Sean Scallon has responded to my critique of his TAC article about how the GOP can follow in the footsteps of Andrew Jackson and launch a populist assault on the Federal Reserve:
What I do know is that if the right wants to be taken seriously once again as an electoral force, it needs an issue or series of issues that two of two things: 1). Excites the base and 2). is intellectually serious. This addresses the dilemma that was posed by Jim Antle in his recent article. The current crop of conservative “intellectuals” still support discredited Bush II policies that many within the “base” have given up on because they have failed. But what excites the “base”, whether it’s Obama’s birth certificate or “death panels” risks its further marginalization. Why not try a political strategy that both populistic and an idea discussed and proposed by thinkers and economists? Why not try idea that may very well enlarge the base and split your opponents?
Well, I guess, I kinda agree with this (though I’m loathe to spend my intellectual energies trying to improve the electoral prospects of “the Right,” which by default is the Republican Party.) The problem is, developing a populist strategy and being “intellectually serious” are, sadly, antagonistic, if not mutually exclusive, goals. Indeed, no one has yet lost an election by underestimating the intellectual seriousness of the American public. Besides, while Jackson should be revered for breaking the Second Bank of the United States and Ron Paul has sparked a growing (though still fringe) “End the Fed
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The Cross of Gold is Tough to Bear
Sean Scallon has responded to my critique of his TAC article about how the GOP can follow in the footsteps of Andrew Jackson and launch a populist assault on the Federal … [Read More]
Posted by Richard Spencer on October 16, 2009
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