Former National Review publisher endorses Obama
by kos <http://kos.dailykos.com>
Wed Sep 17, 2008 at 01:44:34 PM PDT
Wick Allison
<http://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?nm=Core+Pages&type=gen&mod=
Core+Pages&tier=3&gid=
B33A5C6E2CF04C9596A3EF81822D9F8E> , current
editor-in-chief of D (Dallas) Magazine:http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/17/122651/224/442/601632
In 1964, at the age of 16, I organized the Dallas County Youth for
Goldwater. My senior thesis at the University of Texas was on the
conservative intellectual revival in America. Twenty years later, I was
invited by William F. Buckley Jr. to join the board of National Review. I
later became its publisher [...][T]oday it is so-called conservatives who are cemented to political programs
when they clearly don't work. The Bush tax cuts-a solution for which there
was no real problem and which he refused to end even when the nation went to
war-led to huge deficit spending and a $3 trillion growth in the federal
debt. Facing this, John McCain pumps his "conservative" credentials by
proposing even bigger tax cuts. Meanwhile, a movement that once fought for
limited government has presided over the greatest growth of government in
our history. That is not conservatism; it is profligacy using conservatism
as a mask.Today it is conservatives, not liberals, who talk with alarming bellicosity
about making the world "safe for democracy." It is John McCain who says
America's job is to "defeat evil," a theological expansion of the nation's
mission that would make George Washington cough out his wooden teeth.This kind of conservatism, which is not conservative at all, has produced
financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of moral
authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make
worse.That is, in a nutshell, the conservative argument against Bush/McCain.
Elegantly done so, but he's not the first to make this case. But Allison
then does something I had yet to see -- make the conservative argument for
Obama:I now see that Obama is almost the ideal candidate for this moment in
American history. I disagree with him on many issues. But those don't matter
as much as what Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the
world. Nobody can read Obama's books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote
himself) or listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful,
pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after
eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually read
the Federalist Papers.Most important, Obama will be a realist. I doubt he will taunt Russia, as
McCain has, at the very moment when our national interest requires it as an
ally. The crucial distinction in my mind is that, unlike John McCain, I am
convinced he will not impulsively take us into another war unless American
national interests are directly threatened."Every great cause," Eric Hoffer wrote, "begins as a movement, becomes a
business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." As a cause,
conservatism may be dead. But as a stance, as a way of making judgments in a
complex and difficult world, I believe it is very much alive in the
instincts and predispositions of a liberal named Barack Obama.How can Allison claim Obama has a "deeply conservative view of the world"?
Because of his definition of "conservatism":Conservatives are skeptical of abstract theories and utopian schemes,
doubtful that government is wiser than its citizens, and always ready to
test any political program against actual results.That's a romanticized definition, no doubt, but one I had embraced in my
Republican years. My break with the Right came when 1) it was hijacked by
cultural conservatives, attempting to impose their theocratic abstract
theories and utopian schemes on society at large, and 2) when that
"skepticism" over solutions to our problems manifested as outright hostility
to change. In other words, I'm not afraid to try new solutions to our
problems even if those solutions sometimes involve the government.
Skepticism is healthy, and a demand for accountability is crucial, but being
paralyzed in fear of change does nothing but impede progress.Modern conservatives have long abandoned Allison's definition. As he states
clearly, Republicans are now the party of "abstract theories and utopian
schemes". Witness the failure of deregulation currently costing taxpayers
tens of billions and financially destroying countless people, or the failure
of utopian schemes to "defeat evil" around the world, costing us thousands
dead and closing on a trillion taxpayer dollars. Yet Republicans shrug off
the painful lessons and insist on staying the course. The results are
irrelevant, their ideology trumps all.Remember, conservatism can't fail, only people can fail conservatism.
But when you get past ideological blinders, it's clear that modern-day
conservatism has utterly failed. If reality-based conservatives want to
claim Obama's pragmatism and realism are "conservative", then all the power
to them. We should embrace them with open arms.