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Relevance

It’s gratifying to be considered relevant, but Rod is correct that it is the marginal and basically politically irrelevant status of almost all dissident and heterodox conservatives that permits us a greater degree of freedom to criticize and propose alternatives as we see fit. As Ross has observed, some of us are not necessarily aspiring […]

It’s gratifying to be considered relevant, but Rod is correct that it is the marginal and basically politically irrelevant status of almost all dissident and heterodox conservatives that permits us a greater degree of freedom to criticize and propose alternatives as we see fit. As Ross has observed, some of us are not necessarily aspiring to conventional political relevance or influence after already having seen the apparent futility of that path in the absence of cultural revival, which makes it even harder to insist that we are relevant. Discussing the right problems and getting at many of the right answers, yes, I think so, but to be blunt that is exactly why we are not relevant to the debate going on inside the movement, much less inside the GOP, to the extent that there is actually a debate and not just a marketing brainstorming meeting or a collective therapy session.

I happen to think the two main creative forces on the right at the moment are paleos/populists and reformists, and obviously I prefer the answers of the former, and I also think that the reformists have done the most work articulating an alternative domestic policy agenda, but neither “group” (a word that attributes more unity and cohesion to them than is the case) is in much of a position as a matter of institutional or political strength to prevail on movement conservatives to follow their suggestions. There are also structural barriers inside the GOP to many of the reforms proposed by both camps in the form of interest groups and donors, and there is admittedly limited electoral support for candidates representing either one.

There is some reason to think that non-interventionist arguments may gain ground with more people on the right during the Obama years as there will no longer be the same temptation to defend Bush’s policies, but as I have said before I worry that there will be a tendency to default to maximal hawkishness as a way to attack Obama as “soft” and “weak.” Most reported remarks by CPAC speakers that I have seen indicate that this is the sort of thing that movement activists crave and will reward.

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