{"id":459,"date":"2009-08-30T06:03:26","date_gmt":"2009-08-30T06:03:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html"},"modified":"2009-08-30T06:03:26","modified_gmt":"2009-08-30T06:03:26","slug":"modern-conservatism-is-like-is","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html","title":{"rendered":"modern conservatism is like Islam&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;in that it is being hijacked by extremists who are not representative of the mainstream, but who inexplicably seem to be in control of the PR department.<\/p>\n<p>For better or worse &#8211; this is what the face of conservatism today looks like:<\/p>\n<p><object xmlns=\"\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/L0OUXkZO8vE&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1\"\/><param name=\"wmode\"\/><embed xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/1999\/xhtml\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/L0OUXkZO8vE&amp;color1=0xb1b1b1&amp;color2=0xcfcfcf&amp;hl=en&amp;feature=player_embedded&amp;fs=1\" width=\"425\" height=\"344\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\"\/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>The evident self-refuting nature of this does conservatism a grave injustice. I will not accept it, but the majority of Americans who see this certainly will. Without both conservatism and liberalism, as healthy and honest political ideologies in balance and opposition, this nation is doomed. As Bill Clinton once <a href=\"http:\/\/dean2004.blogspot.com\/\">said<\/a>,<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;America has two great dominant strands of political thought &#8211; conservatism, which, at its very best, draws lines that should not be crossed; and progressivism, which, at its very best, breaks down barriers that should never have been erected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>I&#8217;m a liberal but i grieve for what is happening to conservatism in the Obama era &#8211; an entirely self-inflicted wound.<\/p>\n<p>(<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/crunchycon\/2009\/08\/glenn-beck-right-wing-nut.html\">via Rod,<\/a> who has been chronicling <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/crunchycon\/conservatism\/\">the decline of Conservatism<\/a> for some time now)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8230;in that it is being hijacked by extremists who are not representative of the mainstream, but who inexplicably seem to be in control of the PR department. For better or worse &#8211; this is what the face of conservatism today looks like: The evident self-refuting nature of this does conservatism a grave injustice. I will&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[107,474,25,26],"class_list":["post-459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-republican-fitna","tag-conservatism","tag-media","tag-news","tag-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>modern conservatism is like Islam... - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"modern conservatism is like Islam... - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8230;in that it is being hijacked by extremists who are not representative of the mainstream, but who inexplicably seem to be in control of the PR department. For better or worse &#8211; this is what the face of conservatism today looks like: The evident self-refuting nature of this does conservatism a grave injustice. I will&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-30T06:03:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Aziz Poonawalla\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"modern conservatism is like Islam... - City of Brass","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"modern conservatism is like Islam... - City of Brass","og_description":"&#8230;in that it is being hijacked by extremists who are not representative of the mainstream, but who inexplicably seem to be in control of the PR department. For better or worse &#8211; this is what the face of conservatism today looks like: The evident self-refuting nature of this does conservatism a grave injustice. I will&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html","og_site_name":"City of Brass","article_published_time":"2009-08-30T06:03:26+00:00","author":"Aziz Poonawalla","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html","name":"modern conservatism is like Islam... - City of Brass","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-30T06:03:26+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-30T06:03:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/08\/modern-conservatism-is-like-is.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"modern conservatism is like Islam&#8230;"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/","name":"City of Brass","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Aziz Poonawalla","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/87dfd5533a0222456bb5ad6eaf152fbb","name":"Aziz Poonawalla","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a95\/a95f814e7f2984c887f3b03aed357433x96.jpg","caption":"Aziz Poonawalla"},"description":"Aziz Poonawalla is a member of the Dawoodi Bohra Muslim community, and currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children. City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}