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Gestalt Conservatism

By Robert Stacy McCain on 5.18.09 @ 4:56PM

Since every pundit sooner or later takes turns peddling some boutique variety of conservatism -- "Crunchy Cons," "compassionate conservatism," "South Park conservatives" and so forth -- I figure I might as well buy a ticket the sweepstakes.

Gestalt is the mental process whereby we translate patterned data into coherent ideas. So: Obama at Notre Dame, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Carrie Prejean, Larry Summers, Joe the Plumber, George Orwell, David Brooks, Al Gore, Matt Drudge, Rush Limbaugh, Ronald Reagan, Concord Bridge, salmon-and-risotto dinners at the Watergate.

See the pattern?

View all comments (7) | Leave a comment

John Lofton| 5.18.09 @ 10:26PM

Forget, please, "conservatism." It has been, operationally, de facto, Godless and therefore irrelevant. Secular conservatism will not defeat secular liberalism because to God both are two atheistic peas-in-a-pod and thus predestined to failure. As Stonewall Jackson's Chief of Staff R.L. Dabney said of such a humanistic belief more than 100 years ago:

"[Secular conservatism] is a party which never conserves anything. Its history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today .one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution; to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward towards perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt bath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard, indeed, to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It intends to risk nothing serious for the sake of the truth."

Our country is collapsing because we have turned our back on God (Psalm 9:17) and refused to kiss His Son (Psalm 2).

John Lofton, Editor, TheAmericanView.com
Recovering Republican
JLof@aol.com

PS – And “Mr. Worldly Wiseman” Rush Limbaugh never made a bigger ass of himself than at CPAC where he told that blasphemous “joke” about himself and God.

Ran| 5.18.09 @ 11:17PM

Sorry, Lofton ... THAT was a good joke. It's structure was kinda obvious, yeah. I'll tell you where the true blasphemy lay: It was designed to tweek both secular statists and religious authoritarians. Worked, obviously.

Moreover, if you think TAS is secularist - and that modern Conservatism is secularist - then do give us the GPS on that rock you're stuck under. I'm sure we can send you some heavy earth-moving equipment.

2Anglico| 5.19.09 @ 9:17AM

I'll have to look the joke up but Rush Limbaugh praises God pubicly in front of millions of listeners.... every day. He made the most convincing intellectual argument against abortion I ever read or heard.

Jay Breeds| 5.23.09 @ 8:21PM

Yes, I see the pattern.

They all contain an "E"?

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