It’s 11:15 p.m., and the first free moment I’ve had all day. But although there’s much to discuss, I’m just too worn out. So instead I will direct you to another worthwhile column by David Brooks. In today’s essay he looks at the lamentable cult of anti-intellectualism that has hijacked the American conservative movement.
Can you imagine William Buckley choosing a ninny like Sarah Palin as a running mate? No, I can’t either. Read Mr. Brooks’s piece here.
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I would posit that the fatal mistake for Republican Conservatism (apart from Conservatism in general) was first made when the Devil’s Bargain was made with the Moral Majority. Fairly rapidly, from that point on-insofar as major political parties in the US have their currency rise and fall-the “base” of Republican Conservatism became the so-called Religious Right.
The Founding Fathers enshrined a theory for the new government they were creating, one that any political party should always keep in mind, separate Church from State. Church has a tendency to separate peoples into “us and them” whereas political parties, should they desire to maintain cohesiveness should only separate the “us” groups.
The Republican Party it would seem, has fallen victim to a leveraged buyout. Whither the bailout comest?
Yes, JK: as Brooks reminds us, modern conservatism began as a movement of dissident intellectuals. But with such people as the governor of Alaska now at its growing tip, it has clearly become something very different indeed.