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Todd Seavey has a surprising, if not altogether implausible, idea: “If Buckley had outlived the 2008 presidential campaign, I could imagine he might even have become an ardent Ron Paul fan in time, which would have helped speed the right’s education along immensely. He was anti-Iraq War, after all.” Well, John Derbyshire in 2007 also [...]
Filed under: Conservatism, Politics, Ron Paul
Last week I discussed “prodigal conservatives” — prodigal in both senses of the term — with the Daily Paul’s Kurt Wallace. Listen here.
Filed under: Conservatism, Elections, Politics, Ron Paul
That is, Whigs In Name Only: “My notion of a Whig, I mean of a real Whig (for the Nominal are worse than any Sort of Men) is That he is one who is exactly for keeping up to the Strictness of the true old Gothick Constitution.” – Sir Robert Molesworth, Preface to Francois Hotman, [...]
My note on @TAC about Reagan’s centenary already links to my review of William F. Buckley Jr.’s The Reagan I Knew. Here I’ll also tout my review of John Patrick Diggins’s Ronald Reagan: Fate, Freedom, and the Making of History, a piece that ran in Reason a few years back. Here’s a preview: There’s a [...]
Filed under: Books, Conservatism, Politics, World
A federal court’s decision to enjoin enforcement of California’s Proposition 8 (the ban on gay marriage) is a clear-cut example of the central government trampling on the states, as well as of courts making a mockery of popular government at any level. On the other hand, supporters of the verdict see it, plausibly enough, as [...]
David Gordon has a thought-provoking piece on Lee Edwards’s recent book about William F. Buckley Jr. I haven’t had a chance to read William F. Buckley: The Maker of a Movement myself just yet, but it’s clear from Gordon’s review and a quick browse of the book that Edwards has devoted a great deal of [...]
Filed under: Books, Conservatism, Politics
There’s a magic box, and every time this wondrous device is used by a well-meaning individual it gives an unemployed American a job or puts a roof over a homeless citizen’s head. The only problem is, every time it’s used the box also causes someone on the other side of the earth to drop dead. [...]
Filed under: Philosophy, Politics
As I mention below, Ralph Nader is not altogether wrong about what the doctrine of corporate personhood has led to. As Felix Morley explains, abuse of the Fourteenth Amendment to nationalize rights, for corporations as well as individuals, enabled the federal government to extend its powers tremendously, first in the name of laissez faire and [...]
Filed under: Liberty, Philosophy, Politics
Susan McWilliams’s TAC essay on Robert Nisbet effectively conveys the emphasis he places on intermediary institutions as the basis for his conservative thought. But not all conservatives have seen their philosophy as deriving from this source. Consider, for example, Thomas Molnar’s “The Liberal Hegemony: The Rise of Civil Society,” which, as the title suggests, presents [...]
Filed under: Philosophy, Politics
I should clarify something from the last two posts. Running candidates who are a good fit for their district does not require that Republicans ditch their social conservative base, even if Democrats have had to run antiabortion candidates in order to win in red and conservative-blue districts. The reason for this is that abortion, and [...]
Filed under: Politics