conservatism

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GOP 2nd Wind Doesn't Mean Smooth Sailing

Party back from last year's beating but upheaval still likely

(Newser) - The victories in Virginia and New Jersey look set to revitalize the Republican Party ahead of next year's elections, writes Adam Nagourney. The party now has the chance to re-energize its base and prepare for a proper comeback from last year's defeat, although the Democratic win in New York's 23rd...

GOP: It's Time to Rebrand to 'Conservative'

New name may have greater pull than tainted Repub label

(Newser) - Candidates on both sides are doing their best to hide their party affiliation but it's the Republicans who have the most to worry about, writes Nate Silver . "The Democratic brand is marginal in about half the country, but the Republican brand is radioactive in about two-thirds of it ,"...

Bill Kristol: Thanks, Dad
 Bill Kristol: 
 Thanks, Dad 
Sep 26, 2009 2:13 PM CDT

Bill Kristol: Thanks, Dad

(Newser) - Bill Kristol remembers his late father as a man of a "deep modesty" who "loved intellectual pursuits but always shunned intellectual pretension." Irving Kristol, who died earlier this month at age 89, is generally regarded as the architect of neoconservatism, but the honors he accrued never gave...

Beck a PoMo Conservative— and It's Working Well for Him

(Newser) - Glenn Beck’s popularity as compared to the more “traditional American conservatism” of, say, Rush Limbaugh heralds the advent of a new archetype, Nate Silver writes on FiveThirtyEight: “Beck is a PoMoCon—a postmodern conservative.” A recent poll shows Beck and Limbaugh equally popular while Limbaugh’s...

Counterculture Made Kristol an Ex-Liberal
Counterculture Made Kristol
an Ex-Liberal  
appreciation
Sep 19, 2009 5:48 AM CDT

Counterculture Made Kristol an Ex-Liberal

Fear of post-'60s 'moral crisis' spurred neocon's shift right

(Newser) - "Neoconservative" was originally a label applied to newly conservative ex-liberals and Irving Kristol, the late godfather of the movement, was among the first and finest of the kind, E. J. Dionne writes in the Washington Post. Kristol made a powerful case for "pragmatic liberalist" when he was still...

Neocon Founder Kristol Dead at 89

A former liberal, he sparked ideas behind the Reagan Revolution

(Newser) - Irving Kristol, the "godfather" of neoconservatism and a key intellectual force behind the Reagan Revolution, died today from lung cancer in Arlington, Va., the Washington Post reports. He was 89. Once a New York liberal, Kristol grew disaffected with liberalism in the 1940s and founded conservative magazines like...

Hey, Jews Should Be Conservatives, Not Liberals: Podhoretz

Following 'false messiah' Obama is bad politics, bad religion: Podhoretz

(Newser) - Jewish voters backed Barack Obama over John McCain last year by a staggering 57 points—the most resounding mandate from any group other than African Americans. That bewilders neocon Norman Podhoretz, who argues in the Wall Street Journal that both Judaism and the Jewish experience endorse "the infinitely precious...

Right-Wing Crazy Is All-American
 Right-Wing Crazy 
 Is All-American 
OPINION
Aug 16, 2009 8:23 AM CDT

Right-Wing Crazy Is All-American

Birthers, tea parties—it's nothing new

(Newser) - With the left back in power, we’re seeing right-wing "crazies"—the “birthers, tea-partiers, town hall hecklers”—getting louder. But that’s nothing new, writes Rick Perlstein in the Washington Post. In America, “the crazy tree blooms in every moment of liberal ascendancy, and elites...

Southern Cheaters Call on God&mdash;but Which God?
Southern Cheaters Call on God—but Which God?
analysis
Jul 2, 2009 11:24 AM CDT

Southern Cheaters Call on God—but Which God?

Sanford used God-talk in confession; Spitzer, McGreevey didn't

(Newser) - Mark Sanford's liberal use of religious rhetoric in confessing his affair prompts Gustav Niebuhr to observe that whether Sanford is pandering or actually penitent, he is very much in the tradition of Southern politicians caught in scandal. Bill Clinton, David Vitter, and John Edwards all applied an ample dose of...

Revolted? You May Be Conservative

Studies suggest those on right have weaker stomachs

(Newser) - Those easily repulsed by a creepy bug or bloody scene may lean to the right, new studies suggest. People who are easily grossed out are particularly likely to take conservative stances on homosexuality, LiveScience reports. Surveys using scales for “Disgust Sensitivity” and political ideology helped researchers draw the conclusions;...

