Quit Redefining Conservatism
by Christopher Buckley
Daily Beast
As CPAC continues its right-wing celebration this weekend, The Daily Beast’s Christopher Buckley, son of famous conservative leader William F. Buckley, (politely) takes on his first cousin and the other signatories of the Mount Vernon Statement for trying to redefine conservatism—when all they’re really doing is bashing Obama.
To paraphrase Ross Perot, whom I oddly find myself missing these days, that giant sucking sound you’ve been hearing these last two days has been issuing from a series of conservative hootenannies in and around Washington, DC, in the ninth circle of right-wing hell.
Cousin Brent has a razor-sharp mind and a greyhound-quick tongue, but in reading his announcement accompanying the release of the Mount Vernon, I found myself quietly murmuring, “Block that metaphor!”
The first came from Mount Vernon, where 80 prominent conservatives gathered to sign something designated, appropriately enough, the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a call for a return to “Constitutional conservatism.” What is it—one wonders—about conservatism that it seems to be in need of re-prefixing every decade? Last time around it was “compassionate conservatism.” What followed for eight years could have been more accurately called “Incontinent conservatism.” In any event…
Hootenanny No. 2—ongoing as I type—is the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, held in the same hotel—I just can’t resist mentioning this deliciously inconvenient truth—where the late Senator Joseph McCarthy used to hang out when not in West Virginia holding aloft lists of State Department commies.
(More here.)
Daily Beast
As CPAC continues its right-wing celebration this weekend, The Daily Beast’s Christopher Buckley, son of famous conservative leader William F. Buckley, (politely) takes on his first cousin and the other signatories of the Mount Vernon Statement for trying to redefine conservatism—when all they’re really doing is bashing Obama.
To paraphrase Ross Perot, whom I oddly find myself missing these days, that giant sucking sound you’ve been hearing these last two days has been issuing from a series of conservative hootenannies in and around Washington, DC, in the ninth circle of right-wing hell.
Cousin Brent has a razor-sharp mind and a greyhound-quick tongue, but in reading his announcement accompanying the release of the Mount Vernon, I found myself quietly murmuring, “Block that metaphor!”
The first came from Mount Vernon, where 80 prominent conservatives gathered to sign something designated, appropriately enough, the “Mount Vernon Statement,” a call for a return to “Constitutional conservatism.” What is it—one wonders—about conservatism that it seems to be in need of re-prefixing every decade? Last time around it was “compassionate conservatism.” What followed for eight years could have been more accurately called “Incontinent conservatism.” In any event…
Hootenanny No. 2—ongoing as I type—is the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, held in the same hotel—I just can’t resist mentioning this deliciously inconvenient truth—where the late Senator Joseph McCarthy used to hang out when not in West Virginia holding aloft lists of State Department commies.
(More here.)
Powered by Blogger
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home