Liberal Illiberalism

[Valin]

PJ Media:

Victor Davis Hanson

3/18/12

 

Conservatives are put into awkward positions of critiquing liberal ideas on grounds that they are impractical, unworkable, or counterproductive. Yet rarely, at least outside the religious sphere, do they identify the progressive as often immoral. And the unfortunate result is that they have often ceded moral claims to supposedly dreamy, utopian, and well-meaning progressives, when in fact the latter increasingly have little moral ground to stand upon.

 

(Snip)

 

To do all the above is retrograde and ultimately nihilistic. That something so unsustainable continues then is predicated on one unspoken truth: most in the West will not act like Bay Area greens, the grand mufti, La Raza, or Lovie Smith, because for all others to adopt their favored methodology and ideology would lead to something other than liberal life as we know it. Thus they act as they do because they know others will not act as they do — at least for now.

 

Tit-for-tat factionalism leads nowhere but to chaos and carnage. But the Western tradition is not made of adamantine metal; it is fragile and singular. Anytime we do not stand up and defend it, however unpopular, we cede to barbarism ourselves.

 

In other words, the only way to question these illiberal doctrines is without apology to identify them as immoral — and to welcome the hysterical reaction that ensues.

 

[RandyM]

Boy, did he nail it.

[pollyannaish]

I absolutely love his moral clarity.

 

I wonder if VDH has the experience to help solve the problems he so eloquently and perfectly describes. We need someone with the practical experience of governing combined with the ability to articulate the issues and alter how the debate is framed.

 

Sigh. Back to the reality of the choices we actually have.

[Rokke]

I absolutely love his moral clarity.

 

I wonder if VDH has the experience to help solve the problems he so eloquently and perfectly describes. We need someone with the practical experience of governing combined with the ability to articulate the issues and alter how the debate is framed.

 

Sigh. Back to the reality of the choices we actually have.

 

I wonder if it is really possible for someone with moral clarity to remain a professional politician. I mean that with sincerity. I'm not sure it is possible for a nationally viable politician to maintain the personal integrity required to exist in our political environment. How long could Billy Graham hang out in a strip joint before he'd have to make a run for the showers.

[pollyannaish]

I absolutely love his moral clarity.

 

I wonder if VDH has the experience to help solve the problems he so eloquently and perfectly describes. We need someone with the practical experience of governing combined with the ability to articulate the issues and alter how the debate is framed.

 

Sigh. Back to the reality of the choices we actually have.

 

I wonder if it is really possible for someone with moral clarity to remain a professional politician. I mean that with sincerity. I'm not sure it is possible for a nationally viable politician to maintain the personal integrity required to exist in our political environment. How long could Billy Graham hang out in a strip joint before he'd have to make a run for the showers.

 

I completely agree. I do think in a lot of ways you have to sell your soul. That's actually one of the reasons I like President Bush as much as I did...he seemed LESS that way than many in my lifetime. Whether that is the truth or not, I'll never know.

[Valin]

I absolutely love his moral clarity.

 

I wonder if VDH has the experience to help solve the problems he so eloquently and perfectly describes. We need someone with the practical experience of governing combined with the ability to articulate the issues and alter how the debate is framed.

 

Sigh. Back to the reality of the choices we actually have.

 

I wonder if it is really possible for someone with moral clarity to remain a professional politician. I mean that with sincerity. I'm not sure it is possible for a nationally viable politician to maintain the personal integrity required to exist in our political environment. How long could Billy Graham hang out in a strip joint before he'd have to make a run for the showers.

 

I believe there are, although it is often hard to tell. Machiavelli in The Prince talks about how the prince needs to be ruthless and amoral, while appearing to be a moral man.

In thinking about politicians I always keep in mind this scene from The Hunt For Red October