Sunday, December 18, 2011

Newt Gingrich: constitutional conservative?

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3 comments:

Arelcao Akleos said...

Can a loose cannon truly be conservative? But at least, while it swivels around, it has a fair probability of firing to the right.

Where's the Palin? That's the Rubio.

12/18/2011 4:44 PM
Tecumseh said...

What exactly is a "true conservative"? In some ways, the definition is immutable, or so it has been since the late 18th century or thereabouts. But it also depends so much on the time and the place we're talking about.

For instance, most Tories in the 1930s hated Churchill, thought he was a loose cannon, an oddball, or worse. They were much more comfortable with someone like Chamberlain. But then dire circumstances prevailed, and Churchill rose to power--and to the occasion. Was he the model conservative? Surely not. But still, I'd put him at the top (or damn near the top) of the conservative pantheon of the last century.

Now, do we have anyone remotely close to Winston waiting in the wings here? One could try and make the case that Gingrich is the closest approximation we have. But he does carry all that ballast that weighs him down. And, we don't have the Luftwaffe breathing on our necks, like they did back in May of 1940 in London.

12/18/2011 5:58 PM
Arelcao Akleos said...

But we do have the internal Sword of Damacles, the Obamacare "fundamental transformation" gamekiller. It stands, we fall into Socialism. And it won't be a pretty, gentle, 1960s Sweden version, either.
Is an internal crisis one capable of justifying "the closest thing we have to a Churchill out of the current crop" candidate?

12/18/2011 6:21 PM

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