The so-called \u201cconservative movement\u201d is all but doomed.<\/p>\n
For my gloomy prognostication I offer two sufficiently simple reasons.<\/p>\n
First, the movement is dominated by self-serving publicity pimps and their whores who neither know nor care to know a damn thing about genuine conservatism.<\/p>\n
Second, the grass roots of the movement, though free of their leaders\u2019 character flaws, are no different than the latter as far as their ignorance of and indifference to the conservative tradition is concerned.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mainstream right in this country has been consistently tacking to the left from at least the time of the \u201cReagan revolution.\u201d\u00a0 The conservative movement, thus, is but a lighter version of leftism, a slightly less progressive form of progressivism.<\/p>\n
Even during Ronald Reagan\u2019s two terms, a time when conservatism was supposed to have been making this explosive comeback, it was the federal government that was exploding.\u00a0 We hear much from the mainstream right about Reagan\u2019s tax cuts. We hear not a peep about his multiple tax hikes. <\/em>Reagan eliminated not a single government agency or department, and he granted amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants.<\/p>\n How, I would like to know, did Reagan advance the conservative cause vis-\u00e0-vis \u201cthe social issues\u201d\u2014abortion, \u201cgay rights,\u201d abortion, affirmative action, and illegal immigration?\u00a0<\/p>\n Besides, even if Reagan was the great conservative giant that the mainstream right makes him out to be, he was in the last resort but a politician, <\/em>and a politician in the federal government <\/em>at that.\u00a0<\/p>\n A true conservative knows better than to endorse messianic politics.\u00a0 But this is exactly what movement conservatives do when they worship Reagan\u2014or when they revere any politicians as great leaders. <\/em><\/p>\n The left sets the terms of the debate and the mainstream right subscribes to them lock, stock, and barrel.\u00a0 In doing so, the left allows those on the right who are willing to toe its line to be heard. This explains why mainstream rightists employ much of the same lingo as leftists.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, to justify George W. Bush\u2019s \u201cFreedom Agenda\u201d\u2014his neo-imperial crusades in theMiddle East\u2014Fox News personalities and \u201cconservative\u201d talk radio hosts sound no different than their leftist counterparts sound in arguing for various domestic entitlements.\u00a0 The language of \u201chuman rights,\u201d \u201cwomen rights,\u201d \u201ctolerance,\u201d and \u201cequality\u201d abounds.<\/p>\n With few exceptions\u2014the Pauls, father and son, say, and maybe some others\u2014the vast majority of mainstream conservative politicians in Washington D.C. are no more interested in repealing Gargantuan Government than are their Democratic rivals.\u00a0 Rather, what they are interested in is taking control of this government to use for their own purposes.<\/p>\n In other words, they are interested in power. <\/em><\/p>\n But it isn\u2019t just mainstream conservative politicians who are intent upon seeing to it that the show continues on.\u00a0 Mainstream conservative journalists and pundits are equally invested in fooling the rank and file of the movement into believing that they are really interested in advancing truth and liberty.<\/p>\n The movement has no hope because while it claims to oppose the left, it relies upon the same universe of lies upon which the latter is built.<\/p>\n For example, there is an underlying racial dimension to virtually every issue that we face\u2014how could things be otherwise when both mainstream conservatives and leftists continually tell us that slavery is America\u2019s \u201coriginal sin?\u201d\u00a0 Yet no mainstream conservative publication will dare publish a piece that aspires to address racial issues frankly.\u00a0<\/p>\n The problem is even worse than this, unfortunately.\u00a0 The editors of these publications are obsessed with gaining recognition for themselves.\u00a0 So, they publish writers depending on whether they meet a few criteria.\u00a0<\/p>\n First, writers should have some name recognition themselves.\u00a0 If your name is Buchanan or Coulter or Limbaugh, you\u2019re in.<\/p>\n Second, like moths, they must be ever on the move, addressing only those topics that engage readers\u2019 interest at the moment.\u00a0 The timeless, or even attempts to tie the timeless in with the topical, are discouraged. In other words, events, and maybe people, are paramount.\u00a0 Ideas, though, are generally not welcome. \u00a0<\/p>\n Third, whatever writers say about current events, they must make sure that they remain within the bounds of acceptable\u2014i.e. Politically Correct\u2014discourse: the more conventional and, hence, humdrum, the better, and the safer, both editor and writer will be.<\/p>\n Last but certainly not least: writers must write as if they are addressing eight graders.<\/p>\n Anyone who doubts me on this need only look at any number of mainstream publications\u2014from World Net Daily to American Thinker, from Townhall to National Review\u2014to see that, with some notable exceptions, their commentators suffer from a conspicuous lack of daring and imagination.<\/p>\n The mainstream conservative movement, as I say, is doomed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The so-called \u201cconservative movement\u201d is all but doomed. For my gloomy prognostication I offer two sufficiently simple reasons. First, the movement is dominated by self-serving publicity pimps and their whores who neither know nor care to know a damn thing about genuine conservatism. Second, the grass roots of the movement, though free of their leaders\u2019…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n