Guest Post by The Zman
At the end of the Cold War, Progressives pointed out that conservatism no longer had a purpose, so it was probably going to follow communism into the past. Of course, the Left had its own problems in this regard, but conservatism in America had largely been about opposing the Soviets. They had conceded all the important points in the cultural war and the Left was ready to embrace corporate control of the economy, so there was no longer any purpose to conservatism.
This was a fair analysis, but one conservatives could not accept, as it would mean getting real jobs and doing honest work. Instead they tried to define conservatism as green eye-shade bean counting in the 1990’s. That was no fun as they like spending borrowed money as much as the Left. Then they tried to define conservatism to mean dropping high explosives onto Muslims. That worked for a while, but then the public soured on the pointless flag waving and hollow patriotism.
In the Obama years, conservatism entered the darkness and it has not been able to find a way out of it ever since. They tried to rally people around hating Trump, but that just underscored the bankruptcy of modern conservatism. Since then, various writers have been trying to figure out what conservatism is supposed to mean in the age of post-national globalism. The one enduring feature of the Right has been its roots in nationalism, so without that, it has no anchor.
This summer, the American Conservative has been running pieces on the topic from various writers. Here’s one from July doing the old constitution bit. Here’s one relying on historicism to define conservatism. A couple of Israelis contributed a piece claiming conservatism is a big shopping mall. This one makes the Straussian argument that conservatism is rooted in natural rights. Along the same lines, Yoram Hazony posted a long piece at Quillette about the dangers of Marxism.
The main take-sway from all of this is that no one in conservatism has the slightest idea how to breathe life into the corpse of their project. If they are unwilling to reject universalism and egalitarianism, they cannot embrace nationalism, other than as a shallow rhetorical device. Yoram Hazony has turned himself into a pretzel trying to promote a nationalism detached from biological reality. Everyone else is too afraid to go near anything that contradicts Progressive dogma on biology.
The truth is, the closest America ever came to having a genuine conservative alternative to Northern Progressivism ended in the Civil War. Since then the dynamic in America has been the Left innovating and the Right implementing. The Left, needing to exercise its reform impulse, finds something to break with novel ideas. The Right then comes in to clean up after them, finding some way to normalize it. The Robert Lewis Dabney observation is has never ceased to be true.
This is why whatever replaces conservatism as the alternative to the Progressive orthodoxy has to free of conservatism. It must be a clean break with that failed tradition of accommodation and obedience. A genuine alternative, a real competitor to the Left, has to be a stand-alone moral framework, rather than just a collection of criticisms and critiques of the liberal moral order. A critique is just a conditional agreement. That’s always been conservatism, agreement with conditions.
This may prove to be easiest in Europe, as Europeans have a genuine conservatism in their past they can pull out of storage. It may have failed under the pincer assault of Marxism and liberal democracy, but it offers a foundation to build on. Like an old house with good bones, it can be rebuilt with modern ideas and understandings. The failings of liberal democracy now make it a weaker foe than in the past. Liberal democracy is no longer about promise, but about practice.
For Americans, the task is difficult, as it means jettisoning most of the American story, maybe even the very concept of American. The frontier culture that has always been at the root of American mythology no longer makes a lot of sense in the demographic age with high-density urban areas. Rugged independence is suicidal when facing a demographic assault. There’s also the fact that the past has been rewritten to support the egalitarianism and universalism of the Left.
Then there is that American creed that starts with the assertion that all men are created equal, endowed with inalienable rights. The rejection of universal equality is a rejection of the core component of Americanism. This is the trap that devoured Buckley style conservatism in the last century. It is simply impossible to forge an alternative to Progressivism without first rejecting universal equality. To American ears, that sounds like a rejection of their very identity.
It is not impossible though. Events are what forge ideologies and the demographic changes sweeping North America will forge new political constructs. Organizing civil life in a world where the government is no longer willing or able to control the frontier or police the violent elements will require new ideologies. Most likely that means a return to the oldest form of social organization, which is relatedness. The large society problem will be solved with racial and ethnic identity.
