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Thread: The Strange Death of Conservatism

  1. #1

    The Strange Death of Conservatism

    The Strange Death of Conservatism
    written by daniel mcadams - monday july 22, 2019

    You can tell that the establishment is getting nervous when in just the last month we see a grand effort to "re-invent" conservatism launched by the same kinds of ideologues who destroyed conservatism, and we see a new venture promising to promote a new foreign policy that turns away from "endless war and toward vigorous diplomacy in the pursuit of international peace" that just happens to be co-funded by an individual among those most responsible for pushing endless war and color revolutions overseas.

    First, the much ballyhooed conference on "National Conservatism" this week brings to mind Pat Buchanan's seminal 1992 Republican convention speech when he spoke of radical Democrats pretending to be centrists as one of the greatest examples of cross-dressing in history. In this case, we have many of the old re-treads from the failed Republican administrations of the past (especially Dub-yuh's) telling us in ideological drag that they have an amazing new product to sell us called "we must fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here" and "what would we do without our greatest Middle East allies Saudi Arabia, Israel, and Turkey?"

    Gosh, we haven't heard that before! Where's my checkbook?

    Of course actual national conservative Pat Buchanan would have been given a police escort out of the building had he dared show his face at this conference on "national conservatism." No, the event was put on by the hilariously mis-named "Edmund Burke Foundation" led by ex-executive director of Christians United for Israel, David Brog, whose concept of nationalism, as an American, seems pretty...confused.

    Likewise, the breathless announcement of a new foreign policy think tank lavishly funded by what we are told are weltanschauung's Felix and Oscar, George Soros and Charles Koch, promises to pour us old wine in beautiful new bottles. The "Quincy Institute" - named after our wise sixth president who left us with the pearl that we should not go abroad seeking monsters to destroy - has given even many libertarians the fevers. Money does that.

    But hey - no sour grapes from us! The non-interventionist water is fine and we would love to see the Quincies all jump in! In fact many are our friends and collaborators.

    But when a major donor to one of the most interventionist think tanks, the Atlantic Council, tells us he is going to also finance non-interventionism at the same time, we really can't help but smell a little Lenin in the air [“The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves.” - Lenin] ...

    We are not dismayed by these efforts, even as they attract so much attention in the mainstream media ("Zowie!! Far Right Koch joining with far Left Soros - what strange bedfellows!") and so much money among the moneyed. They are not competition. We promote non-interventionism, not sometimes-interventionism.

    Yes of course there is the danger that an inauthentic version of our philosophy is given credence by the chattering class as a way of limiting the acceptable space for debate. If these re-tread ventures are accepted as the pure representation of a Hegelian reaction to hyper-interventionism then our actual opposition to the current driving philosophy of US foreign policy finds itself in danger of temporarily having slightly less traction.

    But as Ron Paul always says, not even armies can stop an idea whose time has come. And the time has not come for "intervention lite" or for the absurd view that America should be a global sheriff not a global cop (what does that even mean?). By the way, that latter admonition comes from "National Conservatism" conference speaker Clifford May, whose "Foundation for the Defense of Democracies" is among those organizations most responsible for destroying conservatism in the first place.

    (BTW - Don't miss Paul Gottfried's excellent "Hazony Baloney" on the conference)

    What killed conservatism? The fact that it became a craven ploy to fleece the "rubes" in fly-over country instead of a movement to make the case for limited government and a pro-America (i.e. non-interventionist) foreign policy. In other words, the original conservatism of, among others, Sen. Robert Taft. But every new stirring, every creative idea was pounced upon by the direct-mailers as a way to become stinking rich by doing nothing. Ron Paul's beautiful Tea Party became Dick Armey's eight million dollar severance package from the organization that hijacked the movement and turned it fully neocon. It's robbery and it's indecent - and the muggers are still out there waiting for their next mark. So if they have to paste some new lipstick on this pig of their making, they are more than happy to do so.

    Do you want something actually different? Join us in Washington next month for the Ron Paul Institute's annual conference! We will be "breaking Washington's Addiction to war" instead of just offering it a needle exchange program.

    Why make all that effort to join together next month? How about this: Among our amazing line-up of speakers will be one of the most important voices of antiwar conservatism, former US Representative John Duncan Jr.!!! That's right! A great opportunity to hear real, authentic conservatism from one of its most important proponents of our time! No sloppy seconds!
    ...
    This article originally appeared in the Ron Paul Institute Subscriber Newsletter. Subscribe for free here.

    Copyright © 2019 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

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  3. #2
    If only there was a way to bring conservatism back to life. Seems to me like we're at the point of no return.
    "Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."

    Calvin Coolidge

  4. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    ......

    You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Brian4Liberty again.

