Wanted: A New Politics of Character

[Valin]

Washington Free Beacon:

Matthew Continetti

February 22, 2016

 

 

 

I spent the weekend re-reading David Frum’s Dead Right. Published in 1995, Frum’s slim book is a gripping and devastating account of the failure of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush to limit government. Frum’s thesis, which I do not believe he has ever recanted, is that the conservative movement became enamored with the trappings of power during the Reagan presidency, and stopped making the argument that America’s problems stem from our sprawling and dilapidated welfare state. Instead conservatives, like Reagan, told Americans they could indeed have it all: tax cuts and entitlements, big government at half the price. Frum’s solution was for conservatives to step back from the Republican Party, care somewhat less about elections, and spend more time convincing Americans that a radical reduction in the size and scope of government is necessary and just.

 

What really interested me, though, was Frum’s typology of post-Reagan conservatives. He divides them into three groups. There are optimists, led by Jack Kemp. There are moralists, led by William J. Bennett. And there are nationalists, led by Pat Buchanan.

 

 

(Snip)

 

It is worth considering where these groups stand today. Kemp protégé Paul Ryan is clearly the leader of the optimists. Donald Trump is clearly the leader of the nationalists. But I can’t tell you who the leader of the moralists is. I can’t name a prominent conservative known for advocating public morality, a political leader who has taken a stand on crime, on welfare, on family policy, on education. A major education bill was recently signed into law with little fanfare and even less debate. The Powerball jackpot has grown to more than $236 million, and no one bats an eye, no Republican presidential candidate suggests that gambling harms the weak.

 

Where did the moralists go? To some degree they were victims of their own success..........................................(Snip)

[righteousmomma]

Oh, I think there are moralists among the conservatives. Any one - whether Protestant or Catholic - who has a sincere world view and perspective based on the Bible and the classic philosophers is a moralist. The problem is society. The nation is becoming increasingly immoral and amoral. We live in a time when "everyone does what he ("feels") is right in his own eyes". Situational ethics rule. We "moralists" are looked upon as the narrow minded bigots who hate and impede progress.

Judeo/Christianity which has undergirded Western Civilization is a barrier to the "brotherhood of man where all live as one" to quote the great modern philosopher John Lennon, a Beatle.

 

See Draggingtree's post: "America Under Strong Delusion.."