Whatever Happened to Conservatives?

March 22, 2024

Conservatives of whom there were few in universities, media, and politics were a principled opposition of the wayward ways in which Americans were being led.

They were defenders of the Constitution. They believed that the US government’s job was to protect citizens’ constitutional rights and to serve American interests rather than the interest of foreign governments. This last belief was compromised by conservatives’ opposition to the Soviet Union and support for wars, primarily the Vietnam War, that were seen as necessary to constrain Communist expansion.

This compromise has lived on, and the neoconservative agenda of American hegemony in Israel’s interest has eroded the original conservatism. Today what passes for “conservatives” are trying to silence Candace Owens for reporting honestly on Israel’s genocide of the Palestinians. They now use the tactics that they damned the liberal-left for using. Your Face Belongs to U... Hill, Kashmir Best Price: $6.49 Buy New $20.99 (as of 02:06 UTC - Details)

Now the Republican Party, once considered to be a conservative opposition, is considering inviting Netanyahu, the Slaughterer of the Palestinians, to address Congress. Any conservative, any person of integrity would have to wonder why a mass murderer, an architect of the genocide of a people and a country, would be invited to address the US Congress.

Apparently, it is to score off of Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer who recently harshly criticized Netanyahu.

In other words, conservatism has been reduced to politics. See here.

I don’t really trust Axios, and this report could have as its intention to undermine confidence in the Republican House of Representatives.

On the other hand, Axios’ report fits with the conservative effort to censor Candace Owens.

“Far-right” is the liberal-left’s description of conservatives, and this identification of the two could be false.

Nevertheless, I used to know the conservative intellectuals. Most of them are dead. And if they have replacements, the replacements are not very visible.

The Best of Paul Craig Roberts

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration, associate editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week’s first outside columnist, columnist for the Scripps Howard News Service, contributor to the editorial page of the Los Angeles Times, and columnist for the main French and Italian newspapers, and for Creators Syndicate in Los Angeles. He served in numerous academic appointments in US universities and was  appointed to the William E. Simon Chair for Political Economy at Georgetown University’s Center for Strategic and International Studies where his colleagues were Henry Kissinger, Zbigniew Brzezinski, James R. Schlesinger (one of his former professors), and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Thomas Moorer. His article, “How the Law Was Lost,” was published in the January 1999 Cardozo Law Review.