While feisty I agree with McCain’s mother. While Rush very knowledgeable about the media, he is severely shallow in philosophical and intellectual thought and displays the defective traits of conservatism in that conservatism can impede liberalism but dose not offer a different course. In addition, Conservatism just offers the same form of collectivism at the expense of individual liberty. He drove the GOP to the ground by turning to populism and pietism rather than individualism and capitalism.
Speaking of conservatism, after a bit of a debate with the conservative loonies at Broadband Reports forum, I sought out thoughts of like minded people; the passage from Why I Am Not a Conservative by Nobel laureate F. A. Hayek captures the problem with conservatism.
“Let me now state what seems to me the decisive objection to any conservatism which deserves to be called such. It is that by its very nature it cannot offer an alternative to the direction in which we are moving. It may succeed by its resistance to current tendencies in slowing down undesirable developments, but, since it does not indicate another direction, it cannot prevent their continuance. It has, for this reason, invariably been the fate of conservatism to be dragged along a path not of its own choosing. The tug of war between conservatives and progressives can only affect the speed, not the direction, of contemporary developments”
Mr. Hayek wrote this in 1960 but he could be speaking about today. For example Conservatives were in a tizzy when Jeb Bush rightfully said the Republican party need to move beyond Regan or in a Republican Meeting I was treated to a evangelical sermon on the need capture Oregon Christian past, a past that doesn’t really exist and is counter to a proper biblical understand of Christianity as God’s plan redemption of his creation through Christ. Other examples I can give are the failure of conservatism to offer reform education and failure to offer an effective response to homosexual marriage except the need to protect the institution. Finally I frustrated with conservative talk radio. The host would endlessly explain the problems of liberalism but does not offer any alternative solution other than reminiscing in flawed past. In all three, opposition to Jeb Bush, Christian Conservatives and talk show there is one common flawed thread, Conservatives is more about protecting intuitions that offer an alternative to Liberalism. June Cleaver and Leave to Beaver may be ok for 1950’s America if you can ignore the blatant hypocrisy of race; it is not a variable solution for 21st Century America. This not to say I reject institution of the nuclear but perhaps we need to protect the family by separating family from state in support and leaving the family to the individual.
Another problem with conservatives is they are more interested in protecting institutions from change than promoting liberty. To me the difference between Conservatism and Liberalism is conservative is about promoting civil society and institutions liberalism is about equality and both will turn to Statism and collectivism to promote their ideas.
A better solution is found in individualism, as in the case to schools and Marriage we not need to force on both secular or religious, gay or straight but let each individual decide for themselves what intuition to support but also remind them about their accountability for the outcome both good or bad and their decisions, and there is no license to force their views on others or demand other to support, approval for their choice or to be free from critical opinion of others.
