Posner: Conservatism is deathly ill (but at least it succeeded in moving the center rightward)

[BurtWorm]

A very interesting, very honest appraisal of what the fuck went wrong with American conservatism from one of the right's most annoying voices, Richard Posner. The whole article is especially interesting if you happen to be reading Richard Perlstein's Nixonland, which discusses the same phenomenon. (For an interesting sidebar to this article, see FiveThirtyEight.com):


http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2009/05/is_the_conserva.html


Is the Conservative Movement Losing Steam? Posner

I sense intellectual deterioration of the once-vital conservative movement in the United States. As I shall explain, this may be a testament to its success.

...



My theme is the intellectual decline of conservatism, and it is notable that the policies of the new conservatism are powered largely by emotion and religion and have for the most part weak intellectual groundings. That the policies are weak in conception, have largely failed in execution, and are political flops is therefore unsurprising. The major blows to conservatism, culminating in the election and programs of Obama, have been fourfold: the failure of military force to achieve U.S. foreign policy objectives; the inanity of trying to substitute will for intellect, as in the denial of global warming, the use of religious criteria in the selection of public officials, the neglect of management and expertise in government; a continued preoccupation with abortion; and fiscal incontinence in the form of massive budget deficits, the Medicare drug plan, excessive foreign borrowing, and asset-price inflation.

By the fall of 2008, the face of the Republican Party had become Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber. Conservative intellectuals had no party.

And then came the financial crash last September and the ensuing depression. These unanticipated and shocking events have exposed significant analytical weaknesses in core beliefs of conservative economists concerning the business cycle and the macroeconomy generally. Friedmanite monetarism and the efficient-market theory of finance have taken some sharp hits, and there is renewed respect for the macroeconomic thought of John Maynard Kenyes, a conservatives' bête noire.

There are signs and portents of liberal excess in the policies and plans of the new administration. There will thus be plenty of targets for informed conservative critique. At this writing, however, the conservative movement is at its lowest ebb since 1964. But with this cardinal difference: the movement has so far succeeded in shifting the center of American politics and social thought that it can rest, for at least a little while, on its laurels.

[redqueen]

1. How depressing... it's true.

The "center" here is so far right it's a joke. A sad, scary joke.

[BurtWorm]

2. What I find depressing is finally being able to see that the 1960s social revolution

was a failure. The counterrevolution was a success.

[redqueen]

3. I had a history teacher

who would have suggested the two were related.

That the swing to the left caused the swing back to the right. I wonder if we've gone far enough right to start swinging back left now.

Looking at this healthcare debate... perhaps not.

[Monk06]

4. Intellectual decline? Conservatism is down to the bone anti intellectual..

The closest to a legitimate intellectual
on the right was William Buckley and the
base hated his guts in his last years of
his life because he was too liberal for them.