Conservatism's Death Throes? (Joseph Farah On Why Conservatism Will Never Stop The Left Alert)

Worldnetdaily,com ^ | 11/13/2006 | Joseph Farah

[.30Carbine]

I'm glad he wrote this and I read it with great interest. Thank you for posting it here. I would like very much to be given a heads up if you post the article that follows - both it and the posts in response to it are of interest to me, as both were here.

[ThePythonicCow]

He offfers zero ideas on how to change this ?

Stay tuned - he concludes this installment with a teaser for the second installment:

TOMORROW: A glimpse of a radical new agenda for the future.

[goldstategop]

Our problem is CULTURAL - not political. That's what we need to address. It doesn't matter whether or not the Left holds formal power for it can and does set the direction of society through a wide variety of fronts. No question about it, if we think only in terms of winning elections, we're doomed to lose. The Republican Party can't save us. But we can save ourselves.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[ThePythonicCow]

I quite agree that our problem is more than just political.

[GiovannaNicoletta]

Well, we have always been told that America was just an experiment...

[lentulusgracchus]

The RR is a relatively new part of Conservatism as a whole, and while the RR helped Reagan gain power, it shouldn't be a "Our way or the highway" all-or-nothing element of a larger Conservative movement that is strongly against, for example, gun rights, state control over private property, free speech, low taxes, etc.

The GOP is against gun rights? I know businessmen don't support them (they assume that employees/customers with a justifiable beef about some sharp business/compensation policy are going to shoot them), or at least the Pew sociology surveys say they don't, but I wasn't aware that the GOP overall had taken a position in favor of gun control and against 2A rights.

The equity issue about the "conservatives" being late to the party isn't quite right, either. Midwestern "Taft" conservatives used to be the core of the GOP, until Old Money got the hang of swinging things with a phone call to its lawyers. See Theodore White's various dissections of the GOP in any of his Making of the President series from the 60's. That will give you a picture of the GOP in the 30's to the 60's.

[Darkwolf377]

The GOP is against gun rights?

Obviously that was a typo--if you read it in context you could see that.

[Darkwolf377]

I'm not talking about purging. I'm talking about those who belong to one ideology need to maintain their integrity so they can remain pure instead of being dragged down with a party that's become corrupt AND identified with that ideology, whether or not it's a legitimate association. I don't know too many Christian COnservatives who would back Foley, yet they're supporting a party which, under Hastert, doesn't seem to mind much about corruption by Republicans OR Democrats.

[Darkwolf377]

No - I don't think you can separate Conservatism from the Religious Right. And I say that as a god-damned atheist. There will never be more than a few oddballs such as myself who find divine guidance and higher moral authority in the vacuum of physics and mathematics. Classic Christianity and closely related religions are the only way we know to instill in the people the public morality needed as the foundation of a free society.

That's your perception and you're welcome to it. But as a god-damned atheist myself, I don't agree. I don't find divine guidance in mathematics but in what I pick and choose from the philosophies of Judeo-Christian thinkers without buying into the religions themselves. My personal ethical framework wouldn't suit many FReepers, for example, but that doesn't make me one with the liberal secularists.

[ThePythonicCow]

Whatever - we're both oddballs, the way I figure.

Perhaps you ball is hexagonal and mine a pentagon, but neither one us of looks likely to be leading any religious or philosophical movements, at least not here tonight.

As our Founding Fathers knew well, traditional religion is the bedrock of a free society.

In this world war between the Atheism, Islam and Christianity, I cast my lot with the Christians. I am grateful that they accept me, despite my theological deformities.

[GoLightly]

under Hastert, doesn't seem to mind much about corruption by Republicans OR Democrats.

You & I are of the same mind. Leadership didn't police it's own & that was one of the costliest mistakes, IMO. It tarnished the whole party. Now, how to we send the message up the line to the powers that be? :o)

[Pajamajan]

"One side in the battle is actually playing to win- to pull its opponents into the moat. The other side though, is simply trying not to get pulled into the moat.

"the other side doesn't worry too much about those votes. Instead they are fighting in a whole different arena-the hearts and minds of the American people using the institutions of the press, the entertainment industry, the foundations, the corporations even the churches. Their goal is the destruction of the very building block of Western civilization- the traditional family" "

BINGO!

The terrifying side note to this article is that the Islamofacists are also playing to win. Their goal is the destruction of Western Civilization.

