The New College Republicans - Same As The Old?
Interesting article at the American Conservative about the new "College Republicans. Interesting because we get to hear from that rare species, the anti-war conservative.
He’s distinctly in the minority of a minority, as both a campus conservative and one who’s against the Iraq War.
In the eyes of some of his friends on the Right, that makes Lawrence really a kind of leftist. When he published an editorial for the anniversary of Hiroshima criticizing Harry Truman’s use of nuclear weapons against Japan, one of his colleagues on the campus conservative paper, The Broadside, suggested he was its “token liberal.”
What I continue to find interesting is the increasing political polarization of foreign policy. I'm just not sure I get it- after all, liberal supporters of the war and conservative war protesters are by no means doing an injustice to their philisophical positions. I suppose you had the same sort of polarization during Vietnam, but still ... just don't get it.
He’s distinctly in the minority of a minority, as both a campus conservative and one who’s against the Iraq War.
In the eyes of some of his friends on the Right, that makes Lawrence really a kind of leftist. When he published an editorial for the anniversary of Hiroshima criticizing Harry Truman’s use of nuclear weapons against Japan, one of his colleagues on the campus conservative paper, The Broadside, suggested he was its “token liberal.”
What I continue to find interesting is the increasing political polarization of foreign policy. I'm just not sure I get it- after all, liberal supporters of the war and conservative war protesters are by no means doing an injustice to their philisophical positions. I suppose you had the same sort of polarization during Vietnam, but still ... just don't get it.
posted by lonely libertarian at 11:21 PM
1 Comments:
I appreciate your comments. I guess what disturbs me the most is the way in which thoughtful ideas are disregarded. When liberal Joe Lieberman speaks up for the war, it's probably more worth listening to than those echoing the Republican party line. Similarly, when conservative Pat Buchanan speaks out againast the war, he's providing a unique point of view not provided by the anti-war liberals.
We tend to label people in terms of the positions they end up with, but political philosophies are about certain modes of thinking and certain ways of looking at issues, not getting certain results. We've been talking about the war, but the same logic works for all sorts of social and political issues. For instance, although they may be rare breeds, the pro-life liberal and the pro-choice conservative fit perfectly well into their respective political philosophies mode of thought.
So-called liberal group think has been well documented on college campuses. With an article like this, I wonder whether that same sort of group think is seeping into conservative circles.
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