Saturday, January 23, 2016

A very long time ago

Mark Steyn on the National Review anti-Trumpalooza:
Nevertheless, notwithstanding some contributors I admire, the whole feels like a rather obvious trolling exercise. As I explained yesterday, I don't think Trump supporters care that he's not a fully paid-up member in good standing of "the conservative movement" - in part because, as they see it, the conservative movement barely moves anything. If you want the gist of NR's argument, here it is:

I think we can say that this is a Republican campaign that would have appalled Buckley, Goldwater, and Reagan...

A real conservative walks with us. Ronald Reagan read National Review and Human Events for intellectual sustenance...

My old boss, Ronald Reagan, once said...

Ronald Reagan was famous for...

When Reagan first ran for governor of California...

Reagan showed respect for...

Reagan kept the Eleventh Commandment...

Far cry from Ronald Reagan's "I am paying for this microphone" line...

Trump is Dan Quayle, and everyone and his auntie are Lloyd Bentsen: "I knew Ronald Reagan, I worked for Ronald Reagan, I filled in Ronald Reagan's subscription-renewal form for National Review. And you, sir, are no Ronald Reagan."

You have to be over 50 to have voted for Reagan, and a supposed "movement" can't dine out on one guy forever, can it? What else you got?
Emphasis in original. Let's think about that last line. You have to be over 50 to have voted for Reagan. That brought me up short, but it's true. I did vote in the 1984 election and I was 20 years old at the time. I wasn't sure what I believed, but I wasn't going to vote for Ronnie Raygun. To show you how confused I was, I voted for Gary Hart in the primary and David Bergland, the Libertarian Party candidate, in the general. How does one go from a Democrat to a Libertarian in less than a year? By continuing to reject Reagan, especially after he enthusiastically signed a law that nationalized the drinking age at 21, while simultaneously recognizing that Walter Mondale was a sanctimonious scold. I also had a good friend who was an LP member and he certainly had some influence on my thinking.

My dad was a rock-ribbed Republican and he always maintained a subscription to National Review, so I had an opportunity to read plenty of NR growing up. Bill Buckley and Bill Rusher were the high priests of the conservative movement and they were willing to cast apostates into the outer darkness. It was Buckley who sent the Birchers and the Randians away. Later on, he cast Pat Buchanan and Joseph Sobran into the abyss. Buckley has been gone for nearly a decade now and NR no longer holds the imprimatur it had then. Back to Steyn:
The movement conservatives at National Review make a pretty nice living out of "ideas, ideology, philosophy, policy, and so forth". The voters can't afford that luxury: They live in a world where, in large part due to the incompetence of the national Republican Party post-Reagan, Democrat ideas are in the ascendant. And they feel that this is maybe the last chance to change that.
Hope is a lapel pin
You used to see, from time to time, people wearing a lapel pin of the sort you see on the left. That pin identified the wearer as a speaker of Esperanto, the 19th century synthetic language that people hoped would become the lingua franca of a better world. Esperanto has elements of  both Slavic and Romance languages but also other elements, in an effort to be internationalist. The name itself is similar to the Spanish word esperanza, which means hope. Esperanto still has its adherents but it never really caught on while you can still learn it, I wouldn't be surprised if more people know how to speak Klingon these days. And in some crucial ways, I think movement conservatism is becoming too much like Esperanto, a language people could learn but never will. I haven't seen an Esperanto lapel pin in at least 20 years. Hell, it's increasingly rare to see lapels these days. 1984 is a very long time ago.

Donald Trump doesn't bother with political Esperanto. He talks directly to people and he's very good at it. The writers and thinkers at NR are, in the main, not known for direct expression. Trump is winning because he doesn't bother with caveats and cavils. As Steyn notes, the hour is short. No one gives a damn about fealty to an idea, or for hero worship. People want a plan. A couple dozen denunciations isn't a plan. What is the conservative movement for? Do you know? If you read  the current issue of National Review, you won't know.

10 comments:

First Ringer said...

The conservative movement at the moment seems mostly defined by what it isn't, than what it is...

As such, I don't believe the conservative movement is bragging that "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters."

Mr. D said...

As such, I don't believe the conservative movement is bragging that "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters."

I saw that quote. Oy. I think Trump is starting to believe his farts are raw silk. He could blow it yet. Still, I daresay the conservative movement could shoot itself in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any votes, either.

Gino said...

First Ringer, like NR, is missing the point. trump isnt the cancer, he's the chemo. the question that remains is: will there be much left of the american body when the treatment ends?

Pat Buchanan was right on many things. among them was the need to protect the peasants not just from foreign invaders, but from invasive trade (that includes the money traders as well, including the senators from ADM).

NR was promoting a very sound set of uniquely American principles, the same principles that made America what is was. but, they were so insular that they forgot that America was inhabited by Americans of the blue collar, that practiced an American culture, that made the rest possible. oh, but thats so nativist... (to continue in English, press 1)

i've been calling for the guillotines for a long time now, i wasnt just kidding, and i beleive that is where we are heading.

after you sell out the people, you will eventually find yourself without people to sell to. it's happening now...

First Ringer said...

"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard" - H.L. Mencken

It appears after 7 years of getting it "good and hard," we've learned absolutely nothing. We're Oliver Twist asking "please sir, may I have some more?" If that's our lot, so be it, but I'll be damned if I don't want it pointed out all the way down.

Brad said...

People want a plan. A couple dozen denunciations isn't a plan.

Agreed. However, Trump's bluster, bravado and empty rhetoric is also *not* a plan. It's also concerning (and frightening) that he appears to be unaware of the contents of Article I of the Constitution.

Gino said...

As if the voters do?

Mr. D said...

Brad,I agree. Trump doesn't have a plan. But in the absence of a plausible alternative, the bluster and bravado will win the day.

Gino, the voters don't have to understand Article I, but the president better damn well understand it.

Gino said...

you still beleive the constitution is a thing? thats cute.

Mr. D said...

Yes, I do. I have to believe it is still a thing. If it's not a thing, then Trump doesn't mean a thing, either. Nothing is a thing. And that ain't cute, my brother.

Gino said...

no, its not cute. nothing coming down the pike is going to be cute.

arguing for a constitution that doesnt exist might make you feel good, but thats about it. believing those arguments only makes you a fool, as all of us constitutional minded conservatives are learning...