"Welcome to the New Conservatism" - David Shribman

[Catchawave]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1316&ncid=1343&e=1&u=/ucds/20050227/cm_ucds/welcometothenewconservatism

President Bush (news - web sites)'s inaugural address wasn't the only important speech given in Washington this winter. The other one, delivered by Karl Rove at this month's annual Conservative Political Action Committee convention, drew scant attention -- but may be of equal significance.

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When conservatives believe, as Rove put it in his speech, that "conservatism is the dominant political creed in America," they are likely to feel as liberals did in the 1960s and 1970s: that they are on the right side of history and that their opponents are hopelessly in the thrall of a discredited ideology. This is why Democrats are so dispirited in the capital today, and why so many of them do have such a deep sense of hopelessness. In American politics, only one ideology can be confident at once.


But for all this conservative confidence, not all conservatives are confident. This apparent contradiction grows out of what may be contradictions within the conservative movement itself. Think of it as the flaring of the subconscious of conservatism. For the old conservatives aren't so sure -- of lots of things.

More....

[Martin Eden]

1. The "New" conservatives

are not conservative.

They're religionists, corporatists, imperialists, and neofascists.

That is part of what's making some of the more traditional conservatives a little uncomfortable.