Cascade
10-15-2008, 12:49 PM
This was sent to me by a friend in Colorado. I hope we'll see more and more conservatives recognizing that a McCain presidency would be disastrous. I've included only the first few comments on the column - follow the links for the rest.
From: Edie
Subject: A thoughtful, conservative viewpoint from the former publisher of National Review
The following article is a thoughtful, conservative viewpoint, from
former publisher of National Review. Its publication in Dallas has led
to an interesting dialogue from readers around the country, a dialogue
worthy of democracy.
There is much for both Republicans and Democrats, liberals and
conservatives, to learn from the article and the on-going dialogue.
Wick Allison is currently Editor in Chief of D Magazine, in Dallas, and
has been a conservative Republican from the days of Goldwater and Reagan.
My father was this kind of Republican, a reader of National Review, a
member of the Colorado legislature, and a social studies teacher dedicated
to passing on the values of democracy and his love of our country. I am
crying as I type this, because I can hear what he believed in through
Wick Allison's words, and how so much that he loved has been lost in the
last 8 years.
Please take the time to read and pass on this piece of democracy in
action.
Edie Stone
https://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?nm=Core
+Pages&type=gen&mod=Core
+Pages&tier=3&gid=B33A5C6E2CF04C9596A3EF81822D9F8E
A Conservative for Obama | D Magazine - Dallas Fort Worth's ...
My party has slipped its moorings. Itīs time for a true pragmatist to lead
the country.
Leading Off By Wick Allison, EDITOR IN CHIEF
THE MORE I LISTEN TO AND READ ABOUT "the most liberal member of the U.S.
Senate," the more I like him. Barack Obama strikes a chord with me like
no political figure since Ronald Reagan. To explain why, I need to
explain why I am a conservative and what it means to me. In 1964, at the
age of 16, I organized the Dallas County Youth for Goldwater. My senior
thesis at the University of Texas was on the conservative intellectual
revival in America. Twenty years later, I was invited by William F.
Buckley Jr. to join the board of National Review. I later became its
publisher.
Conservatism to me is less a political philosophy than a stance, a
recognition of the fallibility of man and of manīs institutions.
Conservatives respect the past not for its antiquity but because it
represents, as G.K. Chesterton said, the democracy of the dead; it gives
the benefit of the doubt to customs and laws tried and tested in the
crucible of time. Conservatives are skeptical of abstract theories and
utopian schemes, doubtful that government is wiser than its citizens, and
always ready to test any political program against actual results.
Liberalism always seemed to me to be a system of "oughts." We ought to do
this or that because itīs the right thing to do, regardless of whether it
works or not. It is a doctrine based on intentions, not results, on
feeling good rather than doing good.
But today it is so-called conservatives who are cemented to political
programs when they clearly donīt work. The Bush tax cuts-a solution for
which there was no real problem and which he refused to end even when the
nation went to war-led to huge deficit spending and a $3 trillion growth
in the federal debt. Facing this, John McCain pumps his "conservative"
credentials by proposing even bigger tax cuts. Meanwhile, a movement that
once fought for limited government has presided over the greatest growth
of government in our history. That is not conservatism; it is profligacy
using conservatism as a mask.
Today it is conservatives, not liberals, who talk with alarming
bellicosity about making the world "safe for democracy." It is John
McCain who says Americaīs job is to "defeat evil," a theological
expansion of the nationīs mission that would make George Washington cough
out his wooden teeth.
This kind of conservatism, which is not conservative at all, has
produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of
moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse.
Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I
made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there
was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is
almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I
disagree with him on many issues. But those donīt matter as much as what
Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody
can read Obamaīs books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or
listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful,
pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after
eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually
read the Federalist Papers.
Most important, Obama will be a realist. I doubt he will taunt
Russia, as McCain has, at the very moment when our national interest
requires it as an ally. The crucial distinction in my mind is that, unlike
John McCain, I am convinced he will not impulsively take us into another
war unless American national interests are directly threatened.
"Every great cause," Eric Hoffer wrote, "begins as a movement,
becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." As a
cause, conservatism may be dead. But as a stance, as a way of making
judgments in a complex and difficult world, I believe it is very much
alive in the instincts and predispositions of a liberal named Barack
Obama.
Write to [email protected].
Support and criticism after a conservative leans left.
