We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
While I voted for Trump, I always suspected that he was a closet NY lefty. He is not. He is neither lefty nor righty, but a common-sense pragmatist with big balls and, while he acts thin-skinned, in many ways he is fearless and just doesn't care. Interesting character, for whom a political career is only secondary.
Traditional conservatism was 90% pragmatism before Buckley and his ilk decided they owned the "conservative" brand and erected a bunch of ideological tests to qualify for their club.
Coolidge is the granddaddy of all conservatives. Be believed in less government because excessive government is nothing but waste and annoyance. That's all you need to know.
Trump is far more conservative than Paul Ryan, John McCain, Mitch McConnell and most of the rest of the Republicans in Congress. If they were in anyway conservative, there would be tax reform, an Obamacare repeal, and massive spending cuts on the way to Trump's desk for his signature.
That is an interesting take on Buckley. I don't think he initially started being the gate keeper to conservativism, but his magazine certainly ended up that way.
How right you are about Buckley. For an interesting review of the post WWII era, one must start with the Dulles brothers, who ruled the State Department AND the CIA for too many years. Then Allen pops up after being fired by JFK as the supreme commander of the Warren Commission? Along with Albert Jenner? Gimme a blinking break.
Horowitz will forever be on my $hit list for demeaning Diana West and her book "American Betrayal", a highly footnoted book comparing the perils of communism's infiltration into the U.S. with that of the Muslim ideology. Horowitz is NOT the ultimate kingmaker; he is a late-comer to those who have fought the UNI-party for decades. Why he has this access as the "expert" I do not know.
"Traditional conservatism was 90% pragmatism before Buckley and his ilk decided they owned the "conservative" brand and erected a bunch of ideological tests to qualify for their club."
In the very early days of National Review Buckley recruited Russell Kirk, a preeminent Burkean. Unfortunately, he was not that influential. Kirk on pragmatism:
"Perhaps it would be well, most of the time, to use this word “conservative” as an adjective chiefly. For there exists no Model Conservative, and conservatism is the negation of ideology: it is a state of mind, a type of character, a way of looking at the civil social order."
As Glenn says, read the whole thing. You'll be glad you did.
I don't think Trump's nearly as thin-skinned as people claim. I think we've grown so accustomed to establishment figures, especially the GOPe, rolling over to SJW diatribes that any push-back at all is shocking.
I am glad that you, and maybe some others, were able to see what I knew: Trump is no 'Democrat.'
I think what he was as a businessman was egalitarian. He didn't need to be vocal about his politics, so he did what was needed to have a successful business in very liberal NYC and NY state.
It was easy enough to look at what he'd said over the years to see the hidden conservative. Many didn't want to look...
One reason I'm not a Conservative is because this from 1897 is even more true today. The only change would be to strike "Northern" as a qualifier.
QUOTE:
Northern conservatism. This is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition
Yup...the conservatives, as they self described, conserved nothing. The Tea party was a warning and several conservatives tried to get to the front and pretend to lead but the TP basically had few leaders. The conservatives did not take the warning so now they are faced with total revolt...and still not many leaders that the conservatives can focus their wrath on. The conservatives like McCain are neither conservative nor do they have a future where the party is moving. They are standing their last election and even the Ryan conservatives will fade. The uniparty is ending.