Gang Warfare in Chicago

One flew into O’Hare with a certain degree of apprehension, not so much that Delta flight 245 would be blown up by a crazed Levantine as that something decidedly untoward would happen when Conservatives (Old Believers) engaged Neoconservatives (Liberals Mugged by Reality) at the Philadelphia Society’s national meeting at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. It was some reassurance to discover upon arrival at the hotel that weapons were not being carried openly.

Now, for some time there has been a good deal of private growling among certain Old Believers, and the Spring 1986 number of The Intercollegiate Review had provided a sort of backgrounder on the discontents that would be aired in Chicago. One could assemble a bill of particulars. It appeared that “big C” Conservatives, who think of themselves as going back to Kirk, Voegelin, Buckley, Weaver, Meyer, and, of course, Goldwater, consider with a good deal of anger that neoconservatives: 1) Aren’t religious enough. Professor George Panichas, of the University of Maryland, calls for “spiritual exercises” and a “spiritual and visionary conservatism.” 2) Are “welfare-state Democrats” thinly disguised, who have captured media attention, dominate some conservative institutions, and have even invaded national review (Paul Gottfried, formerly of Rockford College, now at the Washington Times). 3) Do not share formative experiences with real conservatives—e.g., the Goldwater movement—and use an alien vocabulary mostly drawn from the social sciences: “These refugees now speak in our name, but the language they speak is the same one they always spoke . . . It contains no words for the things we value. Our estate has been taken over by an impostor, just as we were about to inherit” (Clyde Wilson, University of South Carolina). 4) Have been alarmingly successful in getting jobs and establishing priorities within the Reagan Administration: The “Old Guard cannot help but catch on the wind from the Potomac a faint but unmistakable odor of opportunistic betrayal” (Clyde Wilson), and the Administration’s “surviving reserves of conservatism” might as well be concentrated on judicial appointments (M. E. Bradford, University of Dallas).

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Jeffrey Hart

Jeffrey Hart is a contributor to National Review.

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William F. Buckley Jr.

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One flew into O’Hare with a certain degree of apprehension, not so much that Delta flight 245 would be blown up by a crazed Levantine as that something decidedly untoward would happen when Conservatives (Old Believers) engaged Neoconservatives (Liberals Mugged by Reality) at the Philadelphia Society’s national meeting at the Drake Hotel in Chicago. It was some reassurance to discover upon arrival at the hotel that weapons were not being carried openly.

Now, for some time there has been a good deal of private growling among certain Old Believers, and the Spring 1986 number of The Intercollegiate Review had provided a sort of backgrounder on the discontents that would be aired in Chicago. One could assemble a bill of particulars. It appeared that “big C” Conservatives, who think of themselves as going back to Kirk, Voegelin, Buckley, Weaver, Meyer, and, of course, Goldwater, consider with a good deal of anger that neoconservatives: 1) Aren’t religious enough. Professor George Panichas, of the University of Maryland, calls for “spiritual exercises” and a “spiritual and visionary conservatism.” 2) Are “welfare-state Democrats” thinly disguised, who have captured media attention, dominate some conservative institutions, and have even invaded national review (Paul Gottfried, formerly of Rockford College, now at the Washington Times). 3) Do not share formative experiences with real conservatives—e.g., the Goldwater movement—and use an alien vocabulary mostly drawn from the social sciences: “These refugees now speak in our name, but the language they speak is the same one they always spoke . . . It contains no words for the things we value. Our estate has been taken over by an impostor, just as we were about to inherit” (Clyde Wilson, University of South Carolina). 4) Have been alarmingly successful in getting jobs and establishing priorities within the Reagan Administration: The “Old Guard cannot help but catch on the wind from the Potomac a faint but unmistakable odor of opportunistic betrayal” (Clyde Wilson), and the Administration’s “surviving reserves of conservatism” might as well be concentrated on judicial appointments (M. E. Bradford, University of Dallas).