Here is a link to blog recently written by a Conservative individual, Patrick Ruffini, regarding some disagreements going on between his group, The Next Right, World Net Daily (a radical right wing website), the Republic National Committee (RNC) and some other individual Conservatives.
In his blog, Mr. Ruffini argues for a more mainstream approach to Conservative politics using William F. Buckley and his treatment of the right wing conspiratorial group, The John Birch Society as an example. If you are not familiar with this take a few minutes and read his blog.
I submit to you that this is an excellent example of a Conservative thinking about HOW to rescue our Republic from the policies of the current administration which are considered to be antithetical to Conservatism WITHOUT having to resort to aligning ourselves with conspiratorial groups and their paranoid beliefs.
The reason that this particular organization, The Next Right, is resonating with me right now is because they are calling on the "spirit" of William F. Buckley (not literally of course) to inspire and guide us through these current times where, similar to the time period after the Roosevelt Administration's 15 years of alleged "social engineering", the Conservative movement once again needs to be rebuilt, re-energized and, in some ways, re-imagined.
William F. Buckley with his publication of "God and Man at Yale" in 1950 started a revolution in Conservative thought and politics that ended with Ronald Reagan and the fall of Communism. It was President Reagan's example and this book by William F. Buckley that introduced me to the rich world of Conservative thinking almost thirty years ago.
William F. Buckley with his publication of "God and Man at Yale" in 1950 started a revolution in Conservative thought and politics that ended with Ronald Reagan and the fall of Communism. It was President Reagan's example and this book by William F. Buckley that introduced me to the rich world of Conservative thinking almost thirty years ago.
I think that there are many young people today who are both enamored and inspired by Barack Obama as I was back in 1980 by Ronald Reagan. So even though I disagree strongly with his politics, I don't have the same distaste for the Barack Obama phenomenon as some on the right, having lived through the phenomenom of Ronald Reagan.
And I remember how many left wing groups there were back then who thought Reagan was going to destroy our country. Remember the phrase "vast right-wing conspiracy" associated with Hillary Clinton? Do you know how many left wing Democrats lived (or still live) in fear of that one?
And we don't even have to go back that far. Just yesterday an individual named Van Jones resigned the Obama administration at least partly for the reason that he signed on to the "911 Conspiracy Theory" that says that the Republicans and President George Bush caused or allowed the events of 9/11/2001 to happen unopposed.
It's ironic isn't it that a conspiratorial website like World Net Daily who pushes the conspiracy theory about Barack Obama's birth certificate (a group currently derisively called the Birthers), is the same group that claims they were the first to expose Van Jones' association with the 9/11 conspiracy. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!
So conspiracy theories abound and they will probably always be with us. I think it's a wonderful exercise of our 1st Amendment rights that individuals so moved can express their ideas in our country. It's just that we shouldn't legitimize groups like World Net Daily and individuals like Jerome Corsi (author of Obama Nation) who despite overwhelming answers from the Left continue to push their ideas out to the rest of us as if these are actually mainstream ideas. (If you want more info on World Net Daily and who they are from another Conservative's point of view, check out the research article about WND on Brent Bozell's website Media Matters: http://mediamatters.org/research/200907230036 )
What feels different to me about today's approach to building a Conservative base, is that we are less willing to go through the hard work of the rebuilding process, choosing instead for the 'quick fix'. There are substantive reasons why President Obama has, at least up until now, been warmly received by so many American citizens and we dare not sweep all of them under some rug of conspiracy or try to fool ourselves into pretending that all of these people were just somehow mesmerized by his good looks and fair speech.
Some of that 'personality magic' happens in every election as hope springs eternal in party politics and as certain segments of society ponder who is the ‘cuter’ or more ‘viral’ candidate.
But beyond this standard bill of fare, there are deeper reasons why we have the President that we do and as Conservatives we need to look honestly at the bedrock Conservative principles (limited government, freedom of speech, rule of law, etc.) that were put aside without a lot of contention during the Bush administration.
There's a gap in our awareness that we Conservatives need to fill and we'd be better served to try to remove the planks out of our own eyes before we turn to our brethren and try to remove the specks from theirs. And it seems that one of the planks we need to remove are the conspiracy theories (like the Birthers) that cloud our vision and provide really tasty fodder to those who want to criticize and devalue the Conservative movement.
@ 2009 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
@ 2009 Joseph Ricciardi Jr
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