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On contemporary conservatism and the GOP’s future: my Washington Times interview, part 2

Part 2.

Please note that the answer appended to the first question as currently posted is not the answer I gave to that question, but rather reprises an answer I gave to another question in part 1 of the interview. I’ve emailed Mr Cotto about the problem but have not heard back as yet.

Here’s the exchange as it actually took place:

Q: Over the last several years, the American right-wing has become considerably more hardline. Do you suppose that there might be a specific reason for this?

I’m not sure I’d characterize the right-wing as “more hardline”; I’d be willing to allow that they are far more interested in principles-based politics than they have been in the recent past, though that’s hardly surprising when your party keeps preaching moderation, political “realism” and “pragmatism” — which too often translates into counseling that, for purposes of electoral politics, we hide the very principles that make conservatives and constitutionalists conservatives and constitutionalists.

I guess many of we newly-minted “extremists” figure that if we’re going to lose to the Democrats, we might at least do it with people who actually believe in what it is we believe in. And who knows? Maybe we’ll actually win by taking principled stands and addressing all Americans, preaching liberty and prosperity and growth and free markets, rather than by running focus groups and trying to triangulate identity blocs in order to find the perfect balance of pander.

21 Replies to “On contemporary conservatism and the GOP’s future: my Washington Times interview, part 2”

  1. sdferr says:

    Do you suppose that there might be a specific reason for this?

    Ha. Oh, they’re thinking? Why, that’s not allowed, is it?

  2. Scott Hinckley says:

    in order to find the perfect balance of pander.

    Too bad those who are referenced by that won’t fell the actual sting of it.

  3. mondamay says:

    Good stuff.

    I wonder what the hold-up is on fixing the incorrect answer.

  4. Jeff G. says:

    You got me. Maybe he’s away for the day or for the morning. Still, I posted it in the comments there. FWIW.

  5. bour3 says:

    That’s quite good. My favorite part is the last.

  6. Pablo says:

    An arrest has been made in the Boston bombing. No details yet.

  7. EBL says:

    Chris Matthews just lost his tingle.”

    Unlike leftists Christ Matthews and David Sirota, I care far less about the color of a terrorist, than his rapid arrest, prosecution and punishment for his evil acts. And also finding anyone who helped him. So as to stop future attacks.

  8. palaeomerus says:

    The arrest has been retracted by NBC. So either it was a rumor that passed on as fact by overzealous 24 hour cable news twerps, or some guy is on a magical mystery plane headed for a Tunisian rendition house, the press has been told to shut up, and this is no longer a civilian law enforcement matter.

  9. serr8d says:

    This Republic is usually stabile when both Left and Right neutralize each other, and there’s a steady political center that most average citizens will gravitate to.

    However, that natural center’s been wiped out by the Left’s recent slam-dunk successes. Now the center is skewed to extreme Left (thanks,’Community Organizing’ and overactive printing presses proffering free shit for votes).

    We see what would normally be considered a moderately Right-leaning person reclassified as an ‘extremist’, but really there’s been little conscious extreme movement to Right, only a focus on the troubling movements undefoot.

    We reclassified ‘extremists’ serve as last-chance anchors, hoping that we can slow this Republic’s race to cliff’s edge.

  10. How did “Instalanche” become “Instalaunch?”

    It started out as “-lanche” in reference to the huge amount of traffic descending on the linked site’s servers, sometimes bringing the site down temporarily. To what does “-launch” refer?

  11. John Bradley says:

    “I said ‘lunch’, not ‘launch’…”

  12. geoffb says:

    My error McGehee.

  13. Not just yours, geoffb — I’ve seen it elsewhere too.

  14. geoffb says:

    Take flight maybe?

  15. I imagine a huge traffic influx could launch my site into the double digits of occasional lookers-in, but PW has been aloft quite comfortably since before I first heard of it.

  16. sdferr says:

    The correction has finally been made, but no notification of the change is visible that I can see.

  17. Bob Belvedere says:

    Well put, Jeff.

  18. cranky-d says:

    In reference to the title of the book being promoted by the interviewer, I wonder what a “realist” is supposed to be. My guess is, a pragmatist.

    We’ve had too many of those. That’s why we are where we are.

    I don’t think that preserving liberty, and getting back the liberty we have lost, is unrealistic. It will not be easy, however, and the tree of liberty will be fertilized.

  19. sdferr says:

    I wonder what a “realist” is supposed to be

    Cheers cranky-d. It’s either something (what though? who knows?), or some sort of password.

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