Your article endorsing Obama found its way to my computer, Wick...
and I wanted you to know you have a VERY strong "thumbs up" from
three folks you might least expect: my two sisters and me. We are the
daughters of Bill Miller who ran for Vice President with Barry Goldwater
back in '64. We have all morphed quite independently into feeling, as you
do, that the Republican Party in general and George Bush in particular do
not represent in any fashion what our dad stood for more than 40 years
ago. In fact, we are all HUGE Obama Mamas! I live with my family in
Salisbury, NC... my older sister Libby Miller Fitzgerald is in Lynchburg,
VA... and our youngest sister Stephanie Miller is in LA where she has a
nationally syndicated radio talk show and is seen regularly on Larry King
and other TV shows. Thank you for your wise words. I hope there are
enough others like you to put Obama over the top. Or we're headed
overseas to live! Mary Miller James
Mr. Obama doesnīt have a conservative bone in his body... you like
millions of other Americans have bought into the "promise of change"... I
think you are acting naïve in a very complex world. Tim Hitchcock
I find far too many conservatives not open to even considering
support of any candidate that isn't a republican. Here's hoping more
conservatives take a closer look and choose to support Obama. Nancy Crump
Indianapolis, Indiana
-Thank you for the most rational, reasonable explanation why a
conservative should be Obama.
Jeffrey L. Gale
St. Paul, Minnesota
By endorsing Senator Obama, you have perhaps paradoxically helped
this Democrat regain some respect for the conservative
movement...there might be a coherent philosophy on your side of the fence
after all. Martha Han
Nicely argued piece. You redeem conservatives in my eyes. Not
because you support my candidate, but because your premises and logic make sense. Bill Reith
As a philosophical conservative, as opposed to these cultural
conservatives and these 'neo-cons', I, too, find Obama more tolerable than
the distorted pronouncements of McCain. When did conservativism become
this hideous mismash of expansionism, profligate spending, and total
disregard for individual rights? John Keefe, Ph.D.
Thank you for putting into words what I have been struggling with
myself. Somewhere, Edmund Burke is nodding his approval.
Patrick J. Long
...
From: Edie
Subject: A thoughtful, conservative viewpoint from the former publisher of National Review
The following article is a thoughtful, conservative viewpoint, from
former publisher of National Review. Its publication in Dallas has led
to an interesting dialogue from readers around the country, a dialogue
worthy of democracy.
There is much for both Republicans and Democrats, liberals and
conservatives, to learn from the article and the on-going dialogue.
Wick Allison is currently Editor in Chief of D Magazine, in Dallas, and
has been a conservative Republican from the days of Goldwater and Reagan.
My father was this kind of Republican, a reader of National Review, a
member of the Colorado legislature, and a social studies teacher dedicated
to passing on the values of democracy and his love of our country. I am
crying as I type this, because I can hear what he believed in through
Wick Allison's words, and how so much that he loved has been lost in the
last 8 years.
Please take the time to read and pass on this piece of democracy in
action.
Edie Stone
https://www.dmagazine.com/ME2/dirmod.asp?nm=Core
+Pages&type=gen&mod=Core
+Pages&tier=3&gid=B33A5C6E2CF04C9596A3EF81822D9F8E
A Conservative for Obama | D Magazine - Dallas Fort Worth's ...
My party has slipped its moorings. Itīs time for a true pragmatist to lead
the country.
Leading Off By Wick Allison, EDITOR IN CHIEF
THE MORE I LISTEN TO AND READ ABOUT "the most liberal member of the U.S.
Senate," the more I like him. Barack Obama strikes a chord with me like
no political figure since Ronald Reagan. To explain why, I need to
explain why I am a conservative and what it means to me. In 1964, at the
age of 16, I organized the Dallas County Youth for Goldwater. My senior
thesis at the University of Texas was on the conservative intellectual
revival in America. Twenty years later, I was invited by William F.
Buckley Jr. to join the board of National Review. I later became its
publisher.
Conservatism to me is less a political philosophy than a stance, a
recognition of the fallibility of man and of manīs institutions.
Conservatives respect the past not for its antiquity but because it
represents, as G.K. Chesterton said, the democracy of the dead; it gives
the benefit of the doubt to customs and laws tried and tested in the
crucible of time. Conservatives are skeptical of abstract theories and
utopian schemes, doubtful that government is wiser than its citizens, and
always ready to test any political program against actual results.
