Posted on 12/12/2021 5:07:31 AM PST by billorites
There was a time—roughly from the mid-1960s to the rise of Donald Trump in 2015—when the American right was more or less definable. No more. Major political parties are always riven by internal disputes, but even during George W. Bush’s second term, at the nadir of the Iraq war, the Republican coalition seemed to hang together better than it has these past six years. Mr. Trump’s candidacy was a sign of that fracturing rather than its cause, but his presidency wasn’t marked by unity in the GOP.
Quite the opposite. A significant faction of the party now advocates aggressive industrial policy as a means of alleviating social ills wrought by “unregulated” capitalism. Another demeans the party’s traditional predilection for hawkish foreign policy as an obsession with “forever wars.” The right’s leading media personalities, meanwhile, would rather talk about the latest cultural outrage—an androgynous Mr. Potato Head!—than explain the perils of turning social welfare into a middle-class entitlement.
Are the challenges facing conservatives really so different from what they were 50, 60 or 70 years ago? Most of the architects of postwar conservatism aren’t around to ask anymore, but Norman Podhoretz—editor of the Jewish intellectual magazine Commentary from 1960 to 1995 and one of the founders of neoconservatism—is 91 and as talkative as ever. I visited his book-laden Upper East Side apartment last month with the vague premonition that he might have something to say about the fractured state of American conservatism.
My timing was good. The day before, voters had elected a Republican governor in a state most observers considered blue, and indisputably blue New Jersey had come within a few percentage points of doing the same. “I wasn’t sure they were still out there,” Mr. Podhoretz says. Who?
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Good stuff!
Norman Podhoretz is my favorite intellectual of the right.
Just about everything he said is wrong.
What Swaim writes at the beginning of this piece is not what Norm says.
Norman Podhoretz discussing the fractured state of conservative philosophy? It’s his disgusting brand of neoconservativism that helped to fracture the movement.
I’m not familiar enough with Podhoretz’ recent thinking to know whether he’s being sincere or whether he’s trying to co-opt the very potent political force Trump’s base has become.
The Iraq invasion was an avoidable disaster in every way. That should be clear to everyone by now.
He is right. I am not a neocon. I don’t believe we should be the world’s policeman.
But we can and should be the shining city on the hill which judiciously uses its power and influence to slam the heads of viper thugs like Putin, Xi, Maduro, Castro, the ayatollahs, etc, whenever and wherever we can and support forces of democracy and freedom everywhere.
And we should start by crushing thugs in power here in America.
I knew he was anti-trump early on. nice to know he is at least semi pro trump now.
“He is right. I am not a neocon. I don’t believe we should be the world’s policeman.
But we can and should be the shining city on the hill which judiciously uses its power and influence to slam the heads of viper thugs”
The “shining city on the hill” is for others to see and emulate, not for us to force on them. Lead by example.
So “slam the heads of viper thugs” ain’t NeoCon? Who decides who is a Thug? You? One’s Freedom Fighter is another’s Terrorist. Read John Hasnas on “The Myth of the Rule of Law”.
Methinks you need another cup of coffee.
It’s MAGA now. Get on board or get run over.
We are NOT going back into the bushes.
.
“It’s MAGA now. Get on board or get run over.
We are NOT going back into the bushes.”
Yes, indeed.
Very confusing article. The reporter tries to put words into Podhoretz’s mouth. Then when he lets him speak he confuses what he says.
Yeah. I’ll need to pay closer attention to Podhoretz, though. I married into a stereotypical family of NY snobs. He’s right on the money about their mindset.
I am all for Trump.
If you need a score card to identify the viper thugs that threaten us, I don’t have the problem.
Trump was a careful guy. He struck the right balance.
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