From the Orange Punch Blog: Defining Conservatism Down

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Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Defining Conservatism Down

I usually get into work at 9 a.m. But today traffic snarls kept me in my flivver another 40 minutes, so I got to listen to some blab radio, Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. They exemplify what Austin Bramwell, in an incisive article in the Aug. 29 The American Conservative Magazine, calls "Defining Conservatism Down." (Not online yet, but described here http://isteve.blogspot.com/2005/07/how-right-got-bigger-dumber.html )

I enjoyed Rush during the Clinton regime because he always made fun of the nuts running the country. But under Bush he's mostly just shilled for his friend, the president. Today he just was reading Bush talking points about Judge John Roberts. For all I know, Roberts will prove a stout defender of the Constitution. But Rush didn't bring up that we don't know whether Roberts will turn out a Clarence Thomas (mostly good) or a Souter (almost all bad). And Rush didn't raise such questions as: How much of the Constitution is there left anyway after so many assaults on it, especially by the court? Will Roberts decide in favor of the Bush regime, and its successors, on unconstitutional, undeclared wars such as the war in Iraq, or will he uphold the Constitution's clear stipulation that only Congress can declare war?

Then I switched to O'Reilly, who was ranting about how Iraq will become a terrorist haven unless America pours in more U.S. troops. Has he noticed that is the war itself that made Iraq a magnet for terrorists? And why doesn't he volunteer to go over there?

O'Reilly's only 56, the age of some reservists. He at least could guard some prisoners. Here's what the Chickenhawk Database says about him: "Conflict Avoided: Vietnam. Notes: Bill O'Reilly loves to come off as a straight-talking, blue-collar kind of guy. Funny, a lot of guys who fit that description and graduated high school the same year he did - 1967 - went straight to Vietnam. Not our Bill - he went to college. And he didn’t just go to college, he spent his junior year, 1969-1970, in London. He graduated in 1971, briefly exposing him to the draft again, but Bill was miraculously spared."

I turned the radio off and listened to some classical on KUSC.

Posted by John Seiler - [e-mail] at 12:32

http://www.ocregister.com/blog/commentary/