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Entry: Truly Conservative? Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/truly_conservative#26965 Post contents: Dr. Gottfried asks: "Would you like that movement better if you could have Michael Ledeen’s agenda for America without its foreign policy implications?" Of course not. I didn't mean to suggest here that the movement had been or would be acceptable if it would abandon its reckless foreign policy habits. The larger point, which I didn't develop, is that so much of what is called "conservatism" is, just as you say, nothing of the kind. My use of the word in this context was a concession to convention, but I had hoped to make clear from my remarks about the content of what so many of these "conservatives" believe about foreign policy that there is not much that can be called "truly conservative" in it. Foreign policy often provides the evidence for which political groupings are fundamentally in agreement about the state, human nature and society and which are starkly opposed, so I think it can make for a useful way of distinguishing and contrasting between them. The present follies among Republicans also make up a significant part of our current predicament. For the record, in case it wasn't already clear, I want no part of anything to do with the agenda of Michael Ledeen and his confreres in this or any or other part of the world. Sent at: 2008 12 01