Posted 8 months ago

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Andrew Sullivan on what conservative means now

Unsurprisingly amazing writing.

Back in the 1980s, conservatism was a thrilling empirical, reality-based challenge to overweening government power and omniscient liberal utopianism. Today, alas, it has become a victim of its own success, reliving past glories rather than tackling current problems. It is part secular dogma - no taxes, no debt, more war - and part religious dogma - no Muslims need apply; amend the federal constitution to keep gays in their place; no abortions even for rape and incest; more settlements on the West Bank to prepare for the End-Times. Although there were inklings back then - Stockman was right; Iran-Contra should have been a warning - they were still balanced by empiricism. Reagan raised taxes, withdrew from Lebanon, hated war, and tried to abolish all nuclear weapons on earth. The first Bush was an under-rated deficit-cutter and diplomat, a legacy doubly squandered by his son.

Now it’s Levin-land: either total freedom or complete slavery and a rhetorical war based entirely on that binary ideological spectrum. In other words, ideological performance art: brain-dead, unaware of history, uninterested in policy detail, bored by empiricism, motivated primarily by sophistry, Manicheanism, and factional hatred.

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  1. essay-writing-services reblogged this from joshuatopolsky
  2. mortgages--uk reblogged this from joshuatopolsky
  3. cheap-papers reblogged this from getlowraine
  4. mikeyshane reblogged this from joshuatopolsky and added:
    Andrew Sullivan on what conservative means now:...Sullivan’s writing really sings.
  5. hairtrending reblogged this from anindiscriminatecollection
  6. anindiscriminatecollection reblogged this from soupsoup
  7. xlrout reblogged this from joshuatopolsky
  8. setfiretotears reblogged this from liberalsarecool
  9. silas216 reblogged this from liberalsarecool
  10. seanscheidt reblogged this from getlowraine and added:
    Im not disagreeing that they need treatment and not prison. I’m also not wrong. I am just saying that when someone says...
  11. getlowraine reblogged this from seanscheidt and added:
    Ugh. I really don’t feel like telling you how wrong you are. I have homework to do, and fighting with someone on the...
  12. seanscheidt reblogged this from getlowraine and added:
    Its not accurate at all to blame the deaths that are caused by dealers and criminals on those who imprison and ban the...
  13. getlowraine reblogged this from seanscheidt and added:
    I mean, 15,000 deaths sounds like a war to me. Not to mention the amount of money we’re putting in to imprison...
  14. theconjecturer reblogged this from jasencomstock and added:
    I did think about that, though. Besides the whole “it’s different when we say it to each other” thing, which is actually...
  15. seanscheidt reblogged this from getlowraine and added:
    drug war counts as actual warfare. It’s a term...serious nature of prevention efforts....
  16. jasencomstock reblogged this from catbawse and added:
    I didn’t think about that. ‘Queen’ and ‘Girl’ are pretty common for gays to call each other and aren’t meant to be...
  17. catbawse reblogged this from jasencomstock and added:
    HEY LET’S COMPARE PEOPLE WE DISAGREE WITH TO WOMEN, IT’LL TOTALLY _____________________
  18. getlowraine reblogged this from absurdreasoning and added:
    I agree with this for the most part except where it says “Reagan… hated war.” This would be true had he not put forth...
  19. jasencomstock reblogged this from theconjecturer and added:
    Andrew Sullivan and Chris Hedges want everyone to remember back to the good old days when we all were in college and our...
  20. theconjecturer reblogged this from jasencomstock and added:
    This is actually the same tedious mishmash of complaints against the Right that Sully has been making since 2002. And he...
  21. jasencomstock reblogged this from liberalsarecool and added:
    Andrew Sullivan beats off to SPSS

 

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