Conservatism
Last night I learned that Pat Buckley, wife of conservative giant William F. Buckley, Jr., had passed away. By all accounts, she was a truly remarkable woman.
The posts by Justin and Marc on Conservative Political Methods logically lead to the fundamental question: what, exactly, is “conservatism?” The problem here is the word itself: “conservatism” is concerned with “conserving,” but conserving what? Many years ago, the Nobel Prize Laureate (Economics) and dean of the “Austrian School” of economics, Friedrich von Hayek, wrote…
Justin jumped in ahead of me on this one (hey, it happens with us non-coordinating bloggers). Here’s a little more background. NY Times columnist David Brooks ($ required) started it off, and Andrew Sullivan, Ross Douthat and Jonah Goldberg have all weighed in thus far. The acute argument being had is between Sullivan and Douthat/Brooks.…
I’m with Jonah Goldberg on this one: Ross writes that both Sullivan and Brooks “are aware that conservatism needs to be for something more than just supply-side economics.” (Let’s leave aside that “supply-side economics” is a term that should be laid to rest, having done its job over a quarter of a century ago). Sitting…
This snippet from the ProJo’s Robert Whitcomb got me thinking: This past Sunday’s Boston Herald detailed, in a story by Phil Restuccia, a growing movement of consumers and local businesspeople called Local First. This national group has organized 17,000 businesses around the country into 50 groups promoting their services directly to local shoppers, appealing to…
Former Tennessee Congressman Harold Ford, Jr. (D) spoke at Brown last night. The ProJo (Scott McKay) reports: Democrats from New England and other deep blue regions of the country must understand that their party cannot succeed in the South and West without acknowledging that many voters consider the party too far left on social and…
The ProJo reports: With written pleas for cash to help put “hard-charging, fearless, battle-tested Republican veterans in the U.S. Congress,” they raised more than $415,000 in the 2005-06 election cycle. Two percent of that money went to federal candidates: a total of $9,000 in two years. In that same time period, Rogers and Winthrop paid…
To no one’s surprise, the various “advocates” who have taken up permanent residence at the State House pleaded with lawmakers to accept their solution to the budget shortfall: either raise taxes or stop any scheduled tax cuts: Freeze the so-called “tax-cut-for-the- rich” in its tracks before state government loses tens of millions of dollars. Halt…
This week is the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. (Andrew went last year). It appears that these active conservatives, disgruntled with the current crop of Presidential candidates, are turning their eyes towards Congress: Conservative leaders, who are gathering in Washington today for the first Conservative Political Action Conference…
Well, sometimes the self-generated posting just doesn’t come easily, which describes my state over the last few days. So, that’s when we bloggers revert to the excerpt-other-people’s-writing-and-compile-and-synthesize tactic. (Well, it’s better than nothing). I recently read this piece from Richard Karlgaard on Forbe’s web site in which he wrote: Money (profit) is a tool. It…
