Can We Have Buckley Back?
Patrick Ruffini at The Next Right echoes Jon Henke's call for conservatives "more strongly disavowing outfits like WorldNetDaily that actively peddle Birther nonsense." Ruffini writes:
As a pretty down-the-line conservative, I don't believe I am alone in noting with disappointment the trivialization, excessive sloganeering, and pettiness that has overtaken the movement of late. In "The Joe the Plumberization of the GOP," I argued that conservatives have grown too comfortable with wearing scorn as a badge of honor, content to play sarcastic second fiddle to the dominant culture of academia and Hollywood with second-rate knock-off institutions. A side effect of this has been a tendency to accept conspiracy nuts as a slightly cranky edge case within the broad continuum of conservatism, rather than as a threat to the movement itself.Those advocating a tough stand against the Birthers like to point to William F. Buckley and the Birchers.
In founding National Review, Buckley made a point of casting out the conspiracy nuts and the cranks of his day because he saw them as a fundamental threat to a conservatism that was just emerging as a political force. In doing so, he was able to define conservatism for a generation.
What is interesting about Buckley (and that is so different today) was his ability to align intellectual firepower and a faster march to the Right. Buckley was a man of class and erudition who happened to be more conservative than virtually all of his peers. That's the key point. To the extent we think of intellectuals today, we deride them as creatures of the Left. When they are active within conservative circles, they are discarded as to the left of the movement. The archetypical center-right intellectual today is a guy like Ross Douthat, whose ideas (to be fair) are often outside the conservative mainstream. Most of the party's rising intellectuals are seen as advocating a shift away from social conservative issues, which are still deeply relevant to a critical mass of Americans beyond the two coasts. Back in Buckley's day, it was possible to get 175-proof conservatism in Ivy League flavoring.
Perhaps the intellectual composition of the conservative (or liberal) movement wasn't all that different in Buckley's time, but Buckley provided an ideal -- and set a standard -- for conservatives to position themselves as scholarly thought leaders within the broader culture that simply no longer exists today -- despite numerous conservative academics toiling facelessly in the vineyards. This gave a Buckley the credibility to cast out the movement's lesser lights, and impose a layer of discernment between fact and fiction inside the movement.
via @AllahPundit
If you really, really believe this, you have no business watching Glenn Beck or whining about Ann Coulter (not that you often do, to my memory). Even David Frum got wound up about this in that podcast last week. He calls it "the conservative-entertainment complex" or something, which isn't as clever as it sounds.
Meanwhile, here's a profoundly stupid thing to say:
> Buckley was a man of class
> and erudition
"Class" is a word which sensible people avoid. If it's not being horribly abused by Marxist, some Sinatra-era lounge lizard is using it to describe a tits-out moxie with lipstick on her filterless cigarette: 'She's a real classy broad'.
I wish people would trust me on this... I work in Hollywood, and I know that it's true: When you ignore showbiz figures, they go away. And that includes conservative-leaning talk show types.
Crid [CridComment @ gmail] at September 5, 2009 1:31 AM
VoxDay sums up my feelings on it at his blog,
http://voxday.blogspot.com/
As someone who is generally a social moderate/fiscal conservative, I've seen no benefit in tacking to the center or left more as I watch Republicans become the group that says they can "run big government better" instead of less government. I don't see many Dems disavowing their fringe groups but they constantly push for conservatives to do so. I'm apt to agree with Crid on this, ignore them when possible.
Sio at September 5, 2009 10:47 AM
Are lifers akin to 9-11 truthers? There's wackos on both sides.
momof4 at September 6, 2009 5:35 AM
Let's see, Van Jones just resigns from the government for basically being a truther flake, a lefty bites off the finger of a protester at a town hall meeting, a Democratic operative destroys a Democrat Party HQ in an attempt to smear Republicans, and the right has a problem?
Both sides have problems with their fringes. Oddly enough, there is nobody in government or running for government office interested in limiting the size, power, or scope of government.
It will end, badly.
MarkD at September 6, 2009 6:39 AM
I wish Obama would embarrass WorldNetDaily and release his long form birth certificate. Prove that the “birthers” are cranks and stop spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to prevent it from being released. He is also not allowing his school records to be released.
I have no idea who is right. All I know is that he is giving the appearance of having something to hide.
David H at September 6, 2009 8:43 AM
Hawaii could release everything including delivery-room footage and the birthers would say it was all faked.
The information I'm interested in? His transcripts from Columbia and Harvard. During the 2000 and 2004 elections, we knew everyone's grades. Nobody knows jack about Obama's educational achievements.
brian at September 6, 2009 8:49 AM
The only reason the birthers seem so prominent is that the media keeps giving them air time.
Michael Steele, head of the Republican Party has already disavowed the birthers. So have other prominent Republicans. But CNN, MSNBC, and other "news" outfits keep giving the right-wing nuts a public forum.
Where were they on Van Jones? Where were they on Rosie O'Donnell's "steel doesn't melt" tirade? Where is Cindy Sheehan these days now that she's no longer useful to embarrass Bush?
MarkD is right. Both parties are having problems with their fringes. But the far-left fringe of the Democratic Party actually has some political leverage these days. Political commentators are speculating that Obama's investigation of the CIA is a palliative to the increasingly angry left-wing Democrats.
The birthers and fundies are just nuts that, at least for now, can only serve to embarrass the serious Republicans (all 3 of them).
Conan the Grammarian at September 6, 2009 11:35 AM
"Class" is a word which sensible people avoid. If it's not being horribly abused by Marxist, some Sinatra-era lounge lizard is using it to describe a tits-out moxie with lipstick on her filterless cigarette: 'She's a real classy broad'.
Outside of movies or teevee I've never encountered the second usage. Class is used in a consistent sense by Marxists to make bad arguments; we know what they mean by it.
However, "class", in the sense used in this piece is a great word – a person of class comports himself with a reasonable degree of decency, dignity, and self-restraint. It's the inverse of "crass". It's a useful concept. It's also a great way to go through life, especially if you are in the business of persuading people.
Hawaii could release everything including delivery-room footage and the birthers would say it was all faked.
This is correct. The evidence has already been shown to the satisfaction of anyone who is not insane. This "long form birth certificate" business is nonsense. Not to mention the utter meaninglessness of "natural born citizen" from any practical standpoint these days.
Whatever at September 7, 2009 7:15 AM
Political commentators are speculating that Obama's investigation of the CIA is a palliative to the increasingly angry left-wing Democrats.
Yep. I mean, we can't go about investigating people for potentially criminal behavior!
Whatever at September 7, 2009 8:10 AM
"I wish Obama would embarrass WorldNetDaily and release his long form birth certificate."
What makes you think he still has his 'long form' certificate? His mother moved him around the world as a child and he's spent his adult life in several places. It's quite likely his original certificate is long gone, vanished in one of the moves.
I say this because my 'long form' certificate disappeared 20 years ago and the replacement I got from the state of New York looks an awful lot like the form Obama put on the internet.
Topic:
You're not going to get too many intellectuals out of a group that insists that the world was created 6,000 years ago by the Magical Sky Fairy.
As for 'social issues' being important to the heartland, I just spent the last week in Union Lake, Michigan and no one mentioned anything about gay marriage or school prayer. They're all too busy worrying about the economy and health care to care about what adults do in their bedrooms.
JoJo at September 7, 2009 11:14 AM
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