Thursday, May 12, 2016

Will conservatism wear out its welcome, after attacking both Republican elites and Republican voters?

Tom Krannawitter asks,
WHAT OF CONSERVATISM IN THE UNITED STATES?
We may very well be witnessing the demise of the Republican Party, the modern history of which might be summed up thus: from fecklessness to meaninglessness to internal division to dissolution to obscurity in the dust bins of history.

But what of the modern conservative movement?

The intelligentsia of the conservative movement -- the kinds who flock around National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Heritage Foundation, AEI, and similar institutions subsidized by conservative philanthropists -- the kinds who know and care who Russell Kirk was, as well Irving Kristol, Milton Friedman, Frank Meyer, and Willmoore Kendall -- have been challenging and sometimes attacking the Republican Party for decades.
It's from hardcore conservatives, after all, that one hears hears the frequent lament that many elected Republicans are mere "RINOs."

These are the kinds of conservatives who sometimes can be found denouncing Wal Mart while carrying a copy of Wendell Berry in their briefcase. Or preaching free market economics and the virtues of business and competition from the pulpit of their favorite tax-exempt, subsidized 501(c)3. (Confusing, I know.)

Yet the rise of Donald Trump has directed the ire of the conservative intelligentsia away from Republican Party elites, at least for the moment, toward ordinary Republican voters. The conservative intelligentsia, in large measure, seem to have no more patience for Republican voters who support Trump than they do for the squishy Republican cronies in DC.

I mean, good grief, National Review published an entire issue of their magazine devoted to denouncing and dismissing Donald Trump! And the contributing writers spanned virtually the entire spectrum of conservative thought.
So if the conservative intelligentsia are opposed to elites within the Republican Party AND to large swaths of ordinary Republican Voters -- AND if the conservative intelligentsia have no allies or friends in the Democratic Party, and very few in the progressive worlds of academics, journalism, Hollywood, and professional sports -- is there a future for the modern conservative movement in the United States?

If the Republican Party ends, is that too the end of the conservative movement? If the Republican Party survives to see yet another election cycle, will conservatism be welcome within it? Or will conservatism have worn out its welcome after attacking both Republican elites and Republican voters?

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