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Wednesday, November 05, 2008
(Video) The Southern Avenger: "Thank God McCain Lost"
The "Southern Avenger" Jack Hunter, an always insightful and often funny South Carolinian paleoconservative, celebrates the McCain defeat as good for the conservative movement, saying "the Republican party needed to get its ass kicked before anything might improve."
In the column on which that video is based, written before election day, he explained that excessive partisanship, defending George Bush whether he was acting conservative or not, was at the root of the rot:
"Eight years of rationalizing George W. Bush's reckless liberalism — open borders, endless spending, and expanding government — has all but destroyed the Republican Party. If conservatives were paid zero dividends in supporting Bush, imagine the inevitable bankruptcy that would have occurred in having to rationalize McCain's liberalism for another four years, who would undoubtedly have pushed the GOP even farther left? President Bush put conservatism in critical condition. A President McCain might have put it out to pasture."
Read the rest.
Posted by Kalim Kassam on November 5, 2008 in U.S. politics | Permalink
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Comments
Very entertaining.
Posted by: Matthew Johnston | 2008-11-05 10:50:18 AM
This line of thought may hold water with some people, but the pendulum will eventually slow, and move ever closer to the center.
Canadian conservatives thought the Kim Campbell disaster would bring about a resurgence of the conservative movement, but look at what it really gave us. Harper had to turn himself into a liberal to get elected. There was no hidden agenda, as many of us hoped.
As the population grows, resources dwindle, and profits become a dirty word, there is only one path for the masses to travel. Socialism will reign. In the future, starting a business will amount to buying yourself a job. That's how the vast majority of Chinese business people view small business. The really rich ones are in the fringes of organized crime (or government). Big corporations will function as they always have. China will be the model for the world.
Anybody looking to buy an oilfield service company? Give me a call, and make an offer.
Posted by: dp | 2008-11-05 11:51:04 AM
"Eight years of rationalizing George W. Bush's reckless liberalism — open borders, endless spending, and expanding government — has all but destroyed the Republican Party.
Posted by Kalim Kassam on November 5, 2008
The paleoconservatives, especially Buchanan and the folks at The American Conservative saw this coming a long time ago.
The GOP needs to confront the truth: The failure of the Bush presidency lies not in a failed execution of policy but in the policies themselves and the neoconservative ideology that informed them.
Yet, still, the party remains in denial, refusing to come to terms with the causes of its misfortune. One expects they will be given the time and opportunity for reflection soon.
"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves."
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-11-05 12:06:57 PM
"Open borders?"
What?
Clearly this man has not tried to travel to and from his own country in the recent past.
Posted by: Janet | 2008-11-05 2:12:36 PM
"Open borders?"
What?
Clearly this man has not tried to travel to and from his own country in the recent past.
Posted by: Janet | 5-Nov-08 2:12:36 PM
The borders are open if you're an illegal Mexican.
Posted by: The Stig | 2008-11-05 2:18:27 PM
This line of thought may hold water with some people, but the pendulum will eventually slow, and move ever closer to the center.
Posted by: dp | 5-Nov-08 11:51:04 AM
I don't think Hunter is saying that a return to conservatism is inevitable, but that within the GOP there would be no chance of a conservative revival with John McCain at the helm. Going forward there will be a battle within the GOP, and conservatives are only one group vying for eminence. As Hunter says "The Republican Party needed to get its ass kicked before anything *might* [ed. he didn't say will] improve." Small-government conservatives merely have a chance to retake the GOP, it is no fait accompli.
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The paleoconservatives, especially Buchanan and the folks at The American Conservative saw this coming a long time ago.
"The GOP needs to confront the truth: The failure of the Bush presidency lies not in a failed execution of policy but in the policies themselves and the neoconservative ideology that informed them.
Yet, still, the party remains in denial, refusing to come to terms with the causes of its misfortune. One expects they will be given the time and opportunity for reflection soon.
"The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars but in ourselves." "
Posted by: The Stig | 5-Nov-08 12:06:57 PM
Right on Stig, I quoted and linked to that exact segment from Pat Buchanan's column right at the end of yesterday's Shotgun results liveblog (although the glitchy software makes it look like Terrence did). I believe it was Pat who provided us with (or at least popularized) the useful term and concept of The War Party (gah, use-mention), which I know you're quite fond of.
Oh yeah, and because I didn't mention it on the blog on Sunday. Happy (belated) Birthday Pitchfork Pat!
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Clearly this man has not tried to travel to and from his own country in the recent past.
Posted by: Janet | 5-Nov-08 2:12:36 PM
Of course you're right Janet. The US does not have open borders. As much as paleocons are right on so many of the issues, have strong principles, and provide a great internal critique of conservatism, they're mostly still actually isolationist meaning anti-trade and anti-immigration in addition to anti-interventionist, that's the perspective at work that leads to silly rhetoric like claiming that Bush has open borders. I suppose one could read Hunter more charitably to mean that Bush *favoured* open borders, but that's not true either. He just has a more open immigration policy and less border security than Hunter would favour.
Even after spending years as a friend of Murray Rothbard and learning much from free-market libertarians, Pat Buchanan still defends the economically backwards idea that tarriffs are good for the economy. His 2002 book "The Death of the West" could have been better subtitled "Immigrants=Really Bad, Tariffs=Pretty Good," but I guess his publisher preferred "How Dying Populations and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization".
Posted by: Kalim Kassam | 2008-11-05 4:19:07 PM
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