Sunday, August 29, 2010
The Death of Conservatism is No More!
Link to original article by PETER BERKOWITZ
Last August left little doubt that a conservative revival was underway. Constituents packed town-hall meetings across the country to confront Democratic House members and senators ill-prepared to explain why, in the teeth of a historic economic downturn and nearly 10% employment, President Obama and his party were pressing ahead with costly health-care legislation instead of reining in spending, cutting the deficit and spurring economic growth.
n late October 2008, New Yorker staff writer George Packer reported "the complete collapse of the four-decade project that brought conservatism to power in America." Two weeks later, the day after Mr. Obama's election, Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne proclaimed "the end of a conservative era" that had begun with the rise of Ronald Reagan.
And in February 2009, New York Times Book Review and Week in Review editor Sam Tanenhaus, writing in The New Republic, declared that "movement conservatism is exhausted and quite possibly dead." Mr. Tanenhaus even purported to discern in the new president "the emergence of a president who seems more thoroughly steeped in the principles of Burkean conservatism than any significant thinker or political figure on the right."
A thoughtful conservatism in America—a prerequisite of a sustainable conservatism—must also recognize that the liberty, democracy and free markets that it seeks to conserve have destabilizing effects. For all their blessings, they breed distrust of order, virtue and tradition, all of which must be cultivated if liberty is to be well-used.
To observe this is not, as some clever progressives think, to have discovered a fatal contradiction at the heart of modern conservatism. It is, rather, to begin to recognize the complexity of the conservative task in a free society.
To be sure, the current conservative revival was not in the first instance inspired by reflection on conservative principles.
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JMC MINISTRIES RESPONSE by Jeremy Caverley:
America is founded on principles that have joined a diverse people from all of the world. The time is of essence that we don't back down and give up. This nation will be brought to its knees, but those knees will be one in prayer to the most high God Jesus Christ!
The faith, hope, and charity of the American people has risen up from the ashes to shore to shore. God's omnipotent love for his creation will be found within the body of Christ right here in each state. As we continue to move forward joining hand in hand and heart to heart. A conservative spirit reigns on forevermore!
May the Lord continue to bless this nation we call America!