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Entry: Ron Paul's Pyrrhic Defeat Link: http://www.takimag.com/sniperstower/article/ron_pauls_pyrrhic_defeat#26458 Post contents: One can indeed say (as David Frum has admitted), that after Goldwater, conservatism didn't so much triumph as liberalism collapsed of its own weight, contradictions and divisions. Poltically speaking, the forces of the conservative movement may won the GOP nomination in 1964. And may have won the White House in 1980 and helped the GOP keep the White House in 1988 and 2004. But culturally speaking, nothing changed and if anything went in the opposite direction. Goldwater was a never a cultural candidate. Reagan was a culutral candidate but the forces supporting him were more wrapped up in politics and power games and thus never changed the broader culture. Ask yourself this question, why is that the "conservative movement" has to keep fighting to take over the GOP? Haven't they already done that many times before? Why do they keep "losing" it? Right now the Ron Paul movement is a political movement, one that will outlast him. Whether it becomes a cultural movement remains to be seen. But at least one can say that since he's' run a campaign outside the traditional conservative movement structure (which has become an establishment, not a movement)which includes libertarian elements as well traditional conservative, the final chapter of Paul's movement is a long way from being written. One cannot compare it to past. Sent at: 2008 09 05