If it's not "Peggy Noonan syndrome" entertaining us, it is the strained attempts of self-identified moderate Republicans to scold the conservative majority in the party.
This defense of "Libery and Tyranny" by its author, Mark Levin, at American Thinker caught my eye. He was respnding to a review of the book by a Peter Berkowitz ,a Hoover Fellow, in The Weekly Standard. From the Berkowitz review, the following stuck out:
"...[R]eversing and ultimately eliminating the New Deal would require the dismissal of society's accumulated experience, knowledge, and traditions over the course of 80 years, during which the federal government, at least partly in response to profound 20th century changes in social and commercial life (and with the persistent support of substantial majorities) assumed substantially greater responsibilities for caring for the vulnerable and regulating an increasingly complex economy.[...] Like it or not, the New Deal is here to stay. It has been incorporated into constitutional law and woven into the fabric of the American sensibility and American society."
That seems like an odd position for a conservative to take. About a year or so ago I attended a lecture by George Will in Philadelphia. Will's remarks were based in large part on the premise that the question of whether or not America will have a welfare state was largely settled 60 years ago. The questions that we grapple with today are how to pay for it. I thought the remarks made a lot of sense.
So here we are today discovering that in fact we cannot pay for our made-in-America utopia without grinding our Constitution and founding principles into dust. If we cannot pay for it, then how can it be sustained short of tyranny? And if it cannot be sustained or will not peacably be sustained, how in any way is it inevitable? These are the questions that the moderates never reach, because they assume that the State will continue to grow and individual liberty will necessarliy continue to recede.
Levin responded to the Berkowitz text quoted above as follows:
"My, this is quite a jumble.
And it reflects the confusion that is so prevalent among the
neo-Statists. Unconstitutional statism is not an American tradition (it
is actually more European). Indeed, it rejects American tradition and
has as its aim to destroy the civil society.[...] Moreover, for starters, the
"abstract appeals" to which Berkowitz refers are found in the
Declaration of Independence (I have said many times that the Statist
rejects the Declaration for he must in order to advance his agenda;
perhaps the neo-Statist does as well), and the United States
Constitution (which is hardly abstract, but which Berkowitz ignores as
he must to make his own abstract arguments about "moderation").
Nonetheless, despite having just argued that the New Deal is now part
of American tradition, it is constitutional, and woven into the fabric
of the nation, Berkowitz wants to slow it, contain it, keep it within
reasonable boundaries, and reduce its reach.
Why? If it is
desired, why oppose it? If it is un-Burkean to challenge it, why reject
it? If American tradition began with the New Deal and the people want
more of it, why slow it and contain it? From what principles does
Berkowitz operate? We don't know from his review. He doesn't tell us.
If they are not discoverable in the Declaration, the Constitution, or
our founding generally, if they are too abstract to bring to this
fight, then what exactly does Berkowitz stand for other than an
undefined, reactionary "moderation" which may be known to him but which
cannot be set forth in a coherent or comprehensive way in his review?
Besides, how can you effectively contain Statism when you fundamentally
embrace it as inevitable? Berkowitz does not tell us."
There seems to be much wishful thinking on the part of cocktail circuit Republicans like Berkowitz, Powell, McCain, Brooks and Noonan that conservatives will split off and form their own party. For the life of me I don't understand why they don't all become Democrats and enjoy the limelight as so-called "Blue Dogs"
