As always thank you for a provocative podcast. The pro-democracy coalition is multifaceted, and I appreciate the need to agree to disagree civilly and maintain a common cause to beat back the throes of authoritarianism. Make no mistake we must work together. Having said that, we don't need to agree upon everything, While I find Mr. P…
As always thank you for a provocative podcast. The pro-democracy coalition is multifaceted, and I appreciate the need to agree to disagree civilly and maintain a common cause to beat back the throes of authoritarianism. Make no mistake we must work together. Having said that, we don't need to agree upon everything, While I find Mr. Perlstein knowledgable, I think his understanding of what he calls "conservatism" to be flawed. Essentially what was conservatism as practiced here in the US was nineteenth-century liberalism, the belief in the free movement of labor, personal probity, the belief in institutions that sought to modify the worse instincts of people, free trade, the exercise of the franchise, a limited government constrained by laws,, and the inherent belief of the philosophical underpinnings of Locke as manifested in the Declaration of independence as summarized in the Gettysburg Address.
If I may turn his argument on the ratchet on its head for a moment,, does that mean that all who believe in egalitarianism and equality more than liberty, will always become Mao, Pol Ppt, or other totalitarian leftists? By no means! The ratchet theory presupposes that Western Liberalism is always about turning back the clock. That is a flawed understanding. It is not reactionary by its nature. It merely moves cautiously and with consensus during times of change as to solve ills but not to create further unknown ills. Can lit ike anything else it get warped? Of course, it can, but that does not mean that its inevitable end is tyranny.
Finally, during the show, Mitt Romney, and other modern type politicians were mentioned as being liars and that tall history of Western Liberalism ends with Mr. Trump. I ask this, were Jack Kemp, Bill Buckley, Jean Kirkpatrick, George HW Bush, Gerald Ford, Howard Baker, James A. Baler IIII and assuredly Dwight Eisenhower reflective pf a march toward totalitarianism? I hasten Mr.. Perlstein considers that Mr. Trump is truly the byproduct of right wing populism typified by Huey Long and (pre-conversion) George Wallace (who were under no definition "conservative.")
Tim,
As always thank you for a provocative podcast. The pro-democracy coalition is multifaceted, and I appreciate the need to agree to disagree civilly and maintain a common cause to beat back the throes of authoritarianism. Make no mistake we must work together. Having said that, we don't need to agree upon everything, While I find Mr. Perlstein knowledgable, I think his understanding of what he calls "conservatism" to be flawed. Essentially what was conservatism as practiced here in the US was nineteenth-century liberalism, the belief in the free movement of labor, personal probity, the belief in institutions that sought to modify the worse instincts of people, free trade, the exercise of the franchise, a limited government constrained by laws,, and the inherent belief of the philosophical underpinnings of Locke as manifested in the Declaration of independence as summarized in the Gettysburg Address.
If I may turn his argument on the ratchet on its head for a moment,, does that mean that all who believe in egalitarianism and equality more than liberty, will always become Mao, Pol Ppt, or other totalitarian leftists? By no means! The ratchet theory presupposes that Western Liberalism is always about turning back the clock. That is a flawed understanding. It is not reactionary by its nature. It merely moves cautiously and with consensus during times of change as to solve ills but not to create further unknown ills. Can lit ike anything else it get warped? Of course, it can, but that does not mean that its inevitable end is tyranny.
Finally, during the show, Mitt Romney, and other modern type politicians were mentioned as being liars and that tall history of Western Liberalism ends with Mr. Trump. I ask this, were Jack Kemp, Bill Buckley, Jean Kirkpatrick, George HW Bush, Gerald Ford, Howard Baker, James A. Baler IIII and assuredly Dwight Eisenhower reflective pf a march toward totalitarianism? I hasten Mr.. Perlstein considers that Mr. Trump is truly the byproduct of right wing populism typified by Huey Long and (pre-conversion) George Wallace (who were under no definition "conservative.")
Keep up the good work!