I’ve on many occasions observed that the conservative view is naturally fractured by two forces inherent in the aphorism: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
One of these is the desire to leave to our legacy a world at least as well-off as that with which we were blessed.
The other is “don’t rock the boat.”
The former I refer to as principled, emblematic of patriots, the latter as principaled, emblematic of RINOs.
Fran’s post just below this one, Reality Is Unbending, is astoundingly timely, because a liberal admitted to me yesterday that being fairly well-suited, she was inclined not to rock the boat.
To which I immediately pointed out that that makes her a conservative. To which she frowned in that she recognized the at least partial truth.
I then said not to be too saddened. Robert Conquest long ago noted in his first Law of Politics that “everyone is conservative in what they know best.” What one is accustomed to they are at least at ease with. They worry most when others want to rock the boat.
This is especially true when current events prove earlier actions to be wrong. It’s one thing to placate oneself that intentions were good. It’s entirely another to stick to what didn’t work because it’s too hard to admit the errors.
That goes for conservatives as well. But principled types work hard to overcome the principaled ones who, because of their more plutocratic positions and connections, are hard to remove from power.
But for the liberals, being conservative in the don’t rock the boat sense is one where they permit the radicals to remain in charge. As the relatively wealthy in Pacific Palisades — a good portion of whose net worth went up in flames — are now facing, leaving the radical super-rich like Gavin Newsom in charge is not healthy for them or anyone else.
Newsom and his ilk are unbothered by their plight. If that gang lost anything in the last week, they have funds to rebuild. But for the lesser ones, without insurance to rebuild with or without regulatory obstructions, they may only get, from land speculators, pennies on the dollar of the former value of their land.
And then there is the religious aspect of liberalism that Fran rightly noted.
I at least hold hope that their faith in that is far more shaken than that of the Death Cultists. The latter gained by the death toll that is mounting (a small number, but a trend they favor), the diminution of the upper middle class, and the power trip they’re enjoying from seeing their policies of neglect achieving what they hoped for, but to which they will never admit.
It is for certain that if Liberals continue to plod along as before, and continue reelecting Dems to control their legislature and vote counting, Libs are truly being conservative in the worst possible way.
Maybe you can awaken a few by making this point. Remember? Many a conservative is a former liberal who has been mugged.
1 comments
Mugged by reality….