    Excellent article, and touches on an argument I have more frequently than I'd like to recount. Nothing pisses off people who proclaim to be conservatives more than explaining to them that since conservatism is based on small and fiscally / Constitutionally limited government as well as VEHEMENT defense of civil liberties, they are by the very definition of their politics rather big government progressives.
    "Self conquest is the greatest of all victories." - Plato

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian4Liberty View Post
    The Strange Death of Conservatism
    written by daniel mcadams - monday july 22, 2019

    Ever notice how assiduously most of the so called "leaders" and the institutions they represent avoid and evade the use of the concept of freedom?

    Seriously, IMO all "conservatives" should walk away from that label and regard it as just another four-letter word in favor of "FREEDOM".

    In this regard, conservatism in almost any flavor one cares to list is not substantively different from liberalism progressivism/regressivism, and so forth.

    We get all caught up in these bull$#@! labels, forgetting what the real concern is supposed to be: the free lives of free men.

    I am neither Conservative, Liberal, Pregressive [sic], or anything else. I am a FREE MAN and I waive no whit of any right whatsoever, very much rather claiming all rights in full and at every moment of my life. I reject all false authority over myself and my fellows and refuse to comply, save that men with guns are given no overt pretext for ending my life in violence or placing me in a cage.

    This is really all that a man need bear in mind; the only basis for expounding the virtues of Proper Human Relations. Anything else is, as far as I am concerned, noise of a negative par value. People are fools by and large. So few are able to do what I do, which is to pare away the noises, leaving only the signal - that which has actual and abiding worth. They get caught up in the manifold noises such that they soon forget why they were thinking and striving in the first place. Then, when one attempts to reel them back in, most often he is met with derision, hatred, disgust, and far too often violence.

    Unless you are speaking solely in terms of freedom, your words are of little to no value and you are best serving yourself and others by remaining silent. Freedom should be the first consideration. It should be the last. It should be every consideration in between. The rest are mere details that are readily worked out by men who are truly free, which means they live the principles of the Freeman in whole, total, utter, and vigorously live rejection of those of the Weakman. For the Freeman, "but muh roadz" cuts no muster and leaves him unmoved, save perhaps for the muscle-twitching impulse to bitch-slap the utterer into low earth orbit such that Cheyenne goes to a rapid DEFCON 3 status.

    One either lives their talk, or should just settle with the tyrants and fall in line with the whim-du-jour because to quote the old AA line, "half measures availed us nothing".

    Time is here. Time to step up and be counted. Time has been here, every day of every man's life since they have trod the earth. Most have failed.

    Don't be as most.
    freedomisobvious.blogspot.com

    There is only one correct way: freedom. All other solutions are non-solutions.

    It appears that artificial intelligence is at least slightly superior to natural stupidity.

    Our words make us the ghosts that we are.

    Convincing the world he didn't exist was the Devil's second greatest trick; the first was convincing us that God didn't exist.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by Anti Globalist View Post
    If only there was a way to bring conservatism back to life. Seems to me like we're at the point of no return.
    ​NO!

    I say let it die. Let it be killed. Let all men of good character not walk away from it, but run for all their legs will take them to the place where all men belong: freedom. "Conservative" is noise. "Liberal" is noise. "Left", "right", "pregressive" [sic], and so on down the depressingly long list of terms, are all noise. There is no signal worthy of the mention to be found anywhere in those places.

    Leave them behind. Refuse to acknowledge them by speaking in their terms, for you are then playing your enemy's game and doing so on their terms. Part of our philosophy (we at our dojo) is that if you find yourself in a fair fight, you're doing it wrong. Never play on the enemy's terms, but always and only on your own. It is a habit that can be very difficult to establish, but once done, you will find yourself in a masterful position with the ability to slay the adversary at will. Never play his game.

    Let freedom be the only terms in which you address the fecklessly flailing and spasmodic attacks and nonsenses of the Weakmen. Establish and set the base assumptions upon which your exchanges are transacted and do so explicitly. Weakmen are notorious for operating upon a set of endlessly vague and wholly tacit assumptions. Being never stated, but only implied through rhetoric, it is through this hopelessly weak tactic that they have met with success, such as it may be, precisely because the men of a presumably better cloth fail to call them out with explicit verbal challenges. I have noted that in the comparatively rare occasions where I have seen such challenges made, the Weakman will stumble and stall much like a deer in headlights. Having no convincing answer, in keen and panic-stricken awareness of the fact, they immediately revert either to name calling (RAYcis... homophobe... etc.) or simply walk away, refusing to acknowledge that they just got spanked but good.

    Reject the Eville™ and embrace the good. Dump the worthless labels that have bought Freemen no whit of joy, and return to speak of the thing that is worthy of the effort: freedom.
    freedomisobvious.blogspot.com

    There is only one correct way: freedom. All other solutions are non-solutions.

    It appears that artificial intelligence is at least slightly superior to natural stupidity.

    Our words make us the ghosts that we are.

    Convincing the world he didn't exist was the Devil's second greatest trick; the first was convincing us that God didn't exist.

  7. #6



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