No Dead Parrots Here ("It all began when Tanenhaus published 'Conservatism is Dead'")

American Thinker ^ | September 01, 2009 | Christopher Chantrill

[neverdem]

It must have all looked so appealing back in the winter.  Why not publish The Death of Conservatism by New York Times Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus on September 1?  The book is, the Economist reviewer says, "an appeal for unilateral disarmament by the right."  It would appear just in time to celebrate the passage of health care reform, cap and trade, a robustly stimulated economy and the utter rout of the evil Republicans. 

It all began when Tanenhaus published "Conservatism is Dead" in The New Republic in mid February.  He wrote that President Bush's presidency had failed because it was carrying on a useless culture war against the mainstream consensus.

[Bush's presidency] failed, in large part, because of its fervent commitment to movement ideology: the aggressively unilateralist foreign policy; the blind faith in a deregulated, Wall Street-centric market; the harshly punitive "culture war" waged against liberal "elites."

Conservatives are still trying to reverse the tide of the New Deal, writes Tanenhaus.  They could learn from conservative Whittaker Chambers, who observed 50 years ago how enthusiastically his conservative farmer neighbors cashed their price-support checks.  And really, how far can you get railing against the "new class" of 

scientists, teachers and educational administrators, journalists and others in the communication industries, psychologists, social workers, those lawyers and doctors who make their careers in the expanding public sector, city planners, the staffs of the larger foundations, the upper levels of the government bureaucracy[?]

Back in the winter liberals owed themselves a modest triumph and a taunt or two at the defeated Republicans.  So it made sense for The New Republic to run Tanenhaus's article to tell conservatives that they were so over.  Conservative commenters were reduced to insisting that the conservative parrot was not dead but just resting. 

But now, just as the book comes out, nobody is talking about dead parrots any more.

Now the liberal "new class" looks like a great big juicy target, as the author of a stimulus that doesn't stimulate, a cap-and-tax bill that's a special interest feeding trough, and a health reform bill that nobody has read.  The conservative movement is looking very much alive, what with Tea Parties and Town Halls and Recess-rallies and activists busy organizing and demonstrating.

I'd never understood this business of political meetings and organizing.  Whenever I'm in a meeting I get irritated listening to other people and start to think about ways in which their opinions are wrong.   I guess I'm just a loner.  Then I read an excerpt of Cass Sunstein's new book Going to Extremes in the London Spectator.

When people are isolated, he writes, and feel they have limited information, they tend to be cautious in their actions.  But when they belong to a network of like-minded people their opinions get confirmed and the group as a whole becomes more confident and more inclined towards action.

In short, as the title has it: "To become an extremist, hang around with people you agree with."  

You mean, like the lefty netroots?

Harvard Professor Sunstein illustrates his "group polarization" theory with references to fascists and Islamic terrorists. 

But here's a nickel to say that within a couple of months most liberals will be talking about the real danger of extremism in the Tea Party/Town Hall movement.  They will get it from NPR and The New York Times, and NPR and the Times will get it from Sunstein.

And there is a danger.  The danger is that ordinary Americans will get together and find that there are lots of other people out there that think the way they do.   The danger is that they won't listen to President Obama and the state-run media telling them to get with the program.  They'll ratchet up their movement another notch and start inquiring into the voting record of their local Democratic congressman.

There's no doubt that many elite liberals are shocked and offended by the rotten tomatoes conservatives keep throwing at them.  How dare the unwashed blame "scientists, teachers... journalists... foundations... government bureaucracy" for all their troubles when liberals have done so much for them! 

No doubt every governing class has felt this way as the peasants marched up the royal driveway brandishing their pitchforks. 

But really, how deluded can you get?  The "new class" liberal elite is a power elite and it uses its power to build vast administrative structures through which it fashions and doles out pensions, education, health care, and welfare.  The average American finds himself bumping up against that power all the time. 

The average American isn't stupid.  When the government spends one third of the Gross Domestic Product and dominates far more through its detailed economic and social regulation, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who's to blame when things go wrong.

And suppose the conservative movement should die, just as Sam Tanenhaus and his pals at The New York Times so dearly hope.  The next day another loyal opposition would appear to challenge the power of the liberals.

And chances are that the liberals of that era, flinching from the brickbats of a vigorous insurgency, would long for the kindly Republicans of the Bush-Gingrich-DeLay era, just as today they long for the nice tractable Eisenhower Republicans of the 1950s.

