The Death of Conservative Intellectualism?

[HashiriyaS14]

This is a very good article by Richard Posner:

http://www.becker-posner-blog.....html

While I don't think that conservatism in America is doomed as do some liberal pundits, I think that Mr. Posner raises a very valid point. All political positions must have solid intellectual and rational roots, and while this is not always the case with the Democrats either, it is more so than with modern popular conservatism.

[Jesda]

People thought liberalism was doomed just a few years ago. Its the pendulum swing, nothing more.

I would argue that conservatism as we knew it has died. All the religious folks took the reigns of the right and flushed the whole thing down the toilet. Nothing wrong with that, as it weeds out the religious crowd from the small-government advocates.

What remains of the right are libertarian-leaning movements formed as a response to the new liberal government. Too bad none of these born-again 'patriots' bothered being 'libertarian' a decade ago. Thanks, guys, for joining my bandwagon way too late.

[HashiriyaS14]

Unless I read the article incorrectly, it wasn't so much about the death of conservatism as it was about the death of the modern conservative intellectual and the intellectual/logical grounding of GOP party positions.

But yeah, for the record, I don't disagree with a thing Jesda said, I just don't necessarily think that's what the article in question is trying to address.

[Jesda]

I didn't read the article. I didn't care.

You pre-loaded your post with the claim that liberalism is based on more logic than conservatism. It must be dark in Plato's allegorical cave.

Its all based on emotion. Conservatives feel good from being righteous. Liberals feel good from championing falsely perceived victimhood. Both sides heavily use government power, heavy spending, and taxation to achieve their goals.

I used to be a Democrat. I used to be a liberal. No more. I can't stomach the religious right either.

[HashiriyaS14]

I didn't read the article. I didn't care.

You pre-loaded your post with the claim that liberalism is based on more logic than conservatism. It must be dark in Plato's allegorical cave.

Its all based on emotion. Conservatives feel good from being righteous. Liberals feel good from championing falsely perceived victimhood. Both sides heavily use government power, heavy spending, and taxation to achieve their goals.

Fair enough, I'll clarify why I posted this:

1.) Presently, the GOP has been using anti-intellectualism to increase it's appeal among certain demographics. Throwing the term "elites" around when you tend to represent the richer portion of the population can only mean that you are referring to education or intellect. Using someone's education or intellect as a weapon against them is to practice anti-intellectualism. Shall we start stoking the book fires?

2.) The modern Democratic party has very few political stances that are grounded in religion. All political positions grounded in religion are, ipso facto, improperly justified. Certain factions within the GOP no longer feel the need to justify their views via rational discourse, and this is inexcusable.

I'm not going to say that NONE of this exists on the other side, but it is absurd to say that these two occurrences exist equally on both sides.

[Jesda]

No, there isn't greater level of intelligence on the Democratic side. There's ignorant redneck Republicans and ghetto retard Democrats all spewing nonsense and walking into voting booths with their raging idiocy in tact.

I completely agree that the religious sect of the GOP has done a disservice to the level of intellect within the Republican Party. Are religious voters necessarily stupid? No. But using religion as a single justification for public policy is foolish at best, and completely illogical to me.

Likewise, Democrats are appealing to a poorer and dumber segment of the population in order to expand their base. They're recruited by ACORN in poor urban centers to get out and vote.

So, you have larger quantities of 'thugs' and rednecks voting, greatly diluting the value of my electoral choices.

As for elitism, there's all kinds. There's big business, academia, the media, etc. Its funny watching both parties try so hard to claim to represent the edges of the bell curve. That doesn't appeal to me at all.

[HashiriyaS14]

Its funny watching both parties try so hard to claim to represent the edges of the bell curve. That doesn't appeal to me at all.

Our remaining disagreement aside, this is a fantastic quote.