I’ve been recommending postmodern conservatism over the last year & I’ve been happy to see former–& future?–Ricochet & Postmodern Conservative member James Poulos warmly recommended on Ricochet by Prof. Rahe’s. I’d like to share with folks who are likelier to agree his argument that in the new America, there’s no place for the Sunshine Senator. Prof. Rahe only showed the pretty stuff, so allow me the pleasure of introducing to you the ugly attacks that led to this new Cruz v. Trump world. This is a column from about a week or a ten-day before the Florida primary & it’s really good on showing what wrong with the view of the GOP that Sen. Rubio championed. His focus on the future–new American century!–really failed on all levels to deal with the failures of the recent past…
So this is where Mr. Poulos now writes, The Week. His latest column: Marco Rubio is a horrible failure! This is his upbeat, off-the-beaten-track, trying-to-see-the-big-picture thinking on Super Tuesday. March is the cruelest month this year, because it made the previously unbeatable-seeming Mr. Trump seem very beatable–but only by Sen. Cruz. All the ‘It’s me & the Apocalypse’ talk seems an accurate description of events that can in no way be blamed upon Texas! But we’re human, so we gotta blame someone. You know who can be blamed? Mr. Poulos thinks it’s the Sunshine Senator: He’s the darling of the party–future of America, even speaks Spanish, unlike Sen. Cruz!–& media–he wins every time he doesn’t win–he’s promising to the party that no great change is necessary & proving it publicly by embracing the Bush legacy. Where’s the electorate on all these matters?
The party basically promises that it’s got the election in the bag–all parties have to do that–if only you trust it. Just one more time. The electorate has proved it does not trust anyone publicly connected to the establishment or public face of the party. No one called Bush, no one called Romney, a thousand times no one called Dole. I’m not going to say bad things about these people, but whoever has tried to use whatever reputation they think they have acquired with Americans or the GOP electorate or the primary electorate–all honors have turned to ashes in the mouth of America. The worse the things you say about the party, the more primaries you’ll win, it seems. Mr. Poulos argues that all this is very much deserved.
I haven’t read much of Poulos’ stuff and I am a bit leery of The Week. But I’ll try to get to Poulos on your recommendation.
Hello, MLH. The guy is good. He’s among the best in young conservatism. & there is a need for young conservatives, so I advise everyone to go with the best we have!
The week is not my favorite place, but it features Mr. Poulos, as well as another writer, of some importance recently, Mr. Michael Brendan Dougherty. Or Brendan Michael–I never know with Irishmen… Anyway, he’s one of the best writers on why the GOP is losing its own nomination process instead of just the normal losing of elections. He’s the anti-Kevin Williamson, who is now turning into the guy saying: Let’s lose all presidential elections forever, because it’s better than compromising free market principles by trying to help out the lower classes.
You may recognize from my talk last year: The conservatives have come around to my view: Either you protect the lower classes or you become a permanent minority party & the lower classes are doomed. Mr. Williamson is happy to lose & doom those to whom public men should turn their attention. I am not. I think it’s neither to late for the GOP nor for the conservative movement to realize it is their duty as politicians & public speakers to protect the lower classes.
The alternative is, of course–& this speaking in the most alarming way, for the sake of clarity about what’s at stake–to let the left turn America into permanent class warfare.
I stopped reading and listening to Williamson, and CW Cooke, months ago. Too much I-am-smarter-than-you in their tone.
Yesterday I had a patient whose 12 you grandson is very interested in politics (this phase: was everything SS Titanic not long ago)! I am sure the kid knows more and can argue better than me.
My patient is a good conservative and in his 70s. He recommended Jewish World Review. He too can’t tolerate National Review or the Weekly Standard.
I agree about the problem with the tone. I cannot understand how these people do not know how they come across. I can tell you from experience that people tolerate a know-it-all when it’s a person they know & like at least a little; but why anyone would tolerate that in strangers is not nearly so obvious to me…
Glad to hear about the spirited kid! As for JWR, yeah, it’s pretty good–but I only really know some of the columnists they syndicate…
?So how do you propose to “protect the lower classes”. So far we have exported all their jobs, given them paltry living crumbs from the government in the form of welfare for which they have become addicted, and allowed the RE to constantly drum on about this or that perceived insult or inequality.
I’m not sure I have great answers. Free trade is a necessity, but it is not simply economic necessity. That’s what the economists on the right, libertarian or otherwise, want to say: There’s no negotiating here, it’s free trade or you’re a bad guy. Negotiating free trade stuff more carefully in future is both possibly & necessary.
Manufacturing jobs have disappeared due to technological changes more than due to free trade. I’m not sure in the future people will have productive jobs like they did in the past. Some of that is a good thing, but some is really bad & could lead to social collapse for a majority of the population. Maybe conservatives are going to pay for someone who shares their concerns & their outlook to look into the opinions of the libertarian technological-economists who’re super-excited about the future where work will have been abolished & people will be useless, men especially. There is much that conservatives need to learn about these things & there is a great need for people who can speak to them persuasively. That’s a condition for meaningful decisions & practical decisions made in public about how to deal with the lower classes.
Turning welfare into work-fare, like the 90s reforms tried & Gov. Thompson in Wisconsin–that’s necessary, but it’s also necessary to get all sorts of changes going that make this change meaningful. Some are policy-based, from the grand schemes of separating healthcare from any given employer to encouraging people on welfare to move to wherever there’s work. Others are adjuncts to policy: From state level on down, a great push to encourage organizations to deal with welfare, work, & community in their various capacities is needed. Everything that can be done to encourage people to associate more & help each other should be encouraged. This of course is a very difficult thing to do, but easy things have not been impressive so far…
Conservatives need to encourage reformicons & to find ways to help them influence the public mind & public sentiment. There is a great need for politicians at all levels who get that there are basic tools of policy for changing welfare & healthcare–but who do not believe that politics is about figuring out policies & models. Conservatives who actually go & talk to people & lead a push to revivify old institutions & come up with new institutions in communities–that’s what’s urgently needed & that’s a need that’s never going to go away…