MLK Day, Judge Sam Alito, and the Death of Conservatism

[Czolgosz]

Anyone who is old enough or a good enough student to understand what today (MLK day) is about will recognize that Judge Sam Alito represents the death of conservatism.

In MLK's day, conservatism and liberalism were words worth meaning and not just brand names. Specifically, conservatism meant defending the white, male establishment. Liberalism meant a desire for reform of that white, male establishment. And there was a philosophy so radical that its name was scarcely part of the debate; that third alternative was not liberal or even conservative but "reactionary" -- meaning someone who is not satisfied with opposing liberal reform but who wants to lead society back to a fictional, idealized past.

In 1973, when CAP was founded, it was conservative in its opposition to admitting women and minorities to Princeton. By 1985, when Alito was still bragging about his CAP membership as one of his key ideological and philosophical guide-stars, CAP's agenda was no longer "conservative" -- it had been left behind by the times and, by the mid-'80s, it was positively "reactionary."

Alito's judicial philosophy is the same. He wants to take the checks-and-balances of governmental power between congress and the executive branch to go back to the time before FDR's New Deal. Even more disturbingly, Alito wants to take voting rights back to the time before MLK's historic triumphs. Activism is the definition for Alito's willingness -- his eagerness -- to ignore the past decades of established law to achieve his personally idealized view of the world the way it never really was. But that's not conservative. It's reactionary.

Please do not call Alito a conservative -- his views are neither as benign as that nor as mainstream. Alito is a radical extremist who is promoting a dangerous reactionary judicial agenda.

[ixion]

1. conservatives stopped being conservative with Nixon

and have been reactionary ever since, IMO.