Kristol on the next counterculture

[Doug Henwood]

[The conclusion of a piece in today's NYT styles section on how 
there's an antiwar movement but no counterculture; the reporter seems 
underinformed on countercultures. But this quote from Kristol reminds 
me of the one from Bill Buckley that Corey Robin used to end a Lingua 
Franca piece. Asked to imagine a young version of himself in the year 
2000, Buckley responded "I'd be a socialist. A Mike Harrington 
socialist. I'd even say a communist." Does the smarter right worry 
that it's tired and vulnerable? Or are they just hoping for a better 
opposition?]

<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/23/fashion/23PROT.html?pagewanted=print&position=top>

March 23, 2003

A Movement, Yes, but No Counterculture
By JOHN LELAND

[...]

William Kristol, the editor of The Weekly Standard, which is credited 
with providing some of the intellectual framework for the White 
House's policy of pre-emptive military action, proposed an 
alternative possibility. He said he detected the makings of a true 
counterculture - an alternative set of values - in recent criticisms 
of President Bush that focus on his religion.

If protesters begin seeing the President's foreign and domestic 
agendas as outgrowths of his conservative Christian values, they 
might advance a broad alternative world view that would be 
countercultural, he suggested. "There's also a debate over a view of 
America, whether it is a force of good in the world," Mr. Kristol 
added. "All that side of it strikes me as a proto-counterculture. 
Maybe this is 1964, not 1968."