Posted on 10/28/2005 3:55:27 PM PDT by Crackingham
William F. Buckley, American conservatism's gray eminence, was recently asked by a writer for The New Yorker what he thought about the state of the movement he helped found 50 years ago. Said Mr. Buckley, "I'm not happy about it." More and more of us on the right feel his pain.
Conservatism, said Buckley, is "to a considerable extent, the acknowledgment of realities. And this is surreal."
He was talking about President Bush's grandiose wish to frog-march liberal democracy around the globe, but he could have been speaking of any number of unconservative things foisted upon the country by an ostensibly conservative president and a compliant Republican Congress.
American conservatism is in crisis at the moment because the bizarre Harriet Miers nomination imposed a surreality check on the right, forcing us to consider just how much nonsense we had gone along with for the sake of party discipline.
Where to start? With the LBJ-level spending? The signing of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill, which candidate Bush had denounced as unconstitutional? The race-preferences sellout in the University of Michigan cases?
There was also the cynical use of the federal marriage amendment, which the administration dropped after turning out the social conservative vote in 2004. And grass-roots conservatives cite the president's intent to liberalize immigration policy with Mexico.
Then there is the Iraq quagmire, which, even if initially a worthy cause, has become a rolling disaster.
On top of this came the Katrina debacle, which further damaged conservatism's claim to competent governance.
Conservatives, consciously or not, looked the other way for far too long, mostly because we felt it important to back the president in wartime and because nothing was more important to the various tribes of Red State Nation than recapturing the Supreme Court.
(Excerpt) Read more at jewishworldreview.com ...
Which will dilute the conservative gene pool further, making the GOP nothing more than "DNC Lite."
This is sickening. How any one can blame the President for Katrina is beyond me. What a bunch of idiots there are on this planet.
The problem is, there are far too many issues that the President never came close on.
The Miers incident finally sparked a revolt because we have had enough of being jacked around.
Let him try to appoint another Miers and the outcry will be far worse.
Keep up the jacking around and there won't be any conservatives at the polls come election day.
At least not for your precious republican party.
... and Israel sits back and lets itself get blown up all to hell. When do they fight back?
>>>Seriously, if Bush shuts down the border and appoints a Janice Rodgers Brown, his approval rating is going to be taking a big upswing. <<<
You can forget the border issue. Bush threw us a bone last week when Chertoff declared that all illegals would be deported -- no exceptions. But as early as the next day Chertoff was back to pushing the 'guest worker program'", where illegals qualify for the 'program' simply by turning themselves in and paying a small fine -- no deportation necessary. Bush could care less about border security and our national sovereignty, and we will pay at the ballot box.
I see debate and ideas.
Where has this idiot been?
Would he prefer the democrats who just debate the Titanic's seating arrangements and are on an eternal quest to learn the language of "red state"?
The ALL OR NOTHING conservatives that were being referenced in the previous post were those dimwits who want it all or they will not participate.
If you are out there fighting and are demanding it ALL before you stop fighting, that is a totally different story.
It's absolutely fine to criticize the president vigorously all the time, just make sure you also show up on Election Day.
Let me correct that. Make sure you show up on PRIMARY day.
RD has decided that living in Dallas instead of NYC proves he is a conservative and that everyone must take as gospel all of his ideas...NOT!! RD is a coward - he never lets his e-mail address be attached to his articles either in DMN, NRO or Jewish News. He and Frum are part of the new ahte the republican first team. Frum a Canadian and RD an NYC "crunchy con" are old news trying to find an audience.
It's the economy, Stupid!!! It always is.
I saw a poll once that 20% of the people didn't even know the name of the president. 50% of the people don't want anything to do with politics and think it an inbred Washington mentality. Many think that Government is like the Mafia, promises protection but takes your money.
I think the Senators were a bit surprised at the strength of the reaction against Ms. Miers. Hopefully, they realize again that it will pale in comparison to what is in store for them should the President actually nominate an actual qualified originalist to replace O'Connor! As forceful as we were in opposition to Miers when it became apparent that she wasn't the type of nominee that had been promised, we will redouble our efforts to ensure the confirmation of a Luttig or Alito. A Senator who stands in the way of the confirmation of a qualified originalist will have plenty of time in his retirement to try to figure out how he lost his next primary race! I also think we need to stop this strategy of supporting incumbent RINOs against primary challenges by genuine conservative candidates simply to preserve traitors with an R after their name as is happening with the Chaffee primary!
We have 4, FOUR, borders. There will NEVER be a FORTRESS AMERICA, and if that was tried, most of the populace would throw a hissy fit.
The 1930s were far worse.
EXACTLY!
I stand corrected.... :-)
The commies also appoint only true believing liberals, not moderates.
We on the other hand...
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