Friday, August 07, 2020

Conservatism is dead

A magazine called The American Conservative might be looking for a new name, because it denounces conservatism:
American Conservatism is Fiddling While Rome Burns ... Conservatism is the seven cheers for capitalism and the deafening silence on demographic change, feminism, and corporate malfeasance. It’s the same tired cast of speakers blathering about limited government almost a century after the New Deal. It’s the platitudinous Reagan quotes and the worn-out Buckley anecdotes. It’s the mindless optimism and the childish exhortations—if something can’t go on forever, it won’t! ... But conservatism is also the endless wars, the nation-building, and the outdated alliances. It’s the free trade fetish. It’s the foolish libertarianism that hates the government more than it loves America. It’s the unconscionable refusal to clamp down on immigration. Worst of all, conservatism is the cowardice and accommodation in the face of leftist hegemony. It’s the long list of enemies to the Right. It’s the court eunuchs and other members of the controlled opposition who offer an echo, but never a choice. It’s the faux grandstanding while living in fear of being called a racist. ... Conservatism may indeed be unsalvageable at this point.
Another article argues:
I’m a conservative but at this point who cares?” said Donald Trump in 2016. “We’ve got to straighten out the country.” ... I am not the first person to point out that conservative political coalitions are mostly just collections of losers, but the point nevertheless bears repeating. Today’s conservatism is merely the name used to categorize the rejects of the post–Cold War order:
I am inclined to agree with this. Most conservatives disgust me.

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