Conservatism
April 14, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Matt Latimer, a disillusioned former speechwriter for George W. Bush, claims in the Washington Post that Margaret Thatcher “was for turning after all.” But Latimer fails to point to any specific instance in which Thatcher turned away from a core principle. He comes the closest when he cites Thatcher’s famous statement that Mikhail Gorbachev is someone with whom the West “can do business.” But here Thatcher was simply recognizing, sooner
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April 9, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I respect much of Grover Norquist’s work, but certain of his arguments in favor of comprehensive immigration reform are imbecilic. Consider his response to the concern that entitlement payments will skyrocket if such reform comes before the border is secure: The idea of treating people as a liability — that more people coming in might go on welfare — that’s an argument against having babies, that’s an argument for car
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April 9, 2013 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal calls on the United Kingdom’s most formidable historians to take the measure of Margaret Thatcher (and makes their columns accessible online). In an essay that provides an overview of her career in politics, Paul Johnson declares her “The world-changing Margaret Thatcher.” Andrew Roberts assesses her continuing relevance, finding that “The genius of Thatcherism will endure.” The Journal editors draw on Thatcher’s memoirs in the editorial “Not
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April 8, 2013 — John Hinderaker
I yield to no one in my admiration for Margaret Thatcher; this photo of me with her, taken in 1997, is displayed proudly in my library: I agree with Paul that she saved Great Britain, at least for a generation. And Britain continues to benefit from her accomplishments: there is no Soviet threat, the unions have never regained their power, and Britain hasn’t adopted the Euro. But did she really
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April 8, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
So says Mark Krikorian. I haven’t seen the numbers to back up that statement, but Krikorian presents evidence that the British left responded to the defeats inflicted on it by Margaret Thatcher by legislating an immigration boom intended radically to transform the electorate. And we know that no one remotely like Thatcher has come to power since. In the U.S., as Peter Wehner has pointed out, Mitt Romney would have
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April 8, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Margaret Thatcher died today at age 87. We hear plenty of talk these days about transformative leadership. The assumption of those doing the talking is that such leadership must be “progressive,” i.e., that it will take the followers leftward. Yet the two great transformative leaders of my lifetime — Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher — were also restorative in many ways. Though not reactionary, both relied heavily on their nation’s
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April 8, 2013 — Scott Johnson
In recalling the great Margaret Thatcher to mind this morning following the announcement of her death, there’s nothing like the real thing. In the video clip below from her speech at the Conservative Party conference at Brighton on October 10, 1980, Prime Minister Thatcher responds memorably to her squishy Tory critics. Wikipedia reminds us: “The speech as a whole was very warmly received at the conference, and received a five-minute
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April 1, 2013 — John Hinderaker
I realize that is a politically incorrect question. Our fellow conservatives urge us toward moderation: we shouldn’t hate anything, let alone our own government. Perhaps not. But I do: I hate the federal government, and all its evil ways. That sentiment doesn’t extend, of course, to the armed forces and a few other branches of the Washington tree, but–generally speaking–I detest the massive fraud, the trillions in wasteful spending, the
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March 29, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The Washington Post reports that the bipartisan Senate deal on immigration reform is now at risk. At a minimum, the Senate bill may not be unveiled in April, as had been expected. What’s the problem? Have Republicans come to understand that it is wrong to provide a pathway to citizenship for those who, for years, have flouted American law? Has the irrationality of creating 10 million or so underclass voters,
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March 27, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
What is the key to a revival of the Republican Party? In a sense, the question is unfair because it assumes the Party is in need of revival even though it did fantastically well in 2010 and well enough at the state and U.S. House of Representatives level in 2012. Even at the presidential level, the Republican candidate did about as well as the Democrat did in 2004. And John
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March 24, 2013 — Steven Hayward
Charles C. Johnson is one of the brightest young writers in the conservative movement today, and Power Line was fortunate enough to sit down with Charles in Los Angeles last week for an extended conversation about his terrific new book, Why Coolidge Matters: Leadership Lessons from America’s Most Underrated President. We’ll roll out short segments from this long conversation over the course of the next week or two. In the
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March 22, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
The estimable Noemie Emery chides the “conservative wing” of the GOP for making “excuses, excuses” for the fact that the Republican Party hasn’t been nominating candidates for president more to its liking. The excuse offered is that “The Establishment met at the Country Club on alternate Tuesdays to undermine all the upcoming Reagans.” The reality, says Emery, is this. [A]gainst establishment types who were national figures, the conservative movement flung
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March 20, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
During the past twenty years or so, the Republican establishment and the conservative base have operated pursuant to an unwritten accommodation. The Party nominates an establishment candidate who receives the base’s support; the establishment nominee embraces all major positions of the conservative base. Mitt Romney, for example, ran as a down-the-line conservative in 2012. Before he began seriously contemplating a run for the presidency, however, Romney was a moderate on
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March 19, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
Yesterday, the Republican National Committee issued its plan for improving the Party’s electoral performance. Portions of the report deal with purely technical issues (e.g., digital transformation), while others pertain to technical matters with policy implications (e.g., fewer caucuses, more primaries, and fewer debates). But the report also calls for the Republican Party, in the words of the Washington Post, “to transform itself into a modern, welcoming home for a rapidly
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March 17, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
What are Rand Paul’s biggest assets as he attempts to convert the GOP into an isolationist party? He has several, and one of them is John McCain. McCain surely is among the names Paul “didn’t need to mention” when he declared before CPAC that “the GOP of old has grown stale and moss-covered.” Paul also didn’t perceive a need to name the GOP policies he believes are stale. Instead, he
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March 17, 2013 — Scott Johnson
I first wrote about Dr. Ben Carson here after his outstanding speech at the National Prayer Breakfast last month. Dr. Carson is a pediatric neurosurgeon who has lived a life of incredible accomplishment defying seemingly impossible odds. Watching the video, of his speech at the National Prayer Breakfast, I couldn’t help but wonder if Dr. Carson might not have a greater contribution to make outside the field of medicine. The
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March 16, 2013 — Paul Mirengoff
I think of CPAC as the event in which endless speakers (that’s the bad part) serve up red meat to a conservative audience (that’s the good part). But this year, there seemed to be a ban on red meat conservatism as it pertains to the immigration issue. And with various Republican legislators lining up behind, or softening their opposition to, amnesty/a path to citizenship for illegal aliens, the vegetarianism was
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