What does a narrow, anti-government conservatism have to offer to urban neighborhoods where violence is common and intact families are rare? Very little. What hope does it provide to children in foreign lands dying of diseases that can be treated or prevented for the cost of American small change? No hope. What achievement would it contribute to the racial healing and unity of our country? No achievement at all.
-Gerson
The Hayekian conservativism--hell, let's just call it classical liberalism--that Gerson is talking about is rather in abeyance in the Republican party and has been since . . . uh, Lincoln? Well, I suppose there was Silent Cal. Anyway. I find no evidence beyond assertion that the GOP consists of anything but mad authoritarian adventurers who want simultaneously to, ahem, secure the borders and then fly over them on the way to killing foreigners. As for me, I would catechize a little differently:
What does a narrow, anti-government conservatism have to offer to urban neighborhoods where violence is common and intact families are rare? It won't lock up all their young men! What hope does it provide to children in foreign lands dying of diseases that can be treated or prevented for the cost of American small change? It won't invade and occupy their countries, nor sanction them, destroy their economies, and starve them even further of medicine and food! What achievement would it contribute to the racial healing and unity of our country? It wouldn't, but it wouldn't claim "racial healing and unity" to be within its power, capacity, or purview!
2 comments:
Well put.
Get ready for Hillary to save the world.
Libertarian Republicans are indeed so rare as to qualify as simply a myth. Myths, however, do have a constraining force to them. The US lives in the myth of being a democracy for example and this restricts what forms our authoritarians can take on. These color differences can be quite dramatic on the ground and, I feel, be exploited by anyone who understands them for whatever purpose they may have. In any event the libertarian myth is an important one to the GOP and has colored it significantly. If it were to pop overnight I bet it would virtually kill the party. Of course this kind of musing is like contemplating what would happen if we had a war and nobody came. Fun and useful for direction, but it isn't the way things work. Never the less it is a weakness to this group (Republican Party) and for those interested, a place to hurt them. Many of their more clever people probably know this and their current problems seem to stem a lot from partial breakdown of this myth. If you don't like the GOP juggernaut I suggest this as decent a place as any to apply one's tiny hammer to. Occasionally a single cotter pin removal can bring the most complex machine to a halt. Everything is cause and effect. Everything.
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