What has happened to the conservative MIND?!

[Politruk]

There was a time when American movement conservatism had spokesmen of some mental heft, such as William F. Buckley and Russell Kirk.

But ever since the Reagan years, nobody to the right of the Democratic Leadership Council appears capable of anything above the intellectual level of a claymation Christmas special.

Why is that?!

 

[Politruk]

There's Pat Buchanan, for instance. I have read The Death of the West. No smart guy wrote it. Is this the best they can do any more?!

One of the best American public intellectuals today is Michael Lind -- who started conservative (wrote for National Review) and grew disillusioned. He wrote a book about that, Up from Conservatism.

 

[Pad_Foot]

Did Pat Buchanan die???

I’d love to hear Buckley’s take on ‘rump

 

[SavannaT]

At some point they realized the end mattered more than the means, it doesn’t matter if they turn this country into Jonestown so long as they think the koolaid will pay for itself, never mind the arsenic.

 

[Politruk]

Did Pat Buchanan die???

I’d love to hear Buckley’s take on ‘rump

Buchanan is alive. Buckley is dead.

 

[Bn2f]

I strongly disagree.
IMO the conservatism you are pining for has always been summed up best by this quote:

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness. John Kenneth Galbraith

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.

"Laws for thee but not for me."

There is nothing deeper. That's all they have.

 

[Politruk]

I strongly disagree.
IMO the conservatism you are pining for has always been summed up best by this quote:

But at least there was a time when they could argue for selfishness in an eloquent and sophisticated way.

 

[Politruk]

And on this board in particular, the mental inferiority of the conservatives/Pubs to the liberals/Dems is not only striking but quite astonishing.

 

[JohnEngelman]

When Reagan got away tripling the national debt, while convincing low income whites that he was their tribune, conservatives decided that it was not necessary to think any more.

 

[JoePepsiCo]

One does not need "new" when classic has already flowered.

One merely needs to educate sans organization.

MMT did not "invalidate" Bastiat as claimed.
It introduced numeric mummery.
(just one exemplar)

Its promulgation is reliant upon organized education.
The more properly organized your education, the more firmly the belief.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Intelligent conservatives are still out there, but they’re keeping their heads down so they won’t be associated with the conspiracy lunatic MAGAs.

 

[JoePepsiCo]

Intelligent conservatives are still out there, but they’re keeping their heads down so they won’t be associated with the conspiracy lunatic MAGAs.

Will you know them when you see them?

 

[Rebel5soul]

Will you know them when you see them?

LMAO!!!!!

 

[JoePepsiCo]

... unicorns and pots of gold...

 

[Rebel5soul]

... unicorns and pots of gold...

Indeed.

 

[JoePepsiCo]

They're always after Timmah's Lucky Charms™!

 

[BrightShinyGirl]

One does not need "new" when classic has already flowered.

One merely needs to educate sans organization.

MMT did not "invalidate" Bastiat as claimed.
It introduced numeric mummery.
(just one exemplar)

Its promulgation is reliant upon organized education.
The more properly organized your education, the more firmly the belief.

Conservatives only care about deficits when the government spends money on anybody other than them. Use all the fancy words you like, but conservatism is still intellectually bankrupt.

 

[Politruk]

Morally inferior, too. It's truly astonishing how much brazen shameless dishonesty we've seen from the RW since . . . I guess the start date would be around 2000, with that year's election.

There was RW dishonesty before then, but not on this level that would embarrass Nixon.

 

[Politruk]

One does not need "new" when classic has already flowered.

One merely needs to educate sans organization.

MMT did not "invalidate" Bastiat as claimed.
It introduced numeric mummery.
(just one exemplar)

Its promulgation is reliant upon organized education.
The more properly organized your education, the more firmly the belief.

You're not making any case for the conservative mind here.

 

[MajorRewrite]

Will you know them when you see them?

Intelligent conservatives are the ones who don’t spout conspiracy lunacy. Very easy to tell them apart.

 

[Politruk]

This thread on memes illustrates what I'm talking about. Only the liberal/Democrat memes are in any way funny or clever or interesting or thought-provoking. The conservative/Republican memes are lame, stupid and embarrassing -- all of them.

 

[Politruk]

I suspect there may be some connection between their lack of intelligence and their lack of humor.

 

[Politruk]

They're not getting any smarter, are they?

 

[bijedi]

It's a good question. While American conservatism has always had a bit of an anti-intellectual bias, there are usually a few scholars capable of reasoned and critical argument. They seem to have vanished, and left the movement in the hands of sophists and hustlers. Very depressing, actually.