Something I believe goes without saying is that there are particular advantages to be had by myself and all Progressives who seek to understand the principled conflicts between themselves and Conservatives. To the extent that I care much about the particulars of black people, which is possibly all sentimental and chauvinistic, I think there is a good opportunity for African Americans to avail themselves to sound Conservative logic. It also goes without saying that this is a controversial assertion for a black man, but I think much of that controversy is misplaced in a sort of dissonance.
When I was a performance poet in the early 90s moving to New York, it was an article of faith, especially in the wake of Rodney King and the LA Riot, that news anchors and reporters would seek out uneducated angry black people for a representative opinion. This has become such a cliche that when the reverse happens, as it did famously with an Obama supporter YouTubed in Hollywood, it is seen as quite an unusual phenomenon. It is therefore a bit ironic but then again entirely predictable that when Progressives and liberals choose to find a representative of those people they know nothing about, they tend to find those who most resemble their preconcieved stereotypes. It is with that kind of foolishness I wish to dispatch.
This of course, forces me to do likewise. Fortunately, that's not difficult considering that when I first began blogging I was more Progressive than I am now, and linked to a more liberal set of bloggers. I've gotten rid of that blogroll altogether. Hmm. But since the election of Obama I have started re-reading Yglesias, Drum, Kelley and DeLong. I didn't realize that Kevin Drum left the Washington Monthly and landed at Mother Jones of all places, so I've since dropped him - but that's my prejudice. Still, I've never made much of a point of arguing against Kos, for example. If I had my druthers, and since it's my blog I'll state them, I would have Progressives quoting from The New Republic and Leftists from The Nation. I'd thusly be quite happy quoting from The National Review. What irks me is that I keep hearing about Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly and George Will - people I don't take seriously.
Be all that as it may, it's clear that from my own perspective, I am sufficiently grounded in the basics of Conservatism to take my own study up a notch and will continue to heed David Brooks, Victor Davis Hanson, Richard John Neuhaus, Greg Mankiw, Richard Fernandez and Ross Douthat. I'll spend more time hearing out the Powerline guys from the Claremont Center and other Straussians of their ilk. But pointedly, I will be paying stricter attention to those Conservative intellectual writers, historians, economists, and attorneys whose grasp of the finer details is without question.
Since November 4th, I haven't read one thing about Sarah Palin but I did finally come to understand that it was Tina Fey (star of 'Mean Girls', duh) who most famously said in a skit as Palin that she can see Russia from her house. Haha very funny, now I get the joke. But I don't watch Saturday Night Live, and haven't since Eddie Murphy left. I realize that there are all sorts of millions of Americans who inform their political views from parody and satire but you won't find me quoting Stephen Colbert around here.
On talk radio, I still like Hewitt's form of lawyerly gotcha, but it wears thin after a while. Instead I prefer Dennis Miller and Dennis Prager. Miller because he doesn't have an overweening desire to be taken so damned seriously yet remains hilarious and an incredibly prescient judge of character. Prager because in the end, he's probably the most even-handed and philosophical on Right Radio. I probably would listen to Bill Bennett if he weren't on a 3-6AM. I will listen to Rush Limbaugh because he is right on top of the talking points of the day, often establishing them, but I won't hear him out. He's a naked and brilliant propagandist - there to keep the hoi full of it's own polloi. I never ask Limbaugh "why" and nobody ever should, and in that regard he's only useful to spark up a topic.
I've got Chesterton and C.S. Lewis in my back pocket, but I'd probably do well to seek out Oakeshott and other theorists like Edmund Burke, because I'm rather determined through the education I've just gotten from Jonah Goldberg to find out the finer points on the differences between Classic Liberals, Modern Conservatives like Hayek and Libertarians. I'd also like to be able to understand how Christianity in general connect through the Enlightenment and energizes an appreciable amount of morality in Conservative ideology without becoming the parody portrayed in redneck Evangelism. I've broadly placed conservative Christianity in the sole province of Catholicism, but it cannot soley reside there.
All in all, I am satisfied that I won't have to talk about elections for some time and that I'll spend less time defending policies on principles than speaking more directly about those principles.
