My liberal friends, face it- liberal progressivism in the Obama tradition isnt going to make it anywhere in the next election cycle, given the Obama years. That means conservatives are going to enjoy power for the next little epoch in American politics. The question, I think, is what KIND of conservatism will dominate. And I think everyone in the center and on the left should be working to make sure that that conservatism is neither the fallacious decadence of the Bush years offered by the GOP establishment, nor the hollow imitation of the Reagan years offered by the Tea Party insurgents, but a new, vigorous, moderate conservatism best exemplified by Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and Jon Hunstman- a conservative progressivism focused on the greatness of the nation and opportunity for all individuals, viewing government as an efficient but limited agent of change, capable of decadence and corruption, viewing business as a more efficient but potentially more pernicious agent of change, capable of degrading public virtue and corrupting our government, and seeing the well-being and independence of all Americans in a united America as the proper end of government. It ought neither be libertarian nor capital-P progressive, but both in their proper degrees. If this can best be brought about by reform within the Republican Party, so be it. If it can best be brought about by the emergence of a moderate conservative-progressive Third Party, so be it. But however it shall be done, I intend to be writing a lot about it, providing a coherent policy prescription and political philosophy for a new governing coalition. Anyone in? Lets get to work. the-american-interest/2014/12/19/next-up-in-america-the-liberal-retreat/
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 23:22:27 +0000