[lbo-talk] Defining Conservatism Down

[Jim Devine]

Doug: >Funny how Bramwell, like many rightists, takes the cap-L Left
so seriously. We may feel marginal, but the right always seems to see
us as a real threat, and in many cases, more intellectually
formidable.<

if the Left didn't exist (as it almost doesn't), the Right would have
to invent it. They need someone to oppose. If Michael Pugliese's
friend David Horrorwitz didn't have the Left to oppose  -- including
his "internal Leftist," his memories of his mother, etc. -- he [DH,
not MP] wouldn't exist as a person.

Those "big name" Rightists (Kirk, Friedman, Buckley, Burnham, etc.)
were intellectually superior to the Sean Hannitys and Rush Limbaughs
of today, but they still had Communism to oppose to help them define
their identities.

(People know that Burnham was a leftist -- a Trotskyist -- at one point, right?)
JD