Yes it is. Thanks for the post.
Yes it is. Thanks for the post.
It is a Buckley definition of conservatism which was not the conservatism before his magazine was on the scene. There was a purge of the movement back in the 50's. Some would claim that he simply got rid of racists, anti-Semites and conspiracy kooks and made conservatism "respectable" but in truth the old time conservatives were more libertarian oriented or less federally focused. The pursuit of the cold war was not a universally held idea. It required a high tax rate and big bureaucracies to run the military and maintain an overseas presence and to intervene as we did. The ex-editor of NR, John O'Sullivan had what he called O'Sullivan's Law which stated that any organization that is not explicitly right wing over time becomes explicitly left wing. Applying that law could say NR and conservatism are on thin ice. Look at NR today vs. one of 20 or 30 years ago and take a look at the GOP since Reagan or since Goldwater.