Will-ful Conservatism

George Will’s eloquent column today is a useful reminder that “conservative” and “Republican” are not synonyms. It also reminds us that the core of one kind of conservative style is a firm commitment to principles — principles that, in America, were often born liberal — while other conservatives are defined by their habit of deference to custom, whether the custom at issue at any given moment happens to be liberal or conservative in its immedite effect.

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  1. Andrew Lazarus August 7, 2003 at 10:27 am | | Reply

    After reading this, I laugh at hearing “George Will”and “principles” in the same sentence, even if Will happens here to be correct.

  2. John Rosenberg August 8, 2003 at 12:06 am | | Reply

    Andy, I think T.O.L. (The Other Lazarus) does a fine number on Will. It’s a very good column, and I encourage everyone to read it. I haven’t read Will closely enough/long enough to argue this point forcefully, but it is my sense, however, T.O.L. may portray Will as purporting to be more principled than he claims to be. That is, my sense of Will is that he has a higher regard for custom and such things as decorum than for allegiance to principle come hell or high water. In the column I link, for example, Will argues against his own political interest by siding with the Texas Dems in their argument that redistricting more than once a decade is unseemly, even though it is probably not illegal. In short, I think T.O.L. scores a direct hit on Will’s Estrada column, but may veer toward making him something of a straw man to make his larger point. Although I do think the larger point is valid, though more often a flaw of the left than the right. (See Fish et. al.)

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