Gottfried’s Latest Gem
Here’s a bagatelle, a French word denoting something unimportant, however cute. It has to do with Paul Gottfried. History has repeatedly proved that the nobility has always been better fitted for the business of ruling. Paul, mind you, is noble in his mind and behavior, which as far as I’m concerned, trumps nobility of birth. Recently he had invited me to speak to one of his seminars—an honor—one which I failed to attend because I ... got drunk the night before in New York. Getting drunk is not important, but Paul’s reaction is. Once I told him the truth, he reacted like our Lord Jesus. Not only did he forgive me, he actually managed not to make me feel as if I had put him on the spot. Which I had. The sign of a real gent. I write this because Paul has written a book about the American Right. The Weekly Standard. WSJ, Fox and other neo-con crap carriers will do their best to ignore it. I will be writing about this in my London Spectator column, the trouble being the Brits are not familiar with a Taft Republican--the subject of Paul’s brilliant last chapter, which explains how the world would be so much better off if Taft had won in 1952. Take it from me--and alas, I know I’m preaching to the converted--Paul’s book on the American Right shines a light on the greatest hoax perpetrated on conservatives since Germans mistook Hitler for a patriot.
Comments
Sadly, R.A.T. developed cancer and left this world in
1953, which would’ve left the fate of the nation in the
hands of his Vice President, whomever that might have
been. At least with Ike, we did pretty well, and he
has the distinction of being the last President to
stand up to Israel, in ‘56, over the Suez Crisis.
Nobility of mind does trump nobility of birth; this is
shown in R.A.T.’s case, as his grandson, the former Governor
of Ohio, shared little of the Taft line’s signature political
virtues - integrity and old-school conservatism, however
much he looked like his splendid Grandfather.
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Taki writes, “The Weekly Standard. WSJ, Fox and other neo-con crap carriers will do their best to ignore it.”
Taki, I don’t get it. When your website censors Hoffman its okay, but if The Weekly Standard, WSJ and Fox do it to Gottfried, it’s not.
Is this a double standard, or am I missing something?
Shalom,
Baruch
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give em hell taki.
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Exaggerated public expressions of adulation of Taft among some of the American so-called “Old Right”, often seem to me to be exercises in borrowed virtue, or virtue-by-association, among a considerable number of them (not all) whose inclinations are closer to those of Lindbergh (marginally justifiable), and among a few at the fringe whose inclinations are closer to Father Coughlin (unjustifiable.) Taft was morally and intellectually the least impeachable representative of the Old Right, but that doesn’t make him worthy of extraordinary admiration or emulation. (But ordinary admiration as a decent and sometimes wise man, yes.)
Still, I agree with Taki that America and the world would have been better off if Taft had won in 1952, instead of that shallow politically opportunistic hack Eisenhower, let alone the neo-pagan Space-Man JFK, the former “America-Firster” who got America entangled in Viet Nam. I don’t believe for a moment that Taft would have done that.
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