennis (call me 'Justin') Raimondo thinks Roberts is worth reading too, since his column is carried on Antiwar.com.

33 posted on 01/22/2005 9:10:42 AM PST by quidnunc (Omnis Gaul delenda est)
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To: quidnunc

quidnunc wrote:

Justin Raimondo thinks Roberts is worth reading too ---






Which proves?


34 posted on 01/22/2005 9:24:09 AM PST by jonestown ( A fanatic is a person who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." ~ Winston Churchill)
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To: The Iguana
Since then, however, he has drifted into some interesting precincts. Namely those inhabited by Buchanan and Sobran.

Is that your way of whispering that Paul Craig Roberts is an antisemite?

He has an odd way of showing it, if he is.

After all, he just offered to take in 5,000,000 Israeli Jews en masse. Westbrook Pegler, a real antisemite, would have had a coronary.

If Roberts were the antisemite you seem to be trying to insinuate he is by association (with other real or imagined antisemites -- Bill Buckley found Sobran guilty of antisemitism and banished him from National Review, but the jury is still out on Buchanan: you can't fault him for disagreeing with AIPAC's agenda if he wants to), he would be quite enthusiastic about our supplying Israel with (some) weaponry, in hopes that they would then fight it out with (in round numbers) 1,000,000,000 Moslems, to the last man. The last of one or the other, anyway. Because they're all Semites -- both Arabs and Israelis.

I think you need another theory.

35 posted on 01/22/2005 9:26:43 AM PST by lentulusgracchus ("Whatever." -- sinkspur)
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To: jonestown
jonestown wrote: (quidnunc wrote: Justin Raimondo thinks Roberts is worth reading too ---) Which proves?

That Roberts has tipped at least a half bubble off center.

Or perhaps you think that Dennis (call me 'Justin') Raimondo is a true conservativce too?

36 posted on 01/22/2005 9:30:48 AM PST by quidnunc (Omnis Gaul delenda est)
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To: bahblahbah
"He was distinguished fellow at the Cato Institute from 1993 to 1996."

The Cato Institute occasionally comes up with something good, but it is all the crap the comes out normally that puts me right off reading anything they send out.

37 posted on 01/22/2005 9:37:04 AM PST by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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To: dts32041

No more than the paleopinkiepoo pantywaists are reprising their role models in the anti-Vietnam War movement. Roberts, et al., get their ideological talking points and orders from Justin Raimondo, the antiSemitic lavender queen of antiwar.com. (Don't take my word for it. Check out Justine's website yourself) What do we expect?


38 posted on 01/22/2005 9:49:52 AM PST by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline of the Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Club)
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To: NoControllingLegalAuthority
You are not alone. Many of us regaled in the victory of GW for the defeat of the alternative. GW, while my choice in both the past elections, is certainly not the best representative of traditional political conservative values, but he definitely is the best available.

To paraphrase another line in this thread. GW may not be a "real" conservative, but he will do until a "real" one comes along.

39 posted on 01/22/2005 9:52:47 AM PST by ImpBill
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To: quidnunc
quidnunc wrote:
Justin Raimondo thinks Roberts is worth reading too ---






Which proves?
34 jones






That Roberts has tipped at least a half bubble off center.

Or perhaps you think that Dennis (call me 'Justin') Raimondo is a true conservativce too?
36 quidnunc






Your opinions about Roberts & Raimondo are noted.

All rational opinions need to be read in a free republic, imo.
Even Raimondo's, on occasion .
40 posted on 01/22/2005 9:55:51 AM PST by jonestown ( A fanatic is a person who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." ~ Winston Churchill)
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