Posted on 08/13/2018 3:54:17 PM PDT by oblomov
The #NeverTrumpumpkins define themselves by their visceral distaste for the president. He offends their fastidious sensibilities, outrages them with his unfiltered Twitter musings, and violates their sense of propriety with his secular hedonism and sheer joy in his own vulgarity. That he’s also delivering the most conservative administration in history is, to them, beside the point—because Trump neither represents nor embodies “movement” conservatism. And therein, for them, lies the problem.
Movements are, almost by definition, attractive to the young and the emotionally immature. Followers love to follow; even more, they love to memorize catechisms and rote talking points, which they parrot on the air and in column inches, as if by simply asserting their “principles” they are proving them as well.
Eventually, though, both content and context are lost and only the talking points remain. The argument from authority becomes as circular and self-referential as any obscure religious contretemps, and of interest only to the anointed. Which is why they fall upon each other with the glee of zealots who have been given orders to purge the heretics by any means necessary.
I have coined a portmanteau term for this state of affairs: “preenciples.” You know what they are: smaller government, less regulation, free trade, federalism, etc. It’s a creed, constantly professed, acolytes of (fill in the blank: Mises, Hayek, Strauss, Buckley) reassuring each other that by consulting the sacred texts they will always have the correct views on the issues, and thus ensure their place among the elect.
(Excerpt) Read more at hotair.com ...
It does seem that Conservatism, Inc. has outlived its usefulness.
Link to JAG article: https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/10/farewell-to-the-conservative-movement/
lol I love it! NeverTrumpkins!
Absolutely brilliant article
The Cheap Labor Express stooges who masqueraded as Bush League Republicans were never conservative.
They did not even want to conserve the nation.
The “conservatives” never conserved one damned thing, not even marriage or bathrooms.
They were bow-tied principled losers, always retreating, nothing but foils for the left.
Its time for the dissident right, as termed by the Zman blog.
lost me when he called me young and emotionally immature. conservatives tend to be older, and think more for themselves. this guy thinks we’re immature children being led around by slogans and talking points.
You just cost me money! LOL! Many thanks.
A lot of #NeverTrump people are socially liberal.
Others I hope will come around.
They need to start helping because if Trump fails we’re all doomed.
Part of me is sorry for the memory of people like William F. Buckley Jr, who kept a vision of America alive in the midst of the perpetually left-moving progressives. But the quote from Dr. Rice about the terrorists, that they were at war with us before we were at war with them, holds true here as well; the left was fighting a war and we were holding a debate. I would prefer the debate, but we don’t get to choose when an enemy decides to prefer our death and we must fight to oppose it.
Thanks!
Somehow I had assumed “David Kahane” might be related to Meir Kahane.
But the NeverTrumpers don't think of themselves as followers. They think of themselves as leaders of the movement.
I think he makes a valid point. There is much dissatisfaction with "the conservative movement" and its "leaders." Conservatism, Inc. is seen as just another self-seeking, self-satisfied elite.
But I don't think Walsh really has much idea of how politics and parties actually work. Apparently he thinks they can be run just on sheer combativeness and animosity -- and that's not the case.
What we now know as “conservatism” was an amalgam of anti-communist groups that gelled to fight the Cold War. After the Cold War, being against Clinton was enough to sort of hold things together, but the rise of Perot showed the cracks in it very early on. Conservatism, Inc. hasn’t conserved anything at all. I await National Review’s “The Conservative Case for NAMBLA” article, which I am sure is soon to come.
Young right wingers HATE conservatives because they feel they cucked out on the most important war of our times because of their “preenciples” (good one).
You are correct.
I think there have always been at least two main factions, the economic conservatives and the social conservatives. Sometimes united in either a person or a policy, but there is a Venn diagram that could be drawn with Evangelicals being one circle and free market and libertarians being another circle or two.
Well, I guess if one were to consider themselves a "movement conservative" the entire article would be an offense to them.
Perot and Buchanan revealed, and Trump finally harnessed, a third circle: a pro-business nationalism that I would characterize as socially traditionalist rather than socially conservative (in the sense of ineffectual movement conservatism). It is populist, which I define as against the rule of the transnational progressive corporatist elite.
Although there are some academic centers for this revised right (e.g. Claremont College), it’s largely em
erged outside of academia and traditional seats of power.
“David Kahane”
Ha. IIRC that’s the name of the screenwriter played by Vincent D’Onofrio in the movie “The Player”.
This is an amusing essay. Gets around to making a point that Russell Kirk used to say: “conservatism is the antithesis of ideology”.
Conservatism is being refined for the better by Trumpsters and will not fit the leftist definitions set by the GOP elites like George Will and his moribund, Minnie Mouse ilk. We’re seeing the birth of a new patriot/conservative movement, and it will drive the Rockefeller/Bush/McCain seditionists out of the party.
I agree.
What’s aborning now is a bare knuckle brand of anti-leftism that isn’t afraid to fight, either physically or metaphoric/rhetorically.
The pearl clutchers, moral handwringers, defeat seekers and appeasniks are recognized as being as much the enemy as those openly seeking to destroy our nation with their leftist totalitarianism.
Trump is blatantly empirical. He’s seeking, by hook or crook, to wrench America back to a stance similar to that in the JFK era except without as much racism. Why? Because America was great. (Remember the Great Society? At least before the idea got swiftly hijacked.)
This isn’t how previous presidential politics has looked at all.
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