The Conservative Intellectual Tradition In The US

David A. Keene

RATS TAKING OVER THE SHIP--The very wise and seasoned David Keene, NRA President, recently gave a talk at the Citadel which was very enlightening. (click here to view) I have gone over many of these ideas in previous blogs.  His talk was concerning the conservative intellectual tradition and how it has been usurped by new comers, the rats, to the Republican party.
 
FIRST, KEEP THE RATS OUT--In the later 1950's William F. Buckley helped to fuse disparate groups of anticommunists, moderate libertarians, and traditionalists into a new conservative movement that eventually took the national office in 1980 with Reagan.  However they had to kick some radical newcomers out in the beginning that would have jeopardize this new group's identity.  The Birch Society, extreme libertarians, and Rand's objectivist were forced out.  He made the analogy that when his father opened up a new bar, the first thing his father had to do, was to kick out the drunks that were kicked out of every other bar in town, otherwise no one would want to come.

"Hes' Conservative, But He's Not a Conservative"

Reagan-Our Last Conservative

LETTING SOME RATS IN--After the movement was established, its then "OK" to loosen your standards since you have your core ideas and identity established.  This is what he says happened by 1985 during Reagan.  They wanted to be in power but were not real conservatives, he, and I, would liken them to rats.  At first this is great because you need their votes to win.  But being a victim of your own success became dramatically apparent in the following decades where all kinds of people came into the Republican party that were "conservative, but not a conservative".

"Not conservative because of Hayak, Buckley, or Kirk, ...conservative because they liked Reagan, Gingrich, or Bush"

THE RATS TAKE OVER--These shallow conservatives have in the past few decades over run the ship and now lead the Republican party,--rats reproduce quickly.  Among them are the selfish and greedy Rand, free market ideologues and warmongering neoconservatives.  He points out, as I have, that having a stringent ideology, say of exporting democracy all over the world, is an anathema to being a conservative.  Being a conservative is a way of looking at the world and not an activist agenda.  As Goldwater said, being a conservative is rooted in nature, not an ideology.

Taking Back Conservatism From the Big Government Neoconservative Warmongers

THE RATS ARE SINKING THE SHIP!--About a third of our national budget, 700 billion, is spent on the military to support the neoconservative agenda: all because their leaders want a legacy.  They know international crusades produce legacies.  Libertarians say the growth of the superstate is the growth of the warfare-state.  In this they are correct.  Almost every voice of influence representing so-called conservatives today are rats, including, but not limited to those in the media and the Congress.  It's time for true conservatives who know what I'm talking about to speak up and educate the rats.

Sincerely,
Lawrence Feriozzi