[lbo-talk] Harvey Hamilton, er, Mansfield on Executive Power

Michael Hoover hooverm at scc-fl.edu
Sat Jan 28 15:54:03 PST 2006



>>> dhenwood at panix.com 01/28/06 11:16 AM >>>
I picked up a copy of the Weekly Standard the other day and read a bunch of it, which I hadn't done much of before. I was really struck by how different its conservatism is from the conservatism of my Party of the Right adolescence - much more unambivalently in love with state and imperial power. No trace of the libertarian skepticism or even hostility towards the concentration of state power - just a pure celebration of executive power. The second-generation neocons, Kristol and Podhoretz the younger, seem like total hacks compared to their dads. Doug <<<<<>>>>>

agree re. second-generation hackery (wasn't billy kristol - irving's son, not the comedian - quayle's chief of staff)...

as for conservatism, there has always been a strain (in fact, the original variant, traced to plato) that has stressed authority, although i guess fewer of these folks today would accept that their view is authoritarian, while this tradition may have have more resonance in continental europe, one can see u.s. traces of it - to varying degrees - in likes of russell kirk, robert nisbet, richard weaver, clinton rossiter (not to mention john adams, alexander hamilton, john c calhoun)...

this brand of conservatism's attitude re. the state is rooted in its view that authority is rooted in nature of society and all social institutions (family/ parents, school/teacher, work/employer, society/government), in some ways citizens are seen as children within the family: in need of guidance and discipline, citizens must be taught awareness of duties and obligations, public order and moral fabric of society must be upheld by clear and enforceable set of rules/regulations, etc, etc, etc... mh



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list