Burkean bells are going off everywhere! Sully….Ross what’s his name…Joe Klein.
They all talk about him like we’re supposed to know who he is, so I’m guessing this isn’t new. But just to be sure, I’d like to know: has it always been like this or is this like when the New Yorker suddenly decided it was time to start talking about Rem Koolhaas and the guy who wrote A Man Without Qualities?
Who was Edmund Burke anyway? I don’t have time to read his wiki entry let alone his books. Why do conservatives love him so much? Did he courageously oppose something important? Did Luna or Rush ever do any songs about his philosophy? How is he connected with Oakeshott and Hayek (I don’t know who they are either) and Milton Friedman and Ayn Rand and Leo Strauss?
Update: Kristol gets his Burke on:
In the short term, Republicans need to show a tactical agility and political toughness far greater than their predecessors did in the 1960s and the 1930s. “Else they will fall,” to quote the great conservative Edmund Burke, “an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle,” reduced to the unpleasant role of bystanders or the unattractive status of complainers, as Barack Obama makes history.
In this same post, Kristol claims:
Conservatism is more sophisticated than it was back then (in the 30s and 60s).
Could that possibly be true? Was there some 30s and 60s equivalent of an even dumber Joe the Plumber?
There were bells on the hill, but I never heard them ringingPost + Comments (177)