Cowlesy
10-17-2010, 03:59 PM
http://www.thedailybell.com/1453/Daniel-McCarthy-on-the-Future-of-the-American-Conservative-Magazine-and-Taking-Back-the-Right.html
Here are a few excerpts. It is a wide-ranging interview and well worth reading in entirety at The Daily Bell.
Daily Bell: What is happening within the conservative movement? Is it growing stronger?
Daniel McCarthy: The conservative movement in America isn't conservative and isn't a movement. It's a jobs program for Republican apparatchiks between Republican administrations. It survives by bilking old people out of their savings by telling them that the Cold War or the sexual revolution is still at fever pitch. There is however a grassroots Right of sorts, and it's re-energized by not having to carry the dead weight of the Bush administration and by having a weak liberal like Obama to use as a scratching post.
Unfortunately, in politics, policy trumps elections. And policy is made by a special class of people. The grassroots can elect whomever they like – even Sharron Angle or Christine O'Donnell – but insiders like David Frum will always be the ones who wield policy-making power. An effective libertarian or authentically conservative movement will need to have a policy elite of its own. Too many Americans actually believe that democracy works the way they're told it does – that elections are the be-all and end-all of politics. Elections aren't even half of it.
Daily Bell: How does American Conservative fit into the larger movement?
Daniel McCarthy: We try to remind anyone with a conscience that conservatism, and even the conservative movement, used to be better than this. It used to be smart and at least semi-principled.
This reclaiming of the name "conservative" and of the Right's history helps, I think, to inspire young people, as well as the not-so-young, to cleanse the conservative movement or build a new and better one. America is in some senses a very right-wing country, in that it doesn't like overt socialism, and so it will almost always have a strong right wing. The question is, what kind of right-wing? A nationalistic, militaristic, corrupt right wing like the neocons, or an intelligent and humane right wing like The American Conservative?
McCarthy on Ron Paul:
Daily Bell: What do you think of Ron Paul?
Daniel McCarthy: He's the real thing. He's not just a classical liberal but a classical American, in the mold of some of the Founding Fathers and of such great men of the Old Right as Sen. James A. Reed and Rep. Howard Buffett. Too many people think that Paul is alone and without precedent, a beautiful freak. But he's the product of real traditions – Austrian economics, American constitutionalism – and those traditions, if strengthened, can create a generation of Ron Pauls.
and on the Federal Reserve:
Daily Bell: What do you think of the Federal Reserve?
Daniel McCarthy: It's exactly as dangerous as its critics in the Austrian school of economics say it is, though it must be remembered that the banking system as a whole is behind the Federal Reserve, not the other way around. The new movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is pretty good on that point.
Hannity and Limbaugh:
Daily Bell: What do you think of the Hannity/Limbaugh wing of the conservative movement.
Daniel McCarthy: They create a sophisticated virtual reality driven by emotions rather than intellect. They uphold the myth of an all-pervasive, all-powerful American Left, when in fact real power in this country has been held by a statist and financially monopolist Right for at least 30 years. Even the culture is defined more by this corrupt Right than by actual radicals, which is why our culture is mediocre and offensive only in the most banal ways. We have lowest-common-denominator depravity, designed – or as good as designed – to distract everyone from what power in Washington and Wall Street is doing. Hannity and Limbaugh are pied pipers.
You can read the entire interview, and The Daily Bell's thoughts on the interview at the link here... (http://www.thedailybell.com/1453/Daniel-McCarthy-on-the-Future-of-the-American-Conservative-Magazine-and-Taking-Back-the-Right.html)
If you enjoyed what you read and wish to read a magazine, you can check out The American Conservative (http://www.amconmag.com) at www.amconmag.com
Let me know what you think!
Here are a few excerpts. It is a wide-ranging interview and well worth reading in entirety at The Daily Bell.
Daily Bell: What is happening within the conservative movement? Is it growing stronger?
Daniel McCarthy: The conservative movement in America isn't conservative and isn't a movement. It's a jobs program for Republican apparatchiks between Republican administrations. It survives by bilking old people out of their savings by telling them that the Cold War or the sexual revolution is still at fever pitch. There is however a grassroots Right of sorts, and it's re-energized by not having to carry the dead weight of the Bush administration and by having a weak liberal like Obama to use as a scratching post.
Unfortunately, in politics, policy trumps elections. And policy is made by a special class of people. The grassroots can elect whomever they like – even Sharron Angle or Christine O'Donnell – but insiders like David Frum will always be the ones who wield policy-making power. An effective libertarian or authentically conservative movement will need to have a policy elite of its own. Too many Americans actually believe that democracy works the way they're told it does – that elections are the be-all and end-all of politics. Elections aren't even half of it.
Daily Bell: How does American Conservative fit into the larger movement?
Daniel McCarthy: We try to remind anyone with a conscience that conservatism, and even the conservative movement, used to be better than this. It used to be smart and at least semi-principled.
This reclaiming of the name "conservative" and of the Right's history helps, I think, to inspire young people, as well as the not-so-young, to cleanse the conservative movement or build a new and better one. America is in some senses a very right-wing country, in that it doesn't like overt socialism, and so it will almost always have a strong right wing. The question is, what kind of right-wing? A nationalistic, militaristic, corrupt right wing like the neocons, or an intelligent and humane right wing like The American Conservative?
McCarthy on Ron Paul:
Daily Bell: What do you think of Ron Paul?
Daniel McCarthy: He's the real thing. He's not just a classical liberal but a classical American, in the mold of some of the Founding Fathers and of such great men of the Old Right as Sen. James A. Reed and Rep. Howard Buffett. Too many people think that Paul is alone and without precedent, a beautiful freak. But he's the product of real traditions – Austrian economics, American constitutionalism – and those traditions, if strengthened, can create a generation of Ron Pauls.
and on the Federal Reserve:
Daily Bell: What do you think of the Federal Reserve?
Daniel McCarthy: It's exactly as dangerous as its critics in the Austrian school of economics say it is, though it must be remembered that the banking system as a whole is behind the Federal Reserve, not the other way around. The new movie "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps" is pretty good on that point.
Hannity and Limbaugh:
Daily Bell: What do you think of the Hannity/Limbaugh wing of the conservative movement.
Daniel McCarthy: They create a sophisticated virtual reality driven by emotions rather than intellect. They uphold the myth of an all-pervasive, all-powerful American Left, when in fact real power in this country has been held by a statist and financially monopolist Right for at least 30 years. Even the culture is defined more by this corrupt Right than by actual radicals, which is why our culture is mediocre and offensive only in the most banal ways. We have lowest-common-denominator depravity, designed – or as good as designed – to distract everyone from what power in Washington and Wall Street is doing. Hannity and Limbaugh are pied pipers.
You can read the entire interview, and The Daily Bell's thoughts on the interview at the link here... (http://www.thedailybell.com/1453/Daniel-McCarthy-on-the-Future-of-the-American-Conservative-Magazine-and-Taking-Back-the-Right.html)
If you enjoyed what you read and wish to read a magazine, you can check out The American Conservative (http://www.amconmag.com) at www.amconmag.com
Let me know what you think!