Posted on 04/11/2021 3:57:51 PM PDT by em2vn
What remains of traditional conservatism? Should we concede defeat and see the great conservative figures of the past as women and men of beauty who had their say but who are now relegated to some obscure museum of lost humanist causes? No! To my mind, these voices have never been more needed and more relevant
(Excerpt) Read more at theimaginativeconservative.org ...
For the founding documents to have worked in keeping government limited, they had to be interpreted correctly. This would have required a sufficient majority of citizens to be properly educated and willing to support the proper understanding of the documents.
This didn't happen. Instead conservatives continue to naively believe that they have the spokespeople and prophets necessary to convert a majority of the incoming legal immigrants and liberal citizens to the correct point of view.
This has been a complete failure. Legal immigrants continue to vote liberal. Liberal citizens are not largely converted over to the conservative position.
Instead the founding documents are interpreted in a more and more progressive manner which is either actively supported or tacitly approved by the majority of citizens.
The America First movement, and right-leaning populist movements in general, believe that we need to put a temporary halt to all legal and illegal immigration. Even then it might be too late for us to educate a sufficient number of current citizens to view the founding documents in the correct light.
I am of Italian and Irish heritage. When my ancestors came over they voted Democrat almost exclusively. It was only because of the long halt to mass immigration before the 1965 Immigration Act that Italian and Irish Americans became acclimated to the American experience and ultimately became a big part of the Reagan Democrats of the 80's.
Conservatives still naively believe that grifters like Charlie Kirk and TPUSA can convince a majority of legal immigrants to support small government and free markets. Conservatives still believe that a Candace Owens here and a Bennie Johnson there means that we have successfully reached the Black and Gay communities and they are ready to fight for conservative values.
This is wishful thinking of the highest order. Marbury vs. Madison set the stage for the Supreme Court being the final arbiter of what the Constitution means. Over the years the court has been packed with progressives by the left and corporate whores by the "right". It seems that justices who truly understand what our founding documents mean get on the court only by accident or maybe Acts of God.
Conservatives still think they are in some kind of dialog with the liberals and leftists. They are speaking to deaf ears while the millions in the middle try to figure out what celebrity is behind the singing mask.
“...George Orwell wrote an essay (online) worth reading, “ Second Thoughts on James Burnham”.”
That sound intersting.
The ones that populate his imagination.
It sounds to me like the issue hasn’t been “worshipping the founding documents” so much as it has been “worshipping the silent majority”.
The Constitution requires action. Action we have only really seen in large numbers during the Tea Party era c.~2010.
Am I off on this?
I realize that it is conventional wisdom that it was prediction. . But read Orwell on Burnham.
Let us know your thoughts if read it.
It sounds like what Birzer is talking about isn’t politics, but religion or ethics or psychology or good manners. Politics conform to the actual existing state of society, which isn’t given to piety or reverence for tradition. The government is necessarily going to be bigger than it was in 1789 and society is necessarily going to be less tied to traditional values and constraints than it was in the past.
Who is this person? Their audio quality isn’t very good. Since I do audio myself, I’m sensitive to that sort of thing.
That’s a nice criticism but he falls in to the same trap that he’s criticizing Ben Shapiro for. I didn’t hear any sort of solution or call to action. It’s just “that guy is wrong”.
Ok, and then now what?
I think he is smart to be able to see “the formula” and recognize that it doesn’t work, but then what?
I read it(not the first time), but I didn’t see anything different. Orwell’s mainly playing the part here of the critic.
Could you be specific of what you’re trying to say?
BTW a “warning” and a “prediction” really are the same thing. “Bad things will happen if...... “ is a prediction, a dire prediction.
Exactly which populists on the right desire this?
He may be thinking of the 1930s or the 1950s when it was assumed that there was one American type that people had to assimilate to. That view wasn't just held by populists back then. In recent decades many conservatives of all varieties have held up the 1950s as something positive in contrast to the chaos of the 1960s and 1970s, but there was a growing understanding that there was no one American type or way of life that all Americans were going to conform to. I think deep down that's what we realize today, but if those who want to be critical are going to see conformity and homogenization in everything their opponents say.