Ultimately, that is the project facing the West. Liberalism, communism and to a lesser degree fascism, were all solutions to the large society problem. Liberal democracy is the current experiment in solving the problem. The real alternative to the prevailing order starts with accepting that these experiences have all failed. They failed because there is no solution to the problem, other than a passive ethno-nationalism organized around group identity and rights.
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Left : Death to America. Open Borders for all.
Right : Save our Republic. Stop the Invasion
GOP: We must seek a legal path to the destruction of the Republic.
Demographics is destiny .
“The Department of State will soon offer a huge reward of more than 100,000 extra green cards in 2021 to the Indian and Chinese visa workers who took U.S. jobs from American graduates.
Usually, 145,000 green cards are annually given to employers’ foreign workers and their family members. But, “at this time, it is estimated that the FY 2021 Employment-based limit will be at least 250,000,” the agency said.
The extra green cards for the Fortune 500’s visa-workers will be offered in just six weeks, after September 2020. They were freed up by the coronavirus-caused decline in family migrants in 2020, said a statement to Breitbart News from the State Department… The huge number of wait-and-work Indians — roughly 800,000 — have voluntarily and collectively clogged the Fortune 500’s pipeline for visa workers. The last Indian to join the line can expect to wait several decades — or more than 100 years — to get their green cards under current rules. This decades-long wait means the Indian pipeline is partially blocked because many potential Indian recruits instead seek jobs and residency in Canada and other countries.
However, nearly all GOP and Democrat legislators are working to unclog the Fortune 500’s foreign recruiting problem.”
https://www.breitbart.com/economy/2020/08/20/state-dept-oks-100000-extra-green-cards-foreign-visa-workers-2021/
The problem with all theses “ism”s as far as I see, is that there is always someone or some group who are more “ism” than YOU or THEY are. Therefore YOU or THEY are obviously a problem and MUST be “dealt” with. However that may be, either death by ballot or bullet.
True.
Common sense conservatism got hijacked by fiscally irresponsible neocons. Moderate Democrats got replaced by Progs and socialists. The system is so fractured and polarized that no real compromise can be had politically and the only solution is a fight.
Since nobody seems to want to identify and name the enemy, how about if we start from here and come up with some peaceful(cowardly) ways to solve the problem.
There is nothing left to conserve, so conservatism as a motivating force for the betterment of a society is entirely impotent. As Tom Wolfe referred to it in one of his last books, it is “Back to Blood” for a while. This suits the global elites and their minions like gravy for biscuits. They want us to kill each other, and (they hope) the lesser lights so they don’t have to do it themselves.
When the global struggle is over (in a hundred years??) humans will settle on ways to live, and a reason for conservatism will again emerge. Until then, spend your energy on pleasantly avoiding the debris fields created by the fighting between the idiots and the evil.
Zman comes up with a novel approach that I hinted at in reply to Rob; that there is no right/left anymore. What he gets in response is the same tired – it’s the Jews and the Blacks.
Did you fuckwads read the article? It’s the equality, stupid. There ain’t none. Equality was a concept devised to deny the King’s authority. It was based on American Indian society that had no nobles, barons, kings or queens.
The American revolutionaries’ rhetoric did not automatically grant people equality anymore than a BLM or LGBTQ proclamation creates genders and black heroes out of thin air.
This is it – if you chicken chokers can’t keep up with the topic, at least wait until the smarter folks, those with more equal brains, have commented.
Fukwad…
Did you read the article mr fukwad. Where did he mention equality and where did any of us mention Jews you fuking chicken choker.
Here’s what he mentioned.
“The truth is, the closest America ever came to having a genuine conservative alternative to Northern Progressivism ended in the Civil War. Since then the dynamic in America has been the Left innovating and the Right implementing.”
Did you read that part Mr. fukwad chicken choker. Apparently he says Norther Progressivism ended conservatism in the slaveholding south.
Now tell us again about the topic. Or did you mean the hidden topic that only you who is intellectually superior to us Jew hating black despising morons can discern in between the black printed words.
Kiss my ass, jerk.