AMERICAN CONSERVATISM IN 2008 AND BEYOND

I've answered every question with something to back it up. You, on the other hand, have provided nothing of substance to back up your criticism. So until you can, all we have is you think Rush Limbaugh is scum, and I think you have nothing to base that on other than you don't like him. And that's where we are.

What does it mean that the right cannot politely entertain dissenting opinions within its ranks? What, if anything, does it portend that Buckley The Younger has bolted from the right, even resigning (with enthusiastic editorial approval) from the family flagship?...

Radical conservatives are still having an interesting time of it, though these days they are being mutilated by fellow "conservatives." The well-fed Right now cultivates ignorance as a political strategy and humiliates itself when its brightest sons seek sanctuary in the solitude of personal honor.

The truth few wish to utter is that the GOP has abandoned many conservatives, who mostly nurse their angst in private. Those chickens we keep hearing about have indeed come home to roost. Years of pandering to the extreme wing -- the "kooks" the senior Buckley tried to separate from the right -- have created a party no longer attentive to its principles. ..

Paraphrasing Ronald Reagan, the younger Buckley said: "I haven't left the Republican Party. It left me."

Conservatism thrives on individualism, blatham. We all have opinions, not like a bunch of hopeless dupes running off the cliff, as lefties are. Limbaugh is no kook, he is a decent citizen, something that can't be said for a few Democrat constituenties these days, ACORN, for one, a bunch of crooks undermining the election process, corruption that your man, Obama, doesn't object to.

Your opinion means not much to me anymore, cyclops, you are so blinded by your blind swallowing of anything to the left. Rest assured that as you continue to defend corruption, you have no respect from me, you don't deserve it, none. You are sinking as low as the people you support.

Conservatism thrives on individualism, blatham.

... I say that the last 8 years of the Bush administration have been chock full of corruption. Not just on the electoral front, but in the executive branch, the department of justice, and many of our government agencies. People have gone to jail over this corruption.

GOP Senator Slams McCain Robo Call
October 17, 2008 8:17 PM

ABC News' Teddy Davis and Rigel Anderson report: Embattled Republican Sen. Susan Collins is calling on Sen. John McCain to stop paying for automated phone calls which describe Sen. Barack Obama as having "worked closely" with "domestic terrorist Bill Ayers."

"These kind of tactics have no place in Maine politics," said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley. "Sen. Collins urges the McCain campaign to stop these calls immediately."

Contacted on Friday by ABC News, the McCain campaign would not say if it was going to heed the request of Collins who serves as his campaign's co-chair in Maine.

In the end the Palin candidacy is a symptom and expression of a new vulgarization in American politics. It's no good, not for conservatism and not for the country. And yes, it is a mark against John McCain, against his judgment and idealism.

I gather this week from conservative publications that those whose thoughts lead them to criticism in this area are to be shunned, and accused of the lowest motives. In one now-famous case, Christopher Buckley was shooed from the great magazine his father invented. In all this, the conservative intelligentsia are doing what they have done for five years. They bitterly attacked those who came to stand against the Bush administration. This was destructive. If they had stood for conservative principle and the full expression of views, instead of attempting to silence those who opposed mere party, their movement, and the party, would be in a better, and healthier, position.

At any rate, come and get me, copper.