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"It's As Though Frum Never Read Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind"
True conservatism, after all, is not about temporary battles over Medicare - important as those battles may be - but about the "Permanent Things." It's as though Frum never read Russell Kirk's The Conservative Mind. Conservatism was around long before the era of Goldwater and Reagan and it will be around long after they are memories. "What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried?" The battle against limited government was a means to and end - limiting government's ability to pursue the new and untried - not an end in and of itself. Even if Frum is right that the battle for limited government is lost, the war to defend the Permanent Things against the designs of Burke's "sophisters, economists; and calculators" will rage on forever. ~Prof. Bainbridge
It is all together only too likely that Frum has not read The Conservative Mind, or, having read it, dismissed it or forgot what it had to say. The man who wrote "Unpatriotic Conservatives" is very likely not a man who understands or sympathises with the mind described in that book; if he understands that mind at all, it seems to represent a conservatism he actively detests. But Prof. Bainbridge makes an excellent point in reminding us that conservatism is not principally a matter of policy positions, but a matter of commitment to eternal verities. That being said, the abandonment of small-government conservative principles is a serious problem, particularly to the extent that large government empowers the forces of consolidation and homogenisation and puts the "sophisters, economists and calculators" in charge.
Daniel Larison | May 02, 2006
Comments
On the subject of the abandonment of small-government conservatism, there is an interesting new book out by Matthew Continetti of "The Weekly Standard." He has lots of shocking stuff on how, in the pursuit of building donations and making Republicans a new permanent majority, Delay basically let corporations and their lobbyists write legislation. Then, Jack Abramoff came along and used small government rhetoric to attract lobbying clients and got himself in on the money flowing into Republican coffers. Very discouraging.
scriblerus | 05/03/06 10:06
Very discouraging, but perfectly in keeping with a governing "conservatism" preoccupied with transitory goods and transitory power. One is reminded of the Nixon Republicans' old adage, "Watch what we do, not what we say." The small-government conservatives who have gone along for the ride with DeLay and the boys, and they have been many over the last 11 years, don't have a lot of credibility with me. They are the sort who, after the Medicare drug benefit was passed, warned against voting for Kerry because he would increase the size of government. Maybe he would have, but he would have had a hard time competing with these jokers. The subordination of conservative principle to corporate interest, while nothing very new, is revealed very strikingly here. If that doesn't confirm some of the criticisms I have been making at Eunomia over the last year and a half, I don't know what will.
Daniel Larison | 05/03/06 15:55
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