How Useful is "The Liberty Amendments" for Conservatism?

The Dentzel Domain podcast (my review) ^ | 9/2/2013 | crusher

[crusher]

In a recent excellent podcast, social and political observer Ed Dentzel raises an uncomfortable question based on a verifiable observation: Has the country become more collectivist/Leftist since the advent of the dominance of conservative talk radio? By any metric, he argues, the answer is “Yes.” If that is true, and I think it is undeniable, then what use is it?

I cannot disagree with him from either the “Economic conservatives” perspective or the “Social conservatives” perspective. In the former, the explosive growth of the size of government and its interference in the marketplace provides the evidence, while for the latter the coarsening of culture and diminution of traditional virtue is irrefutable.

Are conservative talk radio and the plethora of successful conservative non-fiction books useful or a distraction and a waste of time? I had never really thought about it in those terms before, but I am thinking hard about it now. Yes, these may amuse, entertain, and inform us but they appear to be having no effect on the larger picture. I will listen to this podcast again tonight to make sure I am not missing something fundamental in his argument.

Dentzel has always posited (my words, not his), that it’s all about the culture, and politics is simply where the score is kept. Conservatives stink at politics because we stink at culture. The occasion of this episode was Mark Levin’s new book “The Liberty Amendments,” which Dentzel concludes is simply another waste of time for conservatives. It might be a brilliant monograph, but the overwhelming majority of people who will read it will not be changed – those who agreed before hand will agree afterwards, those who disagree before will disagree after. We have won the intellectual arguments, yet everything keeps moving in the wrong direction.

Why? In Dentzel’s mind it is because we have abandoned every single aspect of the culture to the Left, especially the creative arts (he is a writer and I find his stuff pretty good). This argument rings true with me as I have argued here at FR, even posting my 15-year old essay on essentially the same topic, “The Parable of the Robes, ” wherein I argue that The Left has fully captured the institutions that inculcate values – schools, churches, The Law, and the media. We are losing because we expect to use reason to persuade someone out of a position where reason did not place them.

Give it a listen. It will irritate you but also point in the right direction, in my humble opinion. Dentzel’s podcast made me reflect on my new Four Horsemen of the Coming Apolcalypse.

Cowardice

Narcissism

Multiculturalism

Political Correctness

Crusher

[sten]

just a mental exercise that won’t go anywhere since both major parties benefit from out of control massive govt spending

the republicans won’t change anything

the judiciary will not stop unConstitutional laws

the police state continues to grow under fascists

yea... this’ll end well

[RIghtwardHo]

Boy did you nail it.

[gorush]

I agree with, and am thinking about suing due to the theft of intellectual property, that point of view. :{) We lost the war decades ago. The Constitution provides liberty (or used to when they followed it), our culture provides morality. We won’t recover liberty until food becomes currency, if then.

[katwoman5779]

So just give up, right? Is that what you are saying? Sucumb to the inevitable and take it like a sheep? You really don't get it. The conservatives (Reagan -ites) are going to take this country back. The Democrats and Republicans be damned. Oh, you can come along for the ride and you will benefit from the victory, no doubt. But in any event, you will still be the pathetic drone you are right now. Go crawl back under your rock where you came out of to write this hit piece.

[nathanbedford]

Even Mark Levin himself readily acknowledges that the task is daunting and must certainly require years to complete. There are, however, two factors which work in its favor:

1. Is not the Washington establishment that invokes the amendments process and it is not the Washington establishment, but rather the states themselves who are much more heavily balanced towards conservatism, who control the ratification process.

2. The Article V process is initiated not just because it is believed the governance of the country has become unmoored from the Constitution but because the governance of the country is committing the country to disaster unless altered and, therefore, the opposition forces have planted the very timebombs which will explode and change the whole mood of the country changing the political climate in favor of ratification and reform.

Nothing guaranteed. We shall see.

