Posted on 10/02/2009 5:37:44 PM PDT by Kaslin
The editors of two of the country's most powerful publications, conducting a gloat-fest over the corpse of Reaganism last week, described their idea of true conservatives: Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham asked a remarkable question of Sam Tanenhaus, editor of the New York Times Book Review, in New York's Greenwich Village Wednesday evening: "Isn't Barack Obama the most significant Burkean in American politics today?"
"Burkean" refers to Edmund Burke, the 18th-century British parliamentarian who sympathized with the freedom-loving revolution in America while vehemently opposing the anarchistic revolution in France.
Tanenhaus, author of an impressive biography of ex-Soviet spy Whittaker Chambers, has just published "The Death of Conservatism," accusing today's conservatives of perverting Burke's vision.
Meacham and Tanenhaus provided a glimpse of the strange planet on which America's dominant journalists live.
According to Tanenhaus, "the engine of industrial capitalism" causes more upheaval than do leftist radicals.
Tanenhaus called ex-President Clinton "a classically conservative figure" and charged that the muscular conservatism of the predominant wing of the Republican Party is "in opposition to much of what America does."
While merciless toward the right, the two were nearly servile regarding Obama. Meacham praised the president's restraint in showing "no interest in gun control or universal health care."
(Excerpt) Read more at investors.com ...
"Isn't Barack Obama the most significant Burkean in American politics today?"
That has to be the ultimate in Frankfurt School Alinskyite Fabian Socialist
dissembling. And wins this week's Twilight Zone Award.
“On the other hand, to Tanenhaus most influential modern conservative writers and thinkers, like Charles Krauthammer, Michael Barone and even the late William F. Buckley Jr., of whom Tanenhaus is writing a biography, are not true Burkean conservatives but extremist “revanchists.””
McCardle is evidently not much brighter than Tanenhaus. Charles Krauthammer was a Democratic Party speechwriter all during Reagan’s presidency. Barone has always been a centrist Republican. Only Buckley had any claim to being the conservative of the three.
"Isn't Barack Obama the most significant Burkean in American politics today?"That has to be the ultimate in Frankfurt School Alinskyite Fabian Socialist dissembling. And wins this week's Twilight Zone Award.
And how! Liberals really have no brains.
read
Sorry! I couldn't get past the first line.
This is nothing more than an Orwellian attack on the word “conservative”! Do this often enough and the meaning of “conservative” will be destroyed just like the Marxists have destroy the words: gay, progressive, liberal, justice, equality, democratic..etc.
Garry Wills of course went Left. And George Will went milquetoast. Were Russell Kirk still alive he would likely be denounced as an evil Paleo by the opportunists who have stolen and abused the conservative mantle in recent years.
Tanenhaus is a worm, anything he writes should be disregarded with extreme prejudice! saw this prick with faux intellectual O’Reilly tonight...what a bubble brain waste of empty suits!
They might have been better off with Jeff Spicoli
explaining conservatism and the philosophy of Edmund Burke.
Whoa, dude!
That role marked the apex of Sean Penn’s acting career. Not that he was acting in that role, he was simply being himself.
This New York Times Book Review editor is alleged to be ‘a smart conservative.’
Facts on record do not support this.
Tanenhaus is a Rockefeller, cocktail conservative at best
:[”We were having a drink in a crepuscular bar on a warm summer evening in one of the hotel watering holes in the West 40s, between Grand Central Station and the old New York Times building, not far from the old offices of The New Yorker. It was a good place to meet and talk about Tanenhaus’s new book, The Death of Conservatism.”] http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-08-29/heartless-conservatives-unite/?cid=tag:all1
Tanenhaus is with the NRO RINO attacking Palin. They are very jealous of her success stopping ObamaCare with a Facebook posting:
[”On MSNBC Friday, anchor John Harwood spoke with New York Times Week in Review editor Sam Tanenhaus about the health care debate, wondering: “...you know an awful lot about the patron saint of modern conservatism William F. Buckley. What do you suppose Bill Buckley would think of the nature of the arguments that are being made against the Obama health care plan right now, death panels and all the rest?”
Harwood, hosting the 2:00PM ET weekly New York Times Edition broadcast, was asking about Tanenhaus’s upcoming book, ‘The Death of Conservatism.’ Tanenhaus argued: “Well, you know, one of the great contributions Bill Buckley made to conservatism was to move it toward the center. And one way he did that was to repudiate in a very forceful way what was then called the lunatic fringe.”
At that time, Harwood interjected: “The John Birch Society.” Tanenhaus continued: “And they weren’t necessarily a dangerous group, but what they did was discredit serious conservative arguments.” He then made the comparison to the current health care debate: “...and we may see in the days ahead where serious responsible Republicans and conservative thinkers say if they’re going to make a forceful argument the country can accept, they’ll have to cut themselves off from this more extreme view.”] http://newsbusters.org/blogs/kyle-drennen/2009/08/14/msnbc-uses-william-f-buckley-bash-health-care-opponents
Most telling is that Tanenhaus, like his fellow cocktail sipping nancy boys, DOESN’T GET PALIN.
[”Ms. Palin’s emergence as a national candidate was itself the outcome of tension within the party. Mr. McCain’s top choices were said to include Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania and Mr. Bush’s first director of homeland security, and Senator Joseph I. Lieberman. Each was an experienced and prominent official. Each had established his strong loyalty to Mr. Bush, the party’s unrivaled leader. But both were also deemed insufficiently conservative by the party’s rank and file, and so were passed over. Mr. McCain’s inability to assert his will in this crucial matter was a clear sign of party fractiousness. And the sudden, dramatic emergence of Governor Palin — and the controversy that instantly greeted her candidacy — created the impression that Republican strategists had acted without the careful planning that had characterized their previous campaigns.”]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/weekinreview/05tanenhaus.html
He should reprise the role in a sequel.
A married Spicoli, still a stoner slacker type, but...
undergoing the ordeals of parenthood in 21st-century southern California.
Bail money for DUI arrests, etc.
His own children checking him into Betty Ford, picking him up from rehab...
I know, saw him too and had to flip away in disgust. What a repulsive physical creature. if you sprinkled salt on him, he’d dissolve and leave a slick trail in your garden.
HEY!....Are you insulting (the noble :) garden variety slug?
...its which serves a (very) useful purpose. 
but, I agree they are very very low (evil) creatures.
...the slug deserves your proper respect.
I am afraid that George Will is the only person I know about from your list. But what is a conservative is a question worthy of debate.
I have not read a great deal of Burke, but what I have read I like very much. Most of what I have read is his criticism of the French Revolution and the morality of Rousseau that the revolutionaries supported. Rousseau's morality proposed a generalized concern for humanity in the abstract as a substitute for the hard work of self-control and duty. Egotism would replace humility as the primary virtue. It seems to me this is still a valid way to see the difference between left-wingers and conservatives. (I avoid the word liberal because the political left is not liberal. Burke was a liberal English gentleman, liberal in the sense of taking a wide and liberal compass on life in order to think about a great many things.)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.