Posted on 06/11/2014 6:23:54 AM PDT by Kaslin
You do realize that Chambers was CONDEMNING Ayn Rand's beliefs, don't you?
Frank Meyer, the man who Ronald Reagan credited with creating what we call conservatism. He gave it a shape, Bill Buckley took it into the arena, Barry Goldwater launched it as a political force, and Ronald Reagan rode it to victory.
Conservatism has a history. It’s worth reading. Meyer also predicted what would happen if the Right simply became about winning, and not ideas. If only he had actually used the term RINO.
I don’t know Chambers. Who was he?
I probably should have phrased that “why, in this discussion of libertarians and Rand, should I care who Chambers is?”
He eventually became disenchanted with communism and had a profound conversion to Christianity and became a conservative. He was the person disclosed that Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy.
His autobiography (and also an expose of the evils of communism/socialism) is named "Witness" and it is an amazing book (Ronald Reagan said that it was one of the reasons he became a conservative).
What is his connection to libertarianism and this discussion?
Conservatism vs. Libertarianism?
Maybe we could change the argument to:
Liberalism vs. Constitutionalism
-I’m on the side of the Constitution.
And limited government, and a restoration of Federalism.
-— Are you an official OG, STAquinas? :>) -—
That’s what my kids tell me 8-)
Too bad the war is libertarians trying to destroy conservatism.
But I am familiar with the technique you libbers use, it was cute.
I would like to hear what Rand Paul has to say about the prisoner swap, Benghazi, and the warehoused immigrant children.
All the Libertarians and Rand Paul want to talk about is Hillary.
Sometimes. In Germany, Japan, and post-Cold War eastern Europe, they made us allies and friends.
Yup. Mixed bag.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and that includes political power vacuums. If we don't make a serious footprint, someone else will, and most likely not by a friendly nation.
Military power is necessary to achieve this aim, for without it all the "diplomacy" in the world is just talk. But lacking the political will to project power, all the military power in the world means nothing. It takes both, because if, as Clausewitz observed, "war is the continuation of politics by other means," then the power to potentially wage war is necessary to achieving political goals without actually having to do it.
This is a depressing thread. How can there be conservatives who don’t know who Whittaker Chambers was? Whose first reaction to Frank Meyer is to dismiss him as a Communist? 70-80 years ago, there wasn’t “conservatism” as we know it today. There were various forms of traditionalists and libertarians who were opposed to the progressive, liberal direction of things, but there wasn’t an intellectual or political movement to rally around.
Several important thinkers and writers contributed to the movement that saw its apex in the election Ronald Reagan. You can be against gay marriage and abortion all you want, and that’s fine and I hope you vote, but if you don’t know why and how conservatism is what it is, you will all too easily wind up lost in the Bushes. You will not be ready to advance the cause without knowing why conservatives believe what they believe. It’s not a grab bag of positions on issues, nor is it simply a political confederacy for winning elections.
I cannot recommend strongly enough American Conservative Thought in the Twentieth Century (a/k/a Did You Ever See a Dream Walking).
http://www.amazon.com/Walking-American-Conservative-Thought-Twentieth/dp/0672512408
With good reason.
Libertarians ever go so "by the book," that they are forever stuck working at one remove from actual reality....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.