Also, Birzer may be coming from a more localistic "small is beautiful" anti-Walmart tradition. I don't think he understands that many of the Trump supporters he is criticizing have similar views, and many of those he would have voted for in previous years don't. Right now, the drive for compulsive conformity is coming from the corporations, the Democrats, and the left, so caricaturing right populists seems counterproductive if you are opposed to big government, big business, big tech, and social control over individuals, families and communities.
It looks like Walmart is losing -- to Amazon. Is that better? I suppose we are going to have to learn to live with and deal with Amazon, as we did with Walmart and Sears.
They tend to be Catholic or Orthodox and believe that a return to God is the most necessary part of any real solution. They were also about to expand into real life interactions rather than just putting out YouTube videos and streaming until the pandemic arrived. They believe that large scale political solutions are no longer possible and they will focus on developing organizations of likeminded people in their local communities to create a bulwark against the increasing secularization and progressive bent of society.
Some of them would like to see a return to something like a monarchy. They believe that we are currently living under an unstated oligarchy, so a monarchy would at least be honest about the fact that democracy is dead or at least in its death throes.
The American attitude is never say die. There is always a solution no matter how difficult the situation. We are John McClane. The left is Hans Gruber. We will overcome. But this situation is not like Die Hard where there is one short-term threat that must be dealt with. This has been, and continues to be, a slow-burning, long term problem. The progressives have completed their long march through the institutions and now control even corporate board rooms. They don't just own Nakatomi Plaza. They also own city hall, and the police force as well.
Obama, and now Biden, are bussing illegals into major cities around the country. Every state has a San Francisco or Austin or Vegas or Boise. Some place where liberals can outnumber all of the conservatives in the rest of the state. So even making a stand in a Red State may shortly become an impossibility.
If history is any guide then we just may be at the end of the American Empire. We just may be at that point where the 'gimme dats' outweigh the productive members of society.
If I had to propose a solution it would be a fifty year program of marching through the institutions to reclaim them for conservative principles, but I don't know that there would be a sufficient number of people on board to even want to try that.
The hope is that instead we can create parallel institutions like on-line courses instead of woke colleges and alternates to YouTube and Facebook. Those may be ways to create "safer spaces" for conservatives, but they would in no way allow us to retake the country for conservative and Christian principles as the vast majority of citizens will continue to flock to the current institutions for their education and entertainment and will move further and further away from us in our beliefs.
As far as the audio goes, YouTube makes it difficult for rightwingers to monetize their channels so he probably doesn't have the money to get a better mic.
It’s over.
Nothing has been conserved.
You are along on your little conservative island, your conservative neighbor is not willing to lift a finger to help you, less his own little island be threatened.
Good luck making it to the hole without the aid of genocide.
We could make certain symbols, such as the American Flag, inviolate. We could make certain aspects of our history unquestioned, e.g. Washington was perfect except for his wooden teeth and Columbus was a Saint. This of course would have to be enforced by law and would go against the American tradition of taking the piss out of everything.
Everyone with half a brain knew that Liberace was gay and yet he had a fabulous career. So even in the 50's we were willing to look the other way so long as a person was a productive member of society.
How many Romans truly believed in Jupiter and Juno, and yet I believe that anyone who publicly acknowledged disbelief or who blasphemed either would receive a harsh punishment.
Even if it sounds silly, maybe we should make flag burning (and the wearing of flag-themed underwear) crimes punishable by public whipping or the pillory. Anyone who denounces Washington, Lincoln, or Columbus is exiled to Antarctica... or Detroit.
There was a cherry tree that Washington cut down. The pilgrims had a lovely dinner with the Indians (Note: referring to them as 'Native Americans' would be a misdemeanor). Columbus sailed the ocean blue and brought civilization to an uncivilized continent. Lincoln freed the slaves and never said any of those nasty things liberals accused him of.
We can’t let the GOP or the MSM determine that answer.
Perhaps start with where we are. We have woke corporations owning the society.
From Burnham Buckley, neocons to Rinos who help establish and participating in a political, globalist power structure of Managerial types. The how who and why are discoverable starting with Burnham’s history.
Orwell saw a worship of power in Burnham. If so, perhaps it was a goal for Burnham.
“Can a small, limited government conserve our national culture?”
The world may never know. We don’t have a small, limited government, and the government we have is absolutely against conserving whatever is left of our national culture.
we’re just fine, thank you.
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