tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post8254213681046744904..comments2024-03-06T03:15:58.539-05:00Comments on <b>THE NEW REFORM CLUB</b>: Is it Heroic or Not?Hunter Bakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14961831404331998743noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-89079460033546963992007-12-01T18:42:00.000-05:002007-12-01T18:42:00.000-05:00Mona Charen posted another critique of Gerson's bo...Mona Charen posted another critique of Gerson's book, on Townhall.<BR/>The kindest remarks I've seen anywhere (besides TVD's) are by Yuval Levin, with a link posted at NRO's The Corner blog. <BR/><BR/>Levin's main point is that Gerson misses the middle, essentially that he is an ideological extremist and ignores/insults those who know assert that progress is often slow. Gerson uses a civil war analogy to explain what we need to do as a society, while an incremental version (Cold War, anyone?) could be more appropos. <BR/><BR/>Both Charen and Levin are worth reading...Evanston2https://www.blogger.com/profile/09851967034946400308noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-42496778619026215022007-12-01T15:59:00.000-05:002007-12-01T15:59:00.000-05:00I like Gerson's rhetoric, which I think is importa...I like Gerson's rhetoric, which I think is important and invaluable, not necessarily his politics.<BR/><BR/>Conservatism must discuss its ends, not merely its means. "Small government," etc. is the means, but we must directly address how it will fulfill the ends, especially when it comes to the unfortunates who plainly slip through the cracks.<BR/><BR/>I don't want to live in a society that forgets them as it offends my innate moral sense, and that's clearly a near-universal sentiment, except among the hardheaded and hardhearted.Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-53743015623615901082007-11-30T16:55:00.000-05:002007-11-30T16:55:00.000-05:00Well said, Tom, but let us not change the very nat...Well said, Tom, but let us not change the very nature of conservatism in the process. That is exactly what Gerson, et al, are doing.Mike D'Virgiliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03150525537509460056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-11670882839160028962007-11-30T16:28:00.000-05:002007-11-30T16:28:00.000-05:00True, Mike, but please don't lose sight of the big...True, Mike, but please don't lose sight of the bigger picture. Free market solutions to people's problems are indeed [largely] the best way, but per Adam Smith's "Theory of Moral Sentiments," conservatives need to show that they have a genuine interest in addressing those problems, that we share the same ends as the careless liberals, and differ only on the means.Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-82735588076085403622007-11-30T12:05:00.000-05:002007-11-30T12:05:00.000-05:00Just as I finished leaving my comment I see the LA...Just as I finished leaving my comment I see the LA Times editorial calling the GOP's conservatism "compassionless". They say that in Wednesday's debate the candidates were trying to take the title of "meanest candidate." And get this, they speak highly of George W. Bush! Imaging that. I knew that when Bush attached "compassionate" to conservative it would not be a good thing. As if conservative needed a qualifier, and as if the rest of us were, just as the Times says, compassionless. <BR/><BR/>Huckabee, Gerson and others who take this tack play right into the liberal playbook. Limited government conservatism is defacto heard-hearted, mean-spirited, compassion-less. Unless you believe government programs are the answer you are not "heroic." After all, didn't Newt want to starve children back in '95 because he wanted to cut the RATE OF GROWTH of school lunch programs? I expect nothing less from the LA Times, but wittingly or not, these guys are becoming allies with liberals in the war against conservative values.Mike D'Virgiliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03150525537509460056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-10186856763288974912007-11-30T11:27:00.000-05:002007-11-30T11:27:00.000-05:00Tom, how about what the Great Society did to decim...Tom, how about what the Great Society did to decimate the black family? Was that worth bringing the poverty rate down? It may not have been all bad, but it certainly did a very lot of bad. Unintended consequences my friend are a government staple.<BR/><BR/>Conservatives certainly need to get creative in addressing problems of real people, but I'm not convinced that a transfer of government wealth from not real to real people is the answer. Maybe if we got more specific about what exactly "real" is, and what exactly you might propose to address such issues. Just talking generalities here isn't really helpful. Big vs. Small, public vs. private, what does that all mean?Mike D'Virgiliohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03150525537509460056noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-91375532349515330512007-11-30T03:07:00.000-05:002007-11-30T03:07:00.000-05:00Well, I'm in the minority here, which is the way I...Well, I'm in the minority here, which is the way I like it.<BR/><BR/>We can litigate a term too heavily, and certainly there's nothing "heroic" about a liberal calling for tax increases for somebody else to finance a government program to relieve man's estate.<BR/><BR/>And I'll not embrace Gerson's sympathy for big government solutions without qualification.<BR/><BR/>However, a conservative might be quite "heroic" in urging fellow conservatives, despite their disdain if not condemnation, to get creative in addressing the real problems of real people. <BR/><BR/>Because not even the great Adam Smith believed that markets, governments and societies run without thought, care or guidance [even aided by charities, Mr. Homnick] can cover the cracks that real human beings fall through.<BR/><BR/>And we conservatives should acknowledge that Lyndon Johnson's Great Society agenda resulted in an immediate and permanent reduction of the US poverty rate from 20+% to around 13%, where it's remained now for some 40 years.<BR/><BR/>The Great Society wasn't all bad. You could look it up.<BR/><BR/>[And my original post was about Adam Smith, the godfather of capitalism, remarking on man's innate moral sense. He was the godfather of capitalism surely, but even he recognized a God of the Gaps.]Tom Van Dykehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07121072404143877596noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8776899.post-51828038023796442232007-11-29T21:06:00.000-05:002007-11-29T21:06:00.000-05:00Excellent referral, great piece, thanks.The proof ...Excellent referral, great piece, thanks.<BR/><BR/>The proof against Gerson's pudding is in the fact that small-government conservatives give more charity.Jay D. Homnickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14714671338316275833noreply@blogger.com