Passing Down the Legacy of Conservatism

NY Times ^ | July 31, 2006 | JASON DePARLE

[Pharmboy]

J. Emilio Flores for The New York Times
A highlight of a seminar run by the Young America’s Foundation was a trip to Rancho del Cielo,
Ronald Reagan’s “Western White House.”

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Headed for what she called “conservative boot camp,” Christina Pajak grabbed the essentials: dress sandals, her Bible and “The Politics of Prudence” by Russell Kirk, the celebrated writer who a half-century ago gave the conservative movement its name.

If she had not found Kirk, he would have found her. At a monthlong retreat for college conservatives here, he was both required reading and a source of after-hours debate among students excited to hear him called “one of Ronald Reagan’s favorite philosophers.”

snip...

...there are conferences, seminars and reading lists that promote figures from the movement’s formative years. Along with Kirk, they include such canonical names from the 40’s and 50’s as Friedrich A. Hayek, Frank S. Meyer, Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley Jr.

Ms. Pajak, 18, who was home-schooled in Andover, Minn., will be a freshman this fall at Wheaton College, an evangelical school in Wheaton, Ill. While her conservatism springs from her upbringing, the literature “helps me explain what I already believe,” she said. “I don’t want to just say, ‘Oh, it’s because I was raised this way.’ ”

Every political movement has its texts. But James W. Ceaser, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia, argues that the conservative focus on core thinkers has no exact parallel among liberals.

“It doesn’t mean they’re not interested in ideas,” Professor Ceaser said. “It means their approach to politics doesn’t rest on theory in the same way.”

Liberalism’s main tenets formed earlier, he said, in the Progressives’ expansion of government, and are conveyed as assumptions rather than matters requiring theoretical debate.

[Pharmboy]

Liberalism’s main tenets formed earlier, he said, in the Progressives’ expansion of government, and are conveyed as assumptions rather than matters requiring theoretical debate.

Ain't that the truth...

[AngelesCrestHighway]

expansion of government...unfortunately...I can't tell the Republicans from the Democrats on this one.....

[greedo]

Liberalism’s main tenets

Lie, cheat, steal, abort, confiscate, cut-and-run, scold, deny
and then there's that whole body odor thing.

[Pharmboy]

Yes...you are correct. Sad.

[Carry_Okie]

Liberalism’s main tenets formed earlier, he said, in the Progressives’ expansion of government, and are conveyed as assumptions rather than matters requiring theoretical debate.

That's a hell of an admission coming from the New York Times.

[Jimnorwellwarren]

Nice picture. It's evident why he liked to spend so much time up there.

[freedumb2003]

Liberalism’s main tenets Lie, cheat, steal, abort, confiscate, cut-and-run, scold, deny and then there's that whole body odor thing.

You left out the racism requirement.