Neither the "Stay-Home protest" voters nor the "Threat?-What-Threat?" voters get it .

[HisKingdomWillAbolishSinDeath]

In the natural, its like David versus Goalith. But Joe is not factoring in the supernatural power of God. Like the smooth stone the child David used, and supernatural strength and ability to hit the giant in just the right spot to kill him, God has another annointed manchild, who will appear at just the right moment. The real giant today is Satan and his demonic forces, both influencing and possessing the hearts and minds of man. Its all spelled out in Daniel 2:

28 But there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar what shall be in the latter days. (the days we are living in) Thy dream, and the visions of thy head upon thy bed, are these;
29 As for thee, O king, thy thoughts came into thy mind upon thy bed, what should come to pass hereafter: and he that revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass.
30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than any living, but for their sakes that shall make known the interpretation to the king, and that thou mightest know the thoughts of thy heart.
31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.
32 This image's head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,
33 His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. (global government, but the iron and clay won't mix, industrial nations and third-world nations, as seen in the middle east, etc.)
34 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands,(supernatural spiritual Davids) which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces. (bye bye fallen world of man)
35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth. (hello Kingdom of God on Earth)

And now you know the rest of the story.

[kuma]

Homeschooling, something my family does, is a conservative movement that is also revolutionary in the impact that it could have on our culture over a lifetime.

There have been quite a few films that have done really well that aren't the usual Hollyweird trash.

Not just political but patriotic books top the bestseller's list on a regular basis.

Don't forget Country Music though I know some of it has become quite debauch. Suppose it depends on which artists you listen to.

We need a larger cultural effort but we aren't out of the mainstream.

[C210N]

This topic deserves a high mention of Robert Bork.

His book, published a bunch of years ago no less, was a comprehensive catalog of how the left is doing it (to America). Probably the two largest fronts consist of the courts and the educational system, and yes, it is not just Political, it is Cultural.

A great read: "Slouching Towards Gomorrah", although the 'slouching' part is becoming an understatement in my opinion.

[caver]

I first started reading Joseph Farah and World Nut Daily about the beginning of Clinton's terms and thought he was a voice in the wilderness. But as I read more and more of his ramblings, especially when Bush came into office, he is a Republican and Conservative hater. He tries every day to bash anything good, usually picking out the most insignificant detail to maker an issue.

To Farah, if he can't have everything the way he wants it, then it's no good. He bashes all of these cultural issues because of some small detail. He is like the kid that takes his ball and goes home if all the others don't play the way he wants.

I've never seen the guy offer any suggestions for improvement. His MO is to bash, bash, bash. I guess that what he thinks sells his newsletter and web site. I for one have tired of his negativity. I don't need to read it every day. I also predict that he will have no solutions in his second installment.

[capitalist229]

There will never be more than a few oddballs such as myself who find divine guidance and higher moral authority in the vacuum of physics and mathematics.

I watched Richard Dawkins on C-Span yesterday. He certainly has the university crowd following him off a cliff. Those young minds equate science with agnostic freedom in what appears to be a growing cancer of material affluence.

BUMP

[gotribe]

Interesting post. Conservatism has to be about more than cultural issues, and within politics those cultural issues should be very, very narrowly defined. This is in keeping with conservatism as a process, as a framework for governance: smallest government possible, least intrusive government possible, least expensive government possible. If we conservatives don't own "best is least," we have nothing. But the libs have moved us off center. They've done that by battling us on cultural issues which we improperly defined as part of government. Time to move back to government as the issue. A lot of solutions open up when we do that - and that's not going backwards.

[LowCountryJoe]

The so-called answer is to point out that today's modern day Liberal Progressive is neither liberal or progressive and then sell that idea; sell it in such a way where, if you really feel up to it, you go so far as to say that modern conservatism is really yesterday's liberalism and that the ideology is, in fact, progressive. Of course doing this will lead to confusion and even realignments within the political tents but seriously, isn't a major shake-up in this tug-o-war long overdue?

[jmaroneps37]

Conservatism in America is far from dead. There is a reason this guy writes for the equivalent of a super market tabloid. The very nature the evil of liberalism as it is practiced in its modern form, means that there is another side to politics. That other side is conservatism.

Question: What will Joe write when the Democrats, having revealed themselves as they are busy doing, are thrown out in two years?