Make-Beleive Conservatism. National Review isn't Right.

Lewrockwell.com | 25-03-03 | Daniel McCarthy

[u-89]

not everyone who calls himself a conservative is one

This is a very good point and leads well into this important debate going on here on FR and in the greater political world beyond. The question of "what is a conservative?" needs to be answered and then "who" is a conservative falls into place.

So if a conservative wants to "conserve" what is it then that he wants to conserve? Can conservatism be dynamic? Definition of the term would argue against that and that is why the definition is under debate - by changing the definition one changes people's political beliefs. Since humans are a herd animal they identify with and move as part of a group. Individually conservatives would not be susceptible to political change but with an ideological shift in the direction of the herd by trusted leaders they go willingly along without detecting the change in direction. A shift has happened and some have called the shifters to account and this is what the current argument is all about. This is also why the one side throws around the charges of racism and anti-Semitism. These charges are so loaded that they strip the legitimacy of their opponent and thus everything he says. It is a cheap nasty trick to avoid answering policy questions but most importantly it calms the herd - those dissenters are awful, rotten people who "we" would not want to associate with.

As this article states conservatives who say they wish to preserve liberty and limited government hold certain founding fathers - Jefferson, Washington, etc. as their role models. Today's conservatives hold up Wilson, FDR, Truman, LBJ. So if you are a conservative think about those role models and ask yourself what is a conservative today and what it is you individually wish to conserve.

[ArneFufkin]

The question of "what is a conservative?" needs to be answered

No it doesn't.

[Black Agnes]

ping.

[Cyber Liberty]

Hmmm. Tough decision. I think, since I know me best, that I will stick to the labels I apply to myself, as opposed to something from LewRockwell.

Usually good thinking, but it always comes down to, "You ain't conservative enough, baby" by the end. That's why I usually don't waste my time, and I'm sorry for it when I do. Like now.

[tomahawk]

Buckley, NR, Rush, GOP & "Neo-Con" conservatism = > 90%of "conservatives"

Pat B/"Paleo-Con" conservatism = < 10% of "conservatives"

Who is in power today? The former.

Will the latter ever be in power? No.

Who will best advance the conservative agenda? The former.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

Oh lookie - somebody who thinks that the demented racist dribblings in VDARE are worthy of being called "conservative".

If that is what conservatism should be, then please count me out.

[My2Cents]

To Lew Rockwell, only Lew Rockwell is a true conservative.

[Protagoras]

No it doesn't.

It might be pretty embarassing for some if it was.

[No Truce With Kings]

Ah. LewRockwell.com. Legends in their own minds.

[ArneFufkin]

I quit listening when I discovered a day in the Brigader "Think Tank" was filled with Lego blocks and afternoon naps.

[The Old Hoosier]

To Lew Rockwell, only Lew Rockwell is a true conservative.

I agree, but don't forget that David Frum feels the same way.

[hchutch]

Quote of the Day material!

[Grand Old Partisan]

Good point, though Lew Rockwell also describes as conservatives the southern Democrats who killed 400,000 U.S. troops in the 1860s.

[ArneFufkin]

Go back to the drug threads Gollum.

[Cultural Jihad]

Where's the LewRockwell Drivel Alert?

[Catspaw]

A double whammy--vdare features Sam Francis. Post either one & it's a thread puller.

[Cicero]

Interesting article, but it begs several questions.

First, I would agree that a conservative should be a realist. But then you get into arguments about what is reality? To a Machiavellian the word means one thing; to a Christian it means something quite different.

Most of us probably sympathize with the ideas expressed in Washington's Farewell Address. But do the same conditions apply today that applied in the 18th century? We should avoid foreign entanglements as far as possible, but can we avoid them entirely if foreigners now have the power to develop the means to kill us right here or even to destroy our country? Unfortunately not.

[Chancellor Palpatine]

"[Clarence] Thomas calls the segregation of the Old South, where he grew up, 'totalitarian.' But that's liberal nonsense. Whatever its faults, and it certainly had them, that system was far more localized, decent, and humane than the really totalitarian social engineering now wrecking the country."
— LLEWELLYN H. ROCKWELL

[Cultural Jihad]

Is there any difference between LewRockwell, Libertarians, and the Worker's World Party? None that I can see, since they seem to draw the same isolationist water from the same anti-American well.

[Protagoras]

Who will best advance the conservative agenda?

The agenda that advances "conservative" goals such as new entitlements for prescription drugs, greater federal involvement in education, federal involvement in faith based charites, the repeal of the first amendment via "campaign finance reform", a "know your customer" violation of the forth amendment, and an ever growing federal leviathon? That conservative agenda?