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Wednesday, March 23, 2005Instapundit is writing at about the conservative crackup over at his MSNBC digs. Says Reynolds, the religious wing of the conservative coalition has overplayed its hand, upsetting both federalists and libertarians.All true. But... A fundamental question in here is what it means to be conservative. Inasmuch as the continental liberal/conservative divide has nothing to do with our split, let's refine the question: What defines an American conservative? I think Jonah Goldberg has answered this one fairly well: An American conservative is someone who believes that human nature is human nature, that we are by nature imperfectible if ever striving and that any reasonable and effective social system will take this into account. The conservative coalition may be headed toward a reshuffling. I don't think it's headed for a crackup. Why? Glenn talks a lot about specific people in lofty positions. And he cites his share of conservative commentators. But one feature of the conservative coalition is that there are always new groups spearheading it, joining it and, yes, drifting away from it. The conservative coalition that Reagan led was different from the one that let George H.W. get put out to pasture is different from the one that made Clinton's life miserable is different from the one that has supported Bush. Right now, some libertarians and federalists are being peeled away from the conservative coalition. It's not clear, however, where they're going to go. But at the same time, a lot of college students for whom discussion of Ms. Schiavo's fate will prompt the solitary question, "Who?" are being force-fed political correctness, even as a Clinton cabinet secretary watches his service go down the drain for asking a seemingly reasonable question. The dirty little secret of the right is that for all its efforts, most of its recruiting is done by the left. They used to say that a conservative was a liberal who'd been mugged by reality. The modern conservative, however, is an ordinary fellow, increasingly tolerant and open-minded to boot, who has been condescended to by one too many liberals. The conservative coalition today unites a motley bunch who have one thing in common: they have at least one major belief about the world that the MSM and its buddies in the education establishment look down upon. For libertarians, it's distrust of big government. For the religious, it's faith. For economic conservatives, it's the notion that the private sector ought run the economy, not the government. And so on. The Schiavo case has brought to the surface what separates, rather than uniting, different parties to the conservative coalition. But the MSM, with its scaremongering, and the education establishment, with its postmodern distrust of humble truth and its contradictory arrogant conviction that it alone has the answers, will soon enough have let enough Americans know who their betters are that the conservative movement will pick up new members for those it has lost. Thus will resume the real red-blue battle: between those who want to lead their own lives and those who want to run the lives of others. The Schiavo case stirs passions because it comingles elements of both, depending on the angle from which things are viewed. The Republicans overplayed their hands in suggesting the fed knows best, especially because the federal courts smacked them around over it. But their motivations were sincere enough in taking sides in this fight about who knows what's best for Schiavo - her worn-out husband or her obsessive parents - that the damage to the movement and to the system by which it gains new adherents as old ones move on should be minimal. 
posted by gbarto at 10:49 PM |
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Day By Day© by Chris Muir.Old TurkeyBlog here.