Christopher Chantrill is a frequent contributor to American Thinker. See his roadtothemiddleclass.com and usgovernmentspending.com.  His Road to the Middle Class is forthcoming.

[neverdem]

Is conservatism dead?

[FlingWingFlyer]

If conservatism is dead, why are Bammie and his boys all “wee wee’d up” about passing their CommieCare? Somebody is definitely worried about something. The “dead” GOP can’t stop them from ramming CommieCare down our throats.

[paudio]

We have to accept that ideologies, especially the major ones, are less likely to be dead. Only ‘sleep’. Communists in early and mid 20th century declared conservatism (with all its variants) was dead. We declared communism was dead in the mid 1990s. Both were wrong.

[NaughtiusMaximus]

Liberal professors and NYT journalists in hospital beds and full body casts. Saying to doctor “And then Charlie said’Look at that big conservative gorilla lying on the ground over there, I wonder if he’s dead or just asleep.’”

[skinkinthegrass]

No Dead Parrots Here ("It all began when
Tanenhaus published 'Conservatism is Dead'")

Seriously Folks
No!...Its not.

there are many (fine) Conservatives out there
ignore the (panties-waists) "Bluebloods" / RINOS

[Talisker]

In the movie “Apoloo 13,” an engineer on the troubleshooting team yells “wait a minute” until everyone arguing about all their ideas turns around. Then he tells them that energy isn’t only important - it’s everything.

That’s the same problem the liberals have - they don’t understand that economics is not only important - it’s everything. Their entire “system” is hell bent upon killing the economic energy that runs everything. Until that is clear to everyone - absolutely everyone - in America, these idiot liberals will continue to be fooled by their Leftist masters into supporting economically suicidal politics in the name of “social justice.”

[lentulusgracchus]

The “dead” GOP can’t stop them from ramming CommieCare down our throats.

No, but a suddenly dead Kennedy can. LOL!

Ooooh, 59 votes is so far from 60 votes!!!

lololol

[dajeeps]

The GOP is on life support. Conservatism never has been.

What liberals don’t seem to get is that it’s not people or parties that control things, and it overall doesn’t matter who is president or who is in congress. It’s the national zeitgeist, so to speak, that is in control. They won because the national mood was upset, not because the nation as whole accepts liberal extremes. While elections do have consequences, they still need the cooperation of the ‘zeitgeist’ for success, and by the looks of things they aren’t getting it.

As far as I’m concerned, the GOP can sit there and flounder for as long as it takes to get its act together. Ultimately, it is whomever ends up pleasing the national mood that gets the cookie. I care not what label they happen to pin on themselves.

In otherwords, Obama and his cronies can only be sucessful in redefining who we are as a country with our cooperation. Abscent that, he and they are nothing but trouble and heartache that will be dealt with one way or another. It happened to Bush and the GOP, and the understood rules of the game haven’t changed.

[driftless2]

Liberals have been trying to declare conservatism dead for four decades...ever since Goldwater’s defeat in 1964. Believe me, the conservative movement was a lot weaker then than it is now...even though the country was far more conservative socially. Because there were very few conservative voices. Now there are many...and we/they won’t shut up. Liberals, like Tanenhaus, still don’t understand the basis for conservatism. It’s not any one particular issue, it’s the basic opposition to government where it’t not needed or intended. We know libs a lot better than they know us.

[Biggirl]

With the growth and spread of tea parties, that says it all, consevatism is alive and active.

[Bobalu]

No Dead Parrots Here

[EBH]

Agreed and while we slept the fox got into the hen house...

[EBH]

And there is a danger. The danger is that ordinary Americans will get together and find that there are lots of other people out there that think the way they do. The danger is that they won't listen to President Obama and the state-run media telling them to get with the program

And if anyone has listened to Beck over the past few months, the 912 Project started from the fact his callers were "feeling isolated." Hence the theme, We Surround Them. The very first meet-up event was to discover we were not alone and that people from all walks of life, both parties were concerned for our country. Many discovered for the first time their opinions were not 'fringe' elements.

As much as they want to classify us as extremists, we know the reality is we are America. We are not the extremes, but the majority. Dear Elites, I'd like you to meet the Silent Majority.

As I wrote that I got to thinking how the elites in this country are really a minority. There is a real good springboard in that thought for an editorial.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Another view...I just posted it:

Democracy is dead ... lobbyists rule America-----16-point manifesto .....

[neverdem]

Thanks for the link.

[FlingWingFlyer]

Good point!