THE FASHIONABLE CONSERVATIVE
R. Kirk: The Conservative "Forest Gump" of the Reagan Devolution? Conservative is what conservatives do? Kirk was a decent man, by most accounts. Forrest was too.This is wrong on so many levels. Of course, "Center of Right" could be on the Left. Or else, it is just "Center", so why attach the giddy amelioration? Still, it's better than "right-of-center", which could be off the tarmac. I guess a "bunch of lefties" aren't part of the ... what was it, "enduring moral order", or are they? Of course, our little explication du text goes a little further. How does bunching up a lot lefties square with equality before the law, except that the fashionable conservative always has something on the back of his mind that's not on the tip of his 'principled' tongue?
That Kirk isn't "serious" is perhaps sent up by the notice that his "principles" fit neatly into ten, no more or less. Russell the law-giver? Honestly.
Even ruggers have to worry about elevating "prudence" to principle and then pretending that folks have no creed, to speak of.
In the end, you have a disorganized and uncomfortably matched set of "principles" that can justify your doing just about anything, depending on which you are focusing on today as a matter of "character" or "state of mind". Does that sound "center" of anything? Or, does it sound more like a casual radicalism?
No, there is no intellectual champion in Kirk, based on this, and it's to AS's credit that he sticks with Oakshott and doesn't try to stand on the fashion-padded shoulders of an R. Kirk.
oh, while I'm in a gruff mood, here's a stylized homage to the fashionable "Compassionate Conservatism".
