"How to revive the flagging fortunes of the Republican Party might matter to some people, but it's not a question that should concern principled conservatives. Crypto-conservatives aplenty stand ready to shoulder that demeaning task. Tune in Fox News or pick up the latest issue of
National Review or the
Weekly Standard and you'll find them, yelping, whining, and fingering our recently reelected president as the Antichrist.
Conservatives who prefer thinking to venting--those confident that a republic able to survive eight years of George W. Bush can probably survive eight years of Barack Obama--confront a question of a different order. To wit: does authentic American conservatism retain any political viability in this country in the present age? That is, does homegrown conservatism have any lingering potential for gaining and exercising power at the local, state, or national levels? Or has history consigned the conservative tradition--as it has Marxism--to a status where even if holding some residual utility as an analytical tool, it no longer possesses value as a basis for practical action?"
From Counterculture Conservatism: The right needs less Ayn Rand, more Flannery O'Connor by Andrew Bacevich in the January/February 2013 issue of
The American Conservative (not yet online)
1 comment:
Col Bacevic , Please please keep talking . This country needs a thinker like you , elegantly simple , based on facts and morally true . Observations and analysises presented in a calm and thoughtful manner . Not to mention an impressive persona . We have been waiting for a person of your stature , intelligence, experience and gravitas before we explore options to move to another country . A grownup country not a teenage country .
This country offered my grandparents everything it promised in the early 1900's when they immigrated here because they did their part and worked very very hard to survive and allow their children to move up . They all did . The "social safety net " was an intact family , sobriety , frugality and determination . Not the nanny state . Look at what that has gotten us today !
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