NYT: Passing Down the Legacy of Conservatism

[Rose Siding]

This is a report about a "conservative boot camp" for young people and pardon me but, ha ha ha. Oh, my. It's too good to snip. They can't get scholars to pay attention to them. BWAAAaahahahahaha It's all in there- Contempt for those less fortunate, bush-simple discussions of Iraq, a devotion to platitudes over substance, and *snort* a field trip to Reagan's ranch.

Oh, and I'm sure they must be there, but there's no mention of any recruiters on site. Odd.



snip>
Many conservatives say they have to promote their own thinkers because scholars and journalists ignore them. “They don’t study us; they’re ignorant of who we are,” said Floyd Brown, who runs the foundation’s West Coast office. “You can find college courses on all sorts of radical left-wing ideas, but you can’t find a course on Russell Kirk.”

Donald Devine, a lecturer here, said the task of teaching conservatism had changed with political success. When he began to lecture four decades ago, “we had to make the term ‘conservative’ respectable,” he said. “Now ‘conservatism’ has become such a popular word it doesn’t mean anything. The challenge is to decide what is truly conservative.”
.....
The emphasis on philosophy, over policy mechanics, may reflect the movement’s origins as an insurgency. “A conservative who stays simply at the level of fighting policy battles may win some significant victories, but he’s still playing the liberal game of tweaking big government,” said Charles R. Kesler, who runs the Publius fellowship program for Claremont. “These thinkers give you the chance to step back and think outside the liberal box.”
...
One common trait is a reverence for Reagan, who left office when they were infants. Most focused less on his policies than his magnetism, what Lauren Wilson called his “immense amount of character.”.....

Some conversation strayed from the canon. Dormitory banter cheered on Ann Coulter, the best-selling provocateur. Arguing for private property, Mr. Devine, the lecturer, noted “there are bums all over here” downtown, and “they sit on public property, not private property.” He lamented the prosecution of Kenneth Lay, the late Enron executive convicted of fraud, by asking, “Do you think it’s possible for a rich person to get justice in the U.S. today?”

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/31/us/31camp.html?pagewanted=print

[cornermouse]

1. Odd thing about "bums".

Since they are called "bums" (by some apparently), one can only assume that they don't own any property which of course leads to one to the inevitable conclusion that the only place they can sit is on public property.

Ain't nothin' like a compassionate conservative in action. :sarcasm:

[roseBudd]

6. Wah, those welfare queens are driving brand new cadillacs, they paid cash

that's right, because the bank wouldn't give them a loan.

[felman87]

2. Sounds like fun

To be honest, I wouldn't mind going. I like to be around people who think differently than I do. (I hang around with atheists because they tend to know where the fun is.) Also, some of them are bound to say some kinda bulls**t that I could post on the internet and have everyone laugh at (Thus making me popular) Also, I could go back to being the disrupter of the class, just like my days in high school.

[Hekate]

3. Wonder how many of those "bums" are combat veterans? or the mentally ill

...that Governor Reagan personally dumped on the streets of California?

Oh, Saint Ronnie had character all right. Ignorant little pissants.

Hekate

[wellst0nev0ter]

4. Why Aren't There Millitary Recruiters There, Post Haste?

oh I forgot, wars are only fought by the "bums".

[ixion]

5. these so-called 'conservatives' are a joke

they can't compete in the world of academia, so they make up their own knowledge base and then insist that it is the ONLY knowledge base.

Truly: if these people are allow to lead in this country, the entire world is doomed. They are idiots and screwheads and they lack the rudimentary logic skills requisite to get through a basic education.