More on Why Conservatism Failed — & Why the Left Succeeded
Chronicles magazine front page feature: Review of Arthur Milikh, ed., Up from Conservatism: Revitalizing the Right after a Generation of Decay (Encounter, 2023)
My review of the Milikh volume is being featured on the front page of Chronicles magazine, and the paywall has been removed:
https://chroniclesmagazine.org/featured/a-conservative-self-critique/
And on X:
https://twitter.com/ChroniclesMag/status/1750160937028362537
https://twitter.com/ChroniclesMag/status/1750164262410924387
The book itself is important for 2 reasons: 1) It is the first acknowledgement from establishment conservatives of what is glaringly obvious to everyone else: that they have been decisively defeated; that they never win; everything they do is ineffective, and they are wasting everyone's time and money with their snooty and feckless lobbying firms, think tanks, media, universities and professorships, conferences, religious organizations, gala events, etc., etc. But 2) The book does not go nearly far enough, because it is itself produced mostly by the establishment conservatives it claims to criticize. Details are in the review, but foremost among their ineradicable mistakes is their refusal of professional conservatives to confront the injustices inflicted on ordinary Americans by their own government.
As a follow-up to my review of the Milikh volume (below), I decided to post the draft introductiion to my own forthcoming book, tentatively titled Why Did It Happen? Why America Went “Communist”? on Academia.com. After all, I should not criticize others’ work unless I have something better to put in its place. The authors in the Milikh book are honest enough to acknowledge (it can hardly be denied) that conservatives have been decisively defeated and humiliated. Yet because they do not explain why, they also provide glaring testimony that another book, one of greater depth, is needed. Above all, because they do not understand (or want to understand) what they are doing wrong, they can provide no solution and continue doing what led to their defeat in the first place. I do not pretend to have the final word on the topic, but I do hope to start the dialogue that as been conspicuously absent for almost 4 years.
If you have comments on the draft (and I will be very greatful for them), I think it would be best if you leave them here on this post, but you can also respond at Academia.com.
My review of a new book about the failures of conservatism has just been published in Chronicles magazine. The book openly admits that conservatives have been defeated (which is now pretty glaring). But it does nothing to explain why the extreme Left took power, after having defeated the professional Right so decisively Despite a few important points in several essays, many of the authors exhibit the very problems that led to their defeat.
This confirms my belief that the professional right-wing establishment really does not want to come to grips with why they lost and learn from their mistakes. After all, if you start asking why the Left won, sooner or later someone will start asking why the Right lost – and after that, why we should continue listening to them, following their lead, publishing their work, contributing money to their coffers…
Among other criticisms, I suggest that conservatives always lose because they ignore serious injustices and abuses of government power against ordinary Americans — especially those inflicted by the judiciary in general and the family courts in particular.
Some comments, “likes”, reposts, etc., on this matter would greatly assist me and others to get more such pieces published.
Below are the opening paragraphs, as I wrote them, and then a link to the published article. I was told that it would available by free access for several days and not behind the pay wall. I am looking into that.
Arthur Milikh, ed., Up from Conservatism: Revitalizing the Right after a Generation of Decay (Encounter, 2023)
Reviewed by Stephen Baskerville
Published in Chronicles magazine, January 2024
At last, the “establishment Right” acknowledges that perhaps things might be done better. After decades of almost unbroken defeat, culminating in what amounts to a coup d’etat allowing the far Left to triumph in the United States, we finally get an admission of failure.
The quoted phrase suggests that these authors see themselves as dissident conservatives, outside that “establishment” and willing to criticize it. To a point.
Acknowledging defeat is this book’s chief merit – sometimes diplomatically, though often forthrightly: “The establishment Right’s failures over the last generations have been manifold,” the editor writes in the Introduction.
Since the end of the Cold War, what trajectory-altering successes or victories can the Right cite to demonstrate its worth? … Despite spending billions of dollars supporting its infrastructure…the establishment Right has registered no clear gains and many clear losses. Much of the nation was conquered on its watch.
Michael Anton goes further. “You could even argue that it abetted most of it[s defeats],” he suggests. “Where official conservatism’s opposition hasn’t been ineffectual, it’s been collaborationist.” Importantly, he refers to not only “RINO” Republicans but the larger conservative class itself. (…)
Read the rest in Chronicles, January 2024…