Stop-Loss Conservatives

Mr. Chamberlain has unearthed a “conservative” professor who, through Messrs. Arthur Larson and Gabriel Hauge, feeds ideas to the President

Like savages kneeling to a totem, the new breed of “conservative” seldom lays down his creed without making obeisance to the powers of the contemporary Liberal Establishment. He is a man facing both ways, seeking acceptance by both old and new. A Peter Drucker pays his respects to the “codified” New Deal before telling us that the beliefs of the thirties about chronic unemployment are wholly beside the point in a day when there isn’t enough labor to go around. A Clinton Rossiter, genuflects twice to an image of Harold Laski before writing as a “conservative” about the powers of the Presidency. A Peter Viereck invariably begins one of his yeasty forays against the Left with a ritualistic murder of the late Bob Taft. All of this may gladden the heart of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., one of whose missions is to keep “conservatives” safely inside the Liberal corral. But to anyone who is versed in the modern science of Public Relations, which consists of stealing your enemies’ vocabulary, the whole business must seem like a canny bit of semantic engineering designed to keep old “liberal” ideas alive in protective dress. If conservatism is a coming thing, the Liberals are preparing by taking it over.

JC

About the Author

John Chamberlain

John Chamberlain (1903–1995) was an American writer.

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Mr. Chamberlain has unearthed a “conservative” professor who, through Messrs. Arthur Larson and Gabriel Hauge, feeds ideas to the President

Like savages kneeling to a totem, the new breed of “conservative” seldom lays down his creed without making obeisance to the powers of the contemporary Liberal Establishment. He is a man facing both ways, seeking acceptance by both old and new. A Peter Drucker pays his respects to the “codified” New Deal before telling us that the beliefs of the thirties about chronic unemployment are wholly beside the point in a day when there isn’t enough labor to go around. A Clinton Rossiter, genuflects twice to an image of Harold Laski before writing as a “conservative” about the powers of the Presidency. A Peter Viereck invariably begins one of his yeasty forays against the Left with a ritualistic murder of the late Bob Taft. All of this may gladden the heart of Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., one of whose missions is to keep “conservatives” safely inside the Liberal corral. But to anyone who is versed in the modern science of Public Relations, which consists of stealing your enemies’ vocabulary, the whole business must seem like a canny bit of semantic engineering designed to keep old “liberal” ideas alive in protective dress. If conservatism is a coming thing, the Liberals are preparing by taking it over.