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Jewish World Review Jan. 16, 2013/ 5 Shevat, 5773 Time to grow up, GOP By Jonah Goldberg
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It's hard for a lot of people, particularly on the right, to recognize that the conservative movement's problems are mostly problems of success. American conservatism began as a kind of intellectual hobbyist's group with little hope of changing the broader society. Buckley, who rightly admired Nock for many things, rightly disagreed on this point. Buckley trusted the people more than the intellectuals. Moreover, as Buckley's friend It took time. In an age when conservative books make millions, it's hard to imagine how difficult it once was get a right-of-center book published. That's hardly the case anymore. While there's a higher bar for conservative authors at mainstream publishers (which remain overwhelmingly liberal), profit tends to trump ideology. And publishing is a lagging indicator. In cable news, think tanks, talk radio and, of course, the Internet, conservatives have at least rough parity with, and often superiority to, liberals. It's only in the legacy institutions -- newspapers, the broadcast networks and most especially academia and The good is obvious. The ill is less understood. For starters, the movement has an unhealthy share of hucksters eager to make money from stirring rage, paranoia and an ill-defined sense of betrayal with little concern for the real political success that can only come with persuading the unconverted. A conservative journalist or activist can now make a decent living while never once bothering to persuade a liberal. Telling people only what they want to hear has become a vocation. Worse, it's possible to be a rank-and-file conservative without once being exposed to a good liberal argument. Many liberals lived in such an ideological cocoon for decades, which is one reason conservatives won so many arguments early on. Having the right emulate that echo chamber helps no one. Ironically, the institution in which conservatives had their greatest success is the one most besieged by conservatives today: the This is not only not true, it's a destructive myth. The Rockefeller Republicans were purged from the It's still good advice. It's not that the But politics is about persuasion, and a party consumed by the need to prove its purity to its base is going to have a very hard time proving anything else to the rest of the country.
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Arnold Ahlert | |||||||||||||
