Brave New World
From the moment Barack Obama announced his intentions to run for POTUS, I assumed that he would win. The Clinton machine was worn out, and there were social forces and irrefutable facts that no “conservative” candidate could overcome. Everything was in place when it came time to vote. Briefly….
First, demographics: Immigration and generational changes have eclipsed the Euro-centered, Post WWII electorate. The young don’t care about Bill Ayers or radicalism any more than my generation cared about Tokyo Rose and Henry Wallace; the world of the young today is so bizarre and free-wheeling that nothing as tame as Jeremiah Wright can stand out and get serious attention. Immigrants - most of whom have come here from despotic or chaotic countries - are seeking advantage through political power, and Barack Obama poses no threat to their conception of liberty. They also don’t give a damn about Ben Franklin or Paul Revere, if you get my point.
Second, The Welfare State, or the same thing by other names: Has grown in every administration since 1936, with a lapse during WWII. All administrations have supported and expanded Human Resources and Defense ”superfunctions”, until it accounts for almost 62% of federal outlays since 1940 (adjusted for inflation). Everyone gets a piece, including those who call themselves conservatives. Arguments about The Welfare State are window-dressing, because no faction or party seriously argues about its existence, and none attempt to define its sufficient size.
Third, popular conservatism itself, today, is a side show. Buckley’s generation-long efforts to make conservatism respectable expired along with his sincerity, good sense and originality. His heirs - like the bore George Will, have made the essential muscularity of conservatism into a watery, disgusting gruel fit only for bow-tie wearing drama queens. George W. Bush’s incoherence and government by passive silence has earned the detestation of almost every political perspective, especially the paleoconservatives. Compassionate conservatism appeared to be ritualistic soul-cleansing, where things not belonging to you could be freely given to others. Watch Barack Obama on this issue, too.
On the radio side, conservatism is dished up in the same old tropes, accompanied by country music, audio cuts of Ronald Reagan’s speeches and Wright’s squeals, and endless hammering on the anvils of American Exceptionalism and Rugged Individualism. Together, their conclusions about why conservatism is moribund, is that voters dismayed by Republican cowardice and cupidity, punished them by voting for liberal Democrats. Brilliant. With analysis like this, we can win the T-Shirt slogan contest and forget the battle of ideas.
Speaking of ideas, that was McCain’s fatal problem. He didn’t have any; he had a maverick personality, a biography, and expected us to generate ideas from there. Obama projected plainly liquid and uncertain ideas, and his persona expanded like a Macy’s Parade balloon while McCain turned into a homunculus. Why this happened is unclear, and material for another post.
Right now I’m damned angry. We’re exchanging one set of fools and poltroons who are clueless about the rationale, modes and aspirations of conservatism, for another set who are clueless about life, human nature, and the dangers in the world at large. Great.
Archived in: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Compassionate Conservatism, Conservatism, Conservatives, Demographics, Election Post-Mortem, George Bush, Immigration, Jeremiah Wright, John McCain, Presidential Election, Talk Radio, WelfareNovember 5, 2008 at 5:31 pm | Trackback
8 comments
Hotspur,
You sent me to the dictionary again, dammit.
Years ago a very wise woman dropped a casual reference in passing to the clown Emmett Kelly…she had been discussing the emotion of communication and offered “it takes a very high IQ to act like a clown.”
Conservatism needs definition and applied expression easily recognizable as it’s own simple succint truth. Obstacles such as Hotspur has laid out as demographics, The Welfare State, definitional viability and no-where-else-to-go dead ends frustrate instinctive conservatives who too commonly lack the ability to articulate it.
We need a William Buckley with Emmet Kelley’s innate ability to emote it’s simplicity.
Thanks for the post, Hotspur!
It is beautifully turned out .. I liked ..) would be continuously zahazhivat to you.
I find it sickly amusing to see the ratings of congress lower than Bush, yet the pusillanimous population of incumbents barely quivered e.g. Alaska.
In Congressional races, a Venn diagram of the number of voters using “People” or “In Touch” rags as informational sources and the the number of stupid voters would show a diagram of almost one circle. How else can the Congressional rating and the election outcome be explained.
Helen, please name me a House member in New England with an R after the name. ( In Vermont, please name me a Party with an R after it’s name)
When I posted to the idea of a new party and commented to the same, the pooh-poohs were present. We don’t need a third party. Limbaugh in all his hauteur agreed with the nabobs too. I submit that it would not be a third party, but a second party, since I cannot see a bit of difference between the two criminal activities currently holding sway.
CKGuy, I just open to a random page, point my finger, and then find a use for the word I hit. Someone here accused me of that, as I recall. A damn pedantic mountebank.
Sfaceeva korosha, Asya.
I’m not hopeful, Helen. Conservatism is a disposition, not an ideology; almost everyone has the same desire for personal sovereignty, even liberals, but the establishments have found a way to connect that desire to their own desire for self-perpetuation. I don’t see conservatives doing that.
VW, Roger Simon published this quote from William Morris:
“Men fight and lose the battle, and the thing they fought for comes about in spite of defeat, and when it comes it turns out to be not what they meant, and other men have to fight for what they meant under another name”.
Screw the Republicans. They’re not worth saving, and a new party is inevitable.
Check this out:
http://www.powerlineblog.com/a.....022015.php
Remember Stein’s Law….If something can’t go on forever, it won’t.
McCain has always been a RINO and those in the democrat party he supported dumped on him. Big shock that Dusty Harry Reid is counting on McCain to return to the senate and take his place among the democrats, again. McCain won’t have the balls to stand up to them and will join again. He’s tool and likes being used, it gets his name in the news.
the Republicans have now lost their mind if they really believe this:
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.....ove-right/