State of the Conservatives

DOES the conservative movement need to take some lithium? As the Washington Post’s Thomas B. Edsall recently observed, over the last five years its mood has swung from giddy optimism to despair and back again. The arc can be traced in the pronouncements of individual conservatives. Less than a year ago, Bill Bennett was despairing of the American public’s moral insipidity, as evidenced by its conspicuous lack of outrage at Bill Clinton’s misconduct. Now he blesses George W. Bush’s efforts to put a smiley face on the Republican party. Some of the same conservatives who were broaching the subject of justified revolution a few years ago have fallen behind the Texas governor as the unlikely leader of their insurrection.

These changes of mood are neither surprising nor particularly unhealthy. They reflect changed circumstances, for one thing. After several years of watching congressional Republicans play Wile E. Coyote to the president’s Road Runner—their every trap exploding in their faces—conservatives can now look forward to each morning’s newspaper, with its fresh revelations of the Gore campaign’s incompetence.

About the Author

Ramesh Ponnuru

Ramesh Ponnuru is the editor of National Review, a columnist for the Washington Post, and a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

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DOES the conservative movement need to take some lithium? As the Washington Post’s Thomas B. Edsall recently observed, over the last five years its mood has swung from giddy optimism to despair and back again. The arc can be traced in the pronouncements of individual conservatives. Less than a year ago, Bill Bennett was despairing of the American public’s moral insipidity, as evidenced by its conspicuous lack of outrage at Bill Clinton’s misconduct. Now he blesses George W. Bush’s efforts to put a smiley face on the Republican party. Some of the same conservatives who were broaching the subject of justified revolution a few years ago have fallen behind the Texas governor as the unlikely leader of their insurrection.

These changes of mood are neither surprising nor particularly unhealthy. They reflect changed circumstances, for one thing. After several years of watching congressional Republicans play Wile E. Coyote to the president’s Road Runner—their every trap exploding in their faces—conservatives can now look forward to each morning’s newspaper, with its fresh revelations of the Gore campaign’s incompetence.