There Is a Cancer in Conservatism (Part 1)
What ails the conservative movement? We conservatives have many bogeymen. Phyllis Schlafly, a woman I have greatly admired for years, recently blamed public schools for changing young evangelicals’ moral imperatives. Every young evangelical I know who attend public schools have not changed their moral imperatives and I attribute that to their parents and their church. We evangelicals need to stop blaming the public schools for our failures. My children, all grown, can spot “leftwing jargon” a mile away.
There is a cancer in conservatism and it has infiltrated the Reagan movement not from without but from within.
Steve Deace of Newsradio 1040 WHO of Des Moines, Iowa, has an amazing interview of Jed Babbin, editor of Human Events.
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Steve Deace
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Jed Babbin
WHO Newsradio 1040 is the very station that Ronald Reagan got his big break in radio. As you listen to this interview, I want you to jot down notes of thoughts you have of Mr. Babbin’s comments, good, bad, indifferent. I have made excerpts of Steve’s show.
Please listen to the first part:
Part 1 Steve Deace interviewing Jed Babbin
(You will be asked to download a file which is a windows media file; I promise it is safe. Afterwards, use your browser’s back button to return to this page)
Steve does a great job of analyzing Mr. Babbin’s comments and we need to look closer…
Mr. Babbin’s definition of conservatism: “Principled conservatism is very simple: it means smaller government, greater individual freedom, strong America, defeat of the enemy and win the war, and just a few other things. Basically it comes down to what my father always told me when I was growing up, he was as rock-ribbed a conservative as you’re ever going to find. He basically said, ‘Look, the government’s job is to defend the shores, deliver the mail, and otherwise get the [h-e-double sticks] out of my life.”
In “The Conscience of a Conservative” Barry Goldwater wrote this about conservatism: “So it is that Conservatism, throughout history, has regarded man neither as a potential pawn of other men, nor as a part of a general collectivity in which the sacredness and the separate identity of individual human beings are ignored. Throughout history, true Conservatism has been at war equally with autocrats and with ‘democratic’ Jacobins. The true Conservative was sympathetic with the plight of the hapless peasant under the tyranny of the French monarchy. And he was equally revolted at the attempt to solve that problem by a mob tyranny that paraded under the banner of egalitarianism. The conscience of the Conservative is pricked by anyone who would debase the dignity of the individual human being. Today, therefore, he is at odds with dictators who rule by terror, and equally with those gentler collectivists who ask our permission to play God with the human race.”
As Steve asks on his show, especially in light of Barry Goldwater’s words, is Mr. Babbin’s definition of conservatism sufficient?
For many of us in the conservative movement the answer is no and we are calling on Human Events to replace Mr. Babbin. You can read the news release and thanks to Gregg Jackson and John Haskins for drafting and organizing the many leaders who have signed onto this letter. Please be sure to use the link to Gregg Jackson’s surprising interview with Jed Babbin, which took place before Steve Deace’s interview.
Part 2 of this series, which I will post tomorrow, will explore what are Mr. Babbin’s non-negotiables when it comes to conservatism. Please pass the word on this series
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Christian Activism, Conservatism, Constitution, Culture, Democrats, election, Media, Morality, Obama, Palin, Politics, Republicans, RINOs, TheVanguard.Org
January 29th, 2009 at 1:34 am
I just finished listening to both Steve Deace and Gregg Jackson and am really impressed with both of them. I really applaud the way Gregg Jackson handled the Jed Babbin interview so well, remaining completely calm despite numerous interruptions. It was interesting that Jed Babbin started using highly emotional words like “wrong” and “garbage” about not reporting Romney’s same-sex stance “every day of the week”–what else could he do but steer it away from the logical to the emotional? But Gregg Jackson was a true lawyer
, and a fair and balanced one too.
I’ve been noticing lately that hardly any attention is given in the media–conservative or liberal–to the Council on Foreign Relations, which has representatives from every major news network and includes many politicians and businessman. It has something like 4000 members. Why is a CFR needed to discuss foreign policy when we have two bodies in Congress to do that? It’s also impossible to know just how much is decided by the CFR, without asking direct questions to people who are on it (and then I still might not find out). It needs to be investigated, for it really has no accountability.
January 29th, 2009 at 4:15 pm
What the Conservatives need is a new leader. Without one, we will be running in too many different directions and getting nowhere.