Posted on 11/10/2010 7:37:20 AM PST by Kaslin
Not long ago, September 2009 to be exact, Random House published The Death of Conservatism by New York Times Book Review editor Sam Tanenhaus, which, according to Publisher’s Weekly, “argues that Republicans must moderate their focus on ideological purity if they are to return from the political wilderness.” The same review also tells us the book “argues that the contemporary Right define[s] itself less by what it yearns to conserve than by what it longs to destroy — and that pragmatic Democrats like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama have usurped the Republicans’ once winning focus on social stability.”
Well, fourteen short months later, we could all say to Tanenhaus — depending on our level of rudeness and vulgarity — hardeeharhar, ROTFLMAO, or eat my shorts.
But this isn’t to make fun of the editor – or even to get back at him (well, maybe a little) for there having been no review of my latest book in the NYTBR when all the previous ten, written when I was a liberal, had one.
No, this is to point out how treacherous, even foolhardy, political predictions are. Nevertheless, I am going to make one. For the foreseeable future, liberalism is dead. To go further, as the great Preston Sturges once said of chivalry, liberalism “is not only dead, it’s decomposed.”
And from whence comes this decomposition? Primarily from the fact that society is aging so fast it can no longer afford liberalism’s various Ponzi schemes engendered by Keynesian economics. We can barely pay these entitlements now, which are the principal ornaments of liberalism, let alone in the future. Then it will be a disaster. We’re all growing broke. Some of us are just going broke faster. And going broke fastest of all may be the United States of America.
And — here’s the scary part — that’s true no matter at what level we tax ourselves. Tax the rich at ninety-nine percent and the numbers still will not crunch. There aren’t enough rich people to make up the gap. Not even close. It’s all an illusion — a myth of “fairness,” which is in reality unfair. In the world of hard facts, we’re stuck unless we cut government handouts — Social Security and Medicare — almost beyond recognition. It’s sad but true. If we don’t, it’s bye, bye, Miss American Pie. Take that state-owned Chevy, drive it to the levee and let it sink in quick sand. In fact, it’s already mostly disappeared with only the antenna.
Now of course I am referring to modern liberalism, not classical liberalism. And when I say liberalism is dead, it does not mean that everybody knows or acknowledges this rigor mortis — or that it will act dead. Its adherents, especially the legions with a vested economic (unions, etc.) or social (Hollywood, media) interest, will never admit it. They will change the subject from economics so they don’t have to debate or examine concrete conditions. They will seek bailouts to push back any day of reckoning. To distract us and themselves, they will continue to insist the Tea Party movement is racist, even though that is a demonstrable lie, a form of nostalgia, and there are already black congressmen elected with the support of the movement. For those liberals, the truth is not important — preservation of self-image and lifestyle is.
But I would remind those people that they have children too. Someone has to pay for all this. If we don’t, our kids will. And that makes the assumption that we can get away with it within our remaining life spans. I doubt we can.
not hardly
It’s not dead, just playing dead. Ready to jump and take your throat out at any second.
I wish it were dead. I like dead.
Not until I see it buried at a crossroad at midnight, with an enormous stake through its heart....
People thought Communism was dead in our country also. Look at it now. It will be a constant fight until it is turned on by the average American.
I would certainly like it to be dead!
I think we have a chance to keep it from taking the majority for a few decades if we are vigilant.
I’ll settle for it being in a long coma.
NO NO NO Liberalism is NOT dead and will not die.
As long as conservatives allow our nation's children to attend government owned and run, socialist-funded, compulsory, prison-like, and GODLESS schools, liberalism WILL NOT DIE!
Government indoctrination centers ( mis-named “schools”) must be shut down, the buildings razed to the foundations, the earth salted!
It will continue to be a struggle to save our nation from one election cycle to another for as long as children attend socialist-funded government schooling.
NO NO NO NO! It is NOT possible to reform government socialist-funded, compulsory, prison-like, and GODLESS schools. The very definition of not socialist-funded, not compulsory, not government owned and run, not prison-like is PRIVATE!