Republicans Slam Party-Purist Outfit

Club for Growth backs unelectable righties, say some in GOP

(Newser) - Some in the GOP have had it with the Club for Growth, an organization that identifies Republicans it deems weak on low-tax, small-government values, the Wall Street Journal reports. Party members argue that the Club backs Republicans too far right to win elections. “If their goal is to increase...

Abortion 'Purity Test' Is New to Republicans
Abortion 'Purity Test' Is New to Republicans
OPINION
May 15, 2009 1:45 PM CDT

Abortion 'Purity Test' Is New to Republicans

Not even 'conservative issue' for older generation: Goodman

(Newser) - Abortion has become “the purity test for remaining in the GOP’s inner circle,” writes Ellen Goodman in the Boston Globe: The Republican Party is shedding and shunning abortion-rights supporters it once called its own. But it wasn’t always that way—even “Mr. Conservative” Barry Goldwater...

What the GOP Needs Is a John Wayne
 What the 
 GOP Needs Is 
 a John Wayne 

OPINION
May 5, 2009 9:28 AM CDT

What the GOP Needs Is a John Wayne

Community, not freedom, is the true Western virtue: Brooks

(Newser) - Republicans have admired Westerns for decades, continually flocking to leaders—Goldwater, Reagan, Bush, Palin—who embody the John Wayne ideal of individualism and bravery. But as David Brooks writes, Westerns aren't really about lone heroes, but "civic order": how newcomers build communities in inhospitable regions. For the New ...

After Limbaugh Dig, Palin Joins GOP Group

Alaska gov gets on board rebranding effort after Rush 'hate' jibe

(Newser) - Sarah Palin will join Congressional Republicans' high-profile rebranding committee, CNN reports, after days of confusion as to whether she was snubbing the group or it was snubbing her. Last week John McCain said that the Alaska governor would likely join the National Council for a New America, but there was...

30 Years On, Thatcher Still Divides

Britain's first female PM polarized during her rule, and after

(Newser) - Thirty years ago today British voters elected Margaret Thatcher in a landmark election, ushering in 18 years of Conservative rule. She remains a polarizing figure: her enemies still regard her as nearly diabolical, while her admirers speak of her as a saint. The Telegraph looks back on her tumultuous 11-year...

Cheney Should Have Run in 2008
 Cheney Should 
 Have Run in 2008 
OPINION
Apr 28, 2009 6:31 AM CDT

Cheney Should Have Run in 2008

VP would have lost big and awakened right, says Douthat

(Newser) - As he bashes the Obama administration and insists that torture kept the country safe, Dick Cheney sounds less like a retired VP than a man campaigning for a third Bush term. For Ross Douthat, it's a pity he didn't run himself. In his first column for the New York Times,...

GOP Targets Critics With Own Economic Plans

Budget proposals seek to douse 'Party of No' label

(Newser) - “The Party of No” is rejecting that label by introducing alternatives to President Obama’s policies rooted in GOP ideology, Politico reports. The Republican Road to Recovery is a weighty fiscal counterpart to the Democrats’ economic agenda, and marks a new strategy in the minority’s response. Republicans laud...

Frum: GOP Needs Reform, Not Rush
 Frum: 
 GOP Needs 
 Reform, Not Rush 
OPINION
Mar 8, 2009 9:16 AM CDT

Frum: GOP Needs Reform, Not Rush

Stick-in-the-mud Limbaugh makes disastrous figurehead

(Newser) - Rush Limbaugh is gunning to be the face of the Republican Party, and the GOP is allowing it—with potentially disastrous consequences, writes noted conservative David Frum. “With his private plane and his cigars, Rush is a walking stereotype of self-indulgence,” Frum writes. Worse, Rush insists Republicans need...

Old Guard Will Win Battle for GOP
 Old Guard Will 
 Win Battle for GOP 
OPINION
Nov 11, 2008 9:30 AM CST

Old Guard Will Win Battle for GOP

Defeat likely to send party further to the right, ensuring future losses

(Newser) - A battle between reformers and traditionalists for the soul of the GOP lies in the party's immediate future, David Brooks writes in the New York Times—and the reformers don't stand a chance. The conservative old guard, with Rush Limbaugh as its loudest mouthpiece and Sarah Palin as its heroine,...

Conservatism Dead by Its Own Hand: O'Rourke

Bloated government is only one (though huge) legacy of GOP reign

(Newser) - Modern conservatism is dead, and conservatives are to blame, PJ O’Rourke writes for the Weekly Standard. “Anyone who is still on the left is obviously insane and not responsible for his or her actions,” he contends. “No, we on the right did it.” Ideal after...

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