Posted on 01/22/2020 11:45:57 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Christopher Caldwell is not a household name. But for the relatively small set of people who care deeply about political writing, he is a towering figure. His prose — full of wit and irony, enlivened by an eye for paradox and the telling detail, informed by a polyglot and polymathic erudition — is second to none in the world of conservative journalism and exceeds nine-tenths of what is published in the press at large. In a review of Caldwell’s previous book, 2008’s immigration-skeptic Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, the Marxist historian Perry Anderson, himself one of the most learned individuals on the planet, praised Caldwell’s “cultural range” as “perhaps without equal” among American journalists and noted, respectfully, that his “columns in the Financial Times make much liberal opinion look the dreary mainstream pabulum it too often is.”
Although long affiliated with the neoconservative Weekly Standard, Caldwell has always been more of an old-school, even Old World type of conservative. The cast of his mind is literary and historical, not ideological, and his principal concern is with cultural preservation and continuity. Perhaps for this reason, Caldwell has, over the past several years, emerged as America’s premier highbrow defender of transatlantic populism. In his recent essays for the Claremont Review of Books, City Journal, and even the New Republic, he has relentlessly attacked the “globalist” consensus around free trade and immigration while writing sympathetically — some would say too sympathetically — about some of globalism’s most disreputable opponents: Viktor Orbán, Eric Zemmour, Rodrigo Duterte, et al. In Caldwell’s writing, the conflict between globalism and populism is staged as a clash of civilizations: on one side is a high-handed elite, set on transforming the West into a sort of multicultural shopping mall . . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nymag.com ...
Er, no.
First, Mike Allen and I coined the title “Age of Entitlement” in our 2014 updated edition of “A Patriot’s History of the United States: From Columbus’s Great Adventure to the Age of Entitlement.”
Second, no, the rift didn’t start in the 60s. It really started with the New Deal and it wasn’t racial, it was more “class” (I abhor that term) oriented with the notion that “gubment” could fix all our problems.
Third, it has been less about courts (note that even while upholding Obamacare, homosexual marriage, the USSC also was strengthening gun rights, reining in the commerce clause, and taking other “conservative” positions).
I think our explanation in PHUSA about what happened covers everything nicely.
America is polarized because there is a huge spiritual chasm. About 1/2 of America is Godless, and the direction they want to take this country will never gel with the other half.
And the other half worships the God of Big Government and Global Climate Change.
I should say and And THAT half worships the God of Big Government and Global Climate Change.
Which is why I discriminate when I choose doctors...I prefer white males because I know they are probably the best qualified.
Driving through Texas is just about impossible for me. Puts me right to sleep.
I did part of my master’s thesis on this phenomenon 25 years ago. It’s way past time for conservatives to recognize it.
Obviously you have not read the book, nor even understood this excerpt.
I am old enough to remember White and Colored water fountains as a boy, the passage of the ‘64 Civil Rights Act, the Black Panthers, and race riots every summer. For me, progress on race is incontestable. Perfect we are not, but Americans have a way of resolving even the most intractable issues and moving on toward better days.
Theory? Who needs a theory?
Half of “America” is trying to burn the country down. Your choice is be “polarized” against the arsonists or to lay back and watch everyone you love burn to death.
There is a third way. Secession.
If everything is to be done at a national level, if the states are to be little more than administrative conveniences to the all powerful central government, then there is no room for compromise. Alabama is not free to be Alabama and Vermont is not free to be Vermont. Everything becomes a vicious all out war to see who gets control over the central government and thus who gets to impose his community values on the rest.
This was all set in train by Lincoln and the Radical Republicans in the mid 19th century. We’ve almost reached the end. We have very different communities in this country with entirely different histories and cultural values. If power is not decentralized, conflict - or separation - is inevitable.
Our friend Lurker’s tagline is the answer to the “theory”:
“Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is.”
It’s perfect, it’s spot-on, and there is ZERO delusion in it.
One cannot live side-by-side with psychopaths who want you erased.
The 8 years of the Community Organizer succeeded in successfully dividing Americans over racial issues.
If not for Obama a leader like Trump would never have been possible.
This is the best thing I can say about that traitor.
I think a large part of it is the advent of social media and the 24 hour news cycle. I think it tends to condition people that care about politics and culture vastly overestimate the number of people that care as much as they do about it. And it tends to promote and reward the loudest and shrillest voices. Anyone can look at the eligible voter turnout for the last 100+ years and realize there is a huge swath of Americans that don’t care, at least enough to deign to vote about it either way.
Freegards
They are “Year 0”/Khmer Rouge/“true believers”. They would have no problem killing anyone that doesn’t agree with them 1,000,000,000%.
They are dangerous, and need to be dealt with accordingly.
Sterilization is necessary!
He is right!
“...They are dangerous, and need to be dealt with accordingly....”
No argument here, brother. Eye for an eye, as far as I’m concerned.
Indeed, brother. Indeed.
Very necessary!
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