Conservatism

This week is the annual meeting of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) in Washington, D.C. (Andrew went last year). It appears that these active conservatives, disgruntled with the current crop of Presidential candidates, are turning their eyes towards Congress: Conservative leaders, who are gathering in Washington today for the first Conservative Political Action Conference…

Well, sometimes the self-generated posting just doesn’t come easily, which describes my state over the last few days. So, that’s when we bloggers revert to the excerpt-other-people’s-writing-and-compile-and-synthesize tactic. (Well, it’s better than nothing). I recently read this piece from Richard Karlgaard on Forbe’s web site in which he wrote: Money (profit) is a tool. It…

Here’s Republican pollster Frank Luntz, as quoted by syndicated columnist Robert Novak (via Townhall, h/t Instapundit)…“The Republican message machine is a skeleton of its former self,” Luntz told me. “These people have no idea how the American people react to them.” Luntz sees a disconnect between Republicans and voters that projects a grim future for…

It was clear to me that in his piece on “Civic Conservatism” that Fonte was emphasizing civic conservatism (or American Patriotism or American Nationalism) as a “glue” that both holds the various types of conservatism together and can serve as an appealing ideological template with which to sway many independent or (ironically) non-ideological voters. As…

Somewhere in the hazy period Tuesday between leaving work early at lunch time and leaving Hasbro Children’s Hospital around 8:00 p.m., I read John Fonte’s emailed response to Anchor Rising’s commentary on his recent piece about “civic conservatism.” For most of the remainder of that day, the part of my brain not preoccupied with other…

Marc notes the latest in modified conservatism, put forward by the Hudson Institute’s John Fonte (director of the institute’s Center for American Common Culture). The piece strikes me — to be honest — as the latest parry in the somewhat ridiculous battle over conservatism that the Republicans’ ineptitude has ussured in — the latest attempt…

John Fonte at NRO: I am a civic conservative, a “civ-con.” At the level of highest principle civic conservatism emphasizes the Unum in E Pluribus Unum and puts American national cohesion over any group interest. The intellectual origins of civic conservatism can be traced to George Washington’s Farewell Address. Citizens by birth or choice, of…