Within one to three generation of modern government schooling ( mid-1800s to early 1900s) the U.S. began its slide into socialism. Government indoctrination did not make Franklin D. Roosevelt, and now Obama, possible. These socialist abominations ( mis-named “schools”) made them INEVITABLE.
Ok...Now I will read the article and comment on its contents.
And..Yes! I am shouting, jumping up and down, and having a fit. Why are conservatives sooooooooo stupid not to understand this?
Progressives and socialists control the major media outlets, the K-12 schools, the Universities, and have cowed and herded big business and big non-profits into silence or active promotion of the liberal agendas. They are still in the drivers seat and we are the resistance . . . those that because of family education or self-education have moved the curtain back and see the Wizard of Odd standing behind the liberal curtain.
Liberals still dominate the media, academia, and the culture via Hollywood. I’ll admit that the election is evidence they’ve been dealt a serious blow, but the election wasn’t the stake through the heart.
We have not won. We will know we have won when the word “rich” is not a pejorative.
The prediction that liberalism is dead is as silly as the prediction that conservatism is dead. Liberalism will be with us as long as any percentage of humans are lazy, greedy or immoral.
It comes back every 1 1/2 generations as soon as you create enough voters who don’t remember the last time it screwed things up. People who did not remember life under Jimmy Carter elected Obama.
Liberalism is a natural phenomenon, in addition to being a philosophy.
No. Its been dealt a blow, but its hardly dead.
Not until a wooden stake has been driven thru it’s cold, black heart, it’s been shot with a silver bullet and it’s head has been separated from it’s body.
The math doesn’t add up... in California you have elderly liberals presiding over a financial toxic waste dump - that they don’t care about or have no interest in cleaning up.
“and have cowed and herded big business and big non-profits into silence or active promotion of the liberal agendas”
And the businesses are fighting back by going to China/India/Asia in general. If they don’t kowtow, they leave. I know that much and I am sure that instead of kowtowing or fighting, the smart and hardowrking and productive are going to leave. I think that in order for a stake to be driven through the hearts of Liberalism as it is now, the US will have to be dealt some major blow, economically, likely.
Liberals tend to die off or change quick enough when they are forced to fend for themselves. If the US lost massive prestige internationally, then I am sure that attitude would change quick enough. But that sort of change doesn’t come without a price attached and the US will either kick the scum to the curb or in the face or pay in full.
Our nation is suffering spiritually. Liberalism is a spiritual affliction.
That our media, entertainment, universities, cultural institutions, and philanthropy institutions are utterly and completely dominated by Marxists is a sign of our nation's spiritual decay.
Please read post #7. Conservatives must start there. We must get the nation's children into private conservative educational settings. We must completely shut down our socialist-modeled, godless K-12 schools.
But...FAR FAR FAR most discouraging is that too many conservatives fail to understand that godless, socialist-funded, compulsory, and government owned schooling is by definition spiritually corrupting. ALL ALL ALL government schools are.
Far Far Far too many conservatives even understand the problem and think that nibbling around the edges of government K-12 schooling will fix an inherently morally and ethically debilitating institution.
“...as long as any percentage of humans are lazy, greedy or immoral.”
They don’t have to be any of those things. They just have to be clueless about human nature. I got into an argument with my sister (liberal Democrat) & said that anyone who is a Democrat today is a socialist. She took umbrage at that appellation. So I changed my email signature line to this to make the point:
“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But, under the name “liberalism” they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.
“I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democratic Party has adopted our Platform.” - Norma Matton Thomas, 6-time Presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America. (1884-1963)”
I haven’t heard from her from quite awhile. :-) This morning I received an email from her & she had changed her signature line to this:
“Business! Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my business; charity, mercy, forbearance and benevolence, were all my business. The dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business!” Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol”
How do you convince such people that their noble-sounding belief system is just a new type of slavery?
There will always be libtard parasites who cannot survive without enslaving producers. There will always be power craving libtard statists who will help them achieve it.
Yes, it’s a spiritual affliction. As old as envy itself.
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