Quote of the Day

by

J. E. Dyer:

Conservatism itself is paralyzed by the nervous moral fear induced in people by cultural Marxism – which has been meant from the beginning to undermine moral confidence at the most basic level. Conservatism’s problem isn’t Donald Trump. Conservatism’s problem is that Donald Trump isn’t paralyzed by the guilt-mongering of cultural Marxism – but conservatism is.
 
The answer is not for conservatism to insist that nothing move out there, until we decide what forms of paralysis will continue to suit us. The answer is that conservatives must fearlessly reclaim the necessary social concepts of authority and common expectations, and start producing results.

8 thoughts on “Quote of the Day”

  1. I don’t think “conservatives” are up to it.

    These days “conservatives” seem to describe sissy boys like Bill Kristol and Rich Lowry.

    Charles Krauthammer is a brilliant guy but he is still contaminated by the left that he occupied for years. He is a classic neocon, not that there is anything wrong with that.

    I just don’t take advice from them.

    The Tea Party was the first attempt at rational intervention in the ruling class follies.

    It was slapped down viciously by Obama with help from the GOPe.

    Now, like many repressed forces, it has recurred in a less civilized and more aggressive form. That is Trump. I was very doubtful about him at first.

    I am not a Trump supporter but I am intrigued at the steady progress he is making toward success. I have been a fan of Angelo Codevilla’s characterization of America’s Ruling Class.

    The recent collapse of Republican Congressional resistance to the left’s political agenda as noted in the surrender of Paul Ryan to the Democrats in the budget, has aggravated the Republican base and its frustration.

    Trump is a populist and they have a long tradition in America. Jackson might have been the first. The Democrats used to claim him as a hero but now, with insane PC ruling their policies, they have abandoned him and adopted neo-Marxism.

    William Jennings Bryan was the next big populist but that was when America was still optimistic.

    Reagan was kind of a populist and it led to the “Reagan Democrats.”

    Maybe it will work again. I have no idea who will win the election but am making preparations for either. Trump will be easier.

  3. Here’s the problem, as I see it: We’re far too heterogeneous “reclaim the necessary social concepts of authority and common expectations.” I’m not at all sure I could go around my neighborhood and convince people to share “expectations,” in part, because I have no idea, anymore, what those expectations look like.

    Is there an expectation of civility? If so, what does this mean?
    Is there an expectation of honesty, of having your handshake be your word? If so, who goes first?
    Is there an expectation of family formation? If so, how to I convince my living-together neighbors to marry? Why should they? What common moral language do we share?

    We no longer have shared conception of social civility, and without those conceptions, talk is futile.

    We need to break apart into small, homogeneous communities and start again, in my wee opinion. The broader, American culture is too far gone.

  4. I’m house hunting in Tucson. We are looking for a house with enough property for a propane tank and a propane powered generator. A swimming pool is another necessity.

    I will decide about freeze dried food after we get settled and see the election results.

    My stepson lives in Oregon and has several freezers filled with salmon he has caught and chickens he has raised. A propane generator is on standby. It looks like a good system. We were thinking about moving up there, too. Rural Oregon is another world from Portland, but my wife can’t handle the climate. Too wet and cold.

    “small, homogeneous communities and start again”

    The smallest is one family but like minded people will find each other. I know some in Tucson.

  6. We need to break apart into small, homogeneous communities and start again

    I wouldn’t call individual states “small, homogeneous communities”, exactly, but each state tends to have its own culture, and it’s certainly easier to influence the laws in your own state than it is to change federal law.

    The move to Make Absolutely Everything a Federal Case—from drug laws to housing density to whether single-sex locker rooms are permitted—has done a great deal to destabilize the country, because it has proven impossible to simply impose a top-down solution on such a diverse group of people and have them accept it quietly. One obvious thing to try, therefore is to federalize fewer things.

  7. States were much more homogenous cultural units before the one man, one vote monstrosity. Imagine how radically different the big blue states of CA, NY, IL, etc, would be if they still had state senates based on counties the way they always had before the Supreme Court destroyed the system. Now federalist devolution to states won’t even be enough, we’ll have to go smaller.

  8. Kr your points are well made. It really is the heart of the matter. We lost our culture and even our history. Something or Someone would have to intervene to cause a unity around an essential frame of reference.

    I have little hope that is even possible without an unimaginable and comprehensive upheaval. A generator, propane, water well, isolated location, supplies and selfdefense capabilities are unlikely to be adequate to survive any such event(s) for long. I can not see us coming out well in the aftermath, individually or collectively. What mechanism would restore those virtues and beliefs we have lost as a common reference?

    No, Somalia comes to mind initially, with consolidation into a centralized dictatorship no long after. The progressive dream becomes reality much to the consternation of all who survive the journey.

    Death6

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