[Driabrin]

I sincerely hope you’re right. But... it is not looking good. When you have to go against 17+ years of left-biased schooling and indoctrination, what chance do you have? Popular entertainment is another indoctrination route. In the last decade or so there have been NO movies that show conservative values. Not a single damn one. There is nothing non-leftist on TV either, with Duck Dynasty being the one lonely exception. Books, theater, music, visual arts, all display the left’s values. You have to constantly go out of your way to see anything conservative anywhere. When you go against all that, when you talk to people whose entire daily existence is filled with nothing but leftist bias, what chance do you have? Like I said, I hope you’re right.

[berdie]

later

[Jacquerie]

The point of Mark's book is to go around the denizens of Wash DC, to use Article V as our framers intended. It is clear you haven't read his book, or even the first chapter he posted at his website.

[sten]

problem is... the progressives have been seeding the population with mindless cretins since the 60s. it’s achieving critical mass now... and expecting those people to understand why it needs to be changed will be near impossible

especially since those in charge are pushing to legalize drugs... further dumbing down the masses and making them easier to control

[sten]

i have no need to read the book. as soon as i read that the premise is based on the ‘denizens of American society’... i knew it was doomed.

if you don’t think so... you really need to go out and at least listen to the typical conversations people are having. i don’t mean in churches. go to the every-man kind of places. restaurants, grocery stores, pubs, parks, beaches, etc

they’ve successfully indoctrinated more then 50% of the country into a govt assistance mindset.

[nathanbedford]

I guess I must've woken up and gone over to the dark side because you can count me as one of those pushing to legalize drugs partly for the reason to take away one method the government uses to control the masses.

[jtonn]

Glenn Beck has been saying much the same for the past couple of years. It's the culture. That's why he's been studying Walt Disney and how he was so successful back in the 60's, unlike the drivel that Disney produces nowadays.

Glenn needed a platform under his personal control to begin producing the entertainment that he believes promotes a countering value system.

There are people out there attempting to change the status quo.

For that I am grateful.

[sten]

stop smoking weed.

legalizing just means they’ll control it more, not less.

hilarious

[nathanbedford]

Clearly we disagree, let's leave it there.

[boxlunch]

1. Pray for revival and reformation, and work toward evangelizing and discipleship. Without an educated Christian worldview and morality, our Republic is impossible. And I agree, we need to take back the pillars of our society. No one person can do everything but if every conservative does our part we can all accomplish something together. I really feel if we do not have a revival and reformation , the cultural and moral descent are unstoppable and the rest doesn’t matter.
2. Wherever it is in your power, educate the youth you come in contact with. Even if only your own kids.
3. Work at what you can at politics at a local level to get Constitutionalists elected
4.Support an Article V convention to propose Amendments that would downsize the Federal beast.

I think these things are required to be done for even a hope of restoring our country. We have no choice. Our alternatives are a total dictatorship or economic collapse and anarchy.

[Jacquerie]

It is time to stop thinking in terms of political parties.

Stop thinking that reform and a return to constitutional republicanism will emerge from the people who profit so very well from the system they hijacked.

The tough road ahead means we have to actually DO SOMETHING other than b!tch and moan at FR and plead like serfs with our rat and rino reps and senators.

The answer per Mark Levin and our Framers is within the gift of Article V. History will not look kindly on a people who gaffed off a peaceful means to reclaim their liberties.

You and I and all of us must lean on our state reps and senators to assert the power the framers gave them, to reassert vertical separation of powers and quite possibly, our very lives.

[Jacquerie]

Lead, follow or get lost.

[truth_seeker]

“Conservatives stink at politics because we stink at culture.”

Conservatives have not focused on growing conservatism.

Instead they have welcomes entertainment, forums, etc. where they talk comfortably among themselves.

[BlueStateRightist]

The culture has turned. I endlessly meet “well-educated”, high income leftist white people who live in lily white neighborhoods and who often shun public schools all while robotically espousing the necessity of “diversity”. One day hopefully we can break the spell cast over these lemmings.