Last week I laughed out loud reading Christopher Buckley, freshly fired from the family enterprise at The National Review for his disavowal of the McCain-Palin ticket, musing on the future of the conservative movement in the United States:
"The smart ones in the movement should get together right after the election at the Greenbrier or the Homestead, you know, where they typically have these kinds of get-togethers, and have a long dark night of the soul," he says. "And I'll tell you what the conference should be called: Conservatism--What the Fuck?"
(Just a personal note that I, back in the days when I had abundant free time to read lots more magazines than I do now, read The National Review even though I agreed with very little in it, simply because I enjoyed William F. Buckley's wit and intelligence...two commodities no longer much in evidence on that side of the ideological divide.)
Well -- Rod Dreher, like many other pundits, quoted Buckley the Younger's suggestion in his own blog (albeit with the bad word bowlderized for the sake of sensitive Moral Majority types), and asked for reader feedback on what topics such a conference of conservatism might include.
The responses, on this post and his related posts, include some real humor...some insight...but, geez Louise, there are some squirrely conservatives out there. I can't believe the respondents who spoke approvingly of Putin's Russia as a model of an emerging socially conservative state.
WTF indeed.
2 comments:
Your third paragraph, last sentence: I've wondered if the Christian Right believes in home schooling as a way to put a lid on any intelligence that might, just might, develop in that fold.
Song lyrics--nice touch! I love that song, though it always makes me feel a little melancholy.
"I spent a large chunk of my childhood simply wandering our property, observing nature and thinking my thoughts."
That is exactly what childhood should be. :-)
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