Liberalism always seemed to me to be a system of "oughts." We ought to do
this or that because itīs the right thing to do, regardless of whether it
works or not. It is a doctrine based on intentions, not results, on
feeling good rather than doing good.
But today it is so-called conservatives who are cemented to political
programs when they clearly donīt work. The Bush tax cuts-a solution for
which there was no real problem and which he refused to end even when the
nation went to war-led to huge deficit spending and a $3 trillion growth
in the federal debt. Facing this, John McCain pumps his "conservative"
credentials by proposing even bigger tax cuts. Meanwhile, a movement that
once fought for limited government has presided over the greatest growth
of government in our history. That is not conservatism; it is profligacy
using conservatism as a mask.
Today it is conservatives, not liberals, who talk with alarming
bellicosity about making the world "safe for democracy." It is John
McCain who says Americaīs job is to "defeat evil," a theological
expansion of the nationīs mission that would make George Washington cough
out his wooden teeth.
This kind of conservatism, which is not conservative at all, has
produced financial mismanagement, the waste of human lives, the loss of
moral authority, and the wreckage of our economy that McCain now threatens to make worse.
Barack Obama is not my ideal candidate for president. (In fact, I
made the maximum donation to John McCain during the primaries, when there
was still hope he might come to his senses.) But I now see that Obama is
almost the ideal candidate for this moment in American history. I
disagree with him on many issues. But those donīt matter as much as what
Obama offers, which is a deeply conservative view of the world. Nobody
can read Obamaīs books (which, it is worth noting, he wrote himself) or
listen to him speak without realizing that this is a thoughtful,
pragmatic, and prudent man. It gives me comfort just to think that after
eight years of George W. Bush we will have a president who has actually
read the Federalist Papers.
Most important, Obama will be a realist. I doubt he will taunt
Russia, as McCain has, at the very moment when our national interest
requires it as an ally. The crucial distinction in my mind is that, unlike
John McCain, I am convinced he will not impulsively take us into another
war unless American national interests are directly threatened.
"Every great cause," Eric Hoffer wrote, "begins as a movement,
becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket." As a
cause, conservatism may be dead. But as a stance, as a way of making
judgments in a complex and difficult world, I believe it is very much
alive in the instincts and predispositions of a liberal named Barack
Obama.
Write to [email protected].
Support and criticism after a conservative leans left.
Your article endorsing Obama found its way to my computer, Wick...
and I wanted you to know you have a VERY strong "thumbs up" from
three folks you might least expect: my two sisters and me. We are the
daughters of Bill Miller who ran for Vice President with Barry Goldwater
back in '64. We have all morphed quite independently into feeling, as you
do, that the Republican Party in general and George Bush in particular do
not represent in any fashion what our dad stood for more than 40 years
ago. In fact, we are all HUGE Obama Mamas! I live with my family in
Salisbury, NC... my older sister Libby Miller Fitzgerald is in Lynchburg,
VA... and our youngest sister Stephanie Miller is in LA where she has a
nationally syndicated radio talk show and is seen regularly on Larry King
and other TV shows. Thank you for your wise words. I hope there are
enough others like you to put Obama over the top. Or we're headed
overseas to live! Mary Miller James
Mr. Obama doesnīt have a conservative bone in his body... you like
millions of other Americans have bought into the "promise of change"... I
think you are acting naïve in a very complex world. Tim Hitchcock
I find far too many conservatives not open to even considering
support of any candidate that isn't a republican. Here's hoping more
conservatives take a closer look and choose to support Obama. Nancy Crump
Indianapolis, Indiana
-Thank you for the most rational, reasonable explanation why a
conservative should be Obama.
Jeffrey L. Gale
St. Paul, Minnesota
By endorsing Senator Obama, you have perhaps paradoxically helped
this Democrat regain some respect for the conservative
movement...there might be a coherent philosophy on your side of the fence
after all. Martha Han
Nicely argued piece. You redeem conservatives in my eyes. Not
because you support my candidate, but because your premises and logic make sense. Bill Reith
As a philosophical conservative, as opposed to these cultural
conservatives and these 'neo-cons', I, too, find Obama more tolerable than
the distorted pronouncements of McCain. When did conservativism become
this hideous mismash of expansionism, profligate spending, and total
disregard for individual rights? John Keefe, Ph.D.
Thank you for putting into words what I have been struggling with
myself. Somewhere, Edmund Burke is nodding his approval.
Patrick J. Long
...