Larison on Obama
Here’s why Daniel is essential reading:
As someone with no sympathy for Obama’s domestic agenda, I find the backtracking on civil liberties to be especially worrisome, since it seems to confirm that we will have the worst of the welfare and security states under a President Obama. This just drives home for me how inexplicable small-government, constitutionalist conservative support for Obama is, since these supporters don’t have the excuse that they generally agree with the candidate’s domestic policies. It also makes it clear why a strong showing by Barr is very important, since neither major candidate seems particularly interested in defending the Constitution.
What is most compelling about Daniel, and the paleocons more broadly, is that he has no interest in politics as “the art of the possible.” I think of myself as closer in spirit to Will Wilkinson or Tyler Cowen, who are both more comfortable with incremental reform, though Will’s incrementalism is married to a worldview as radical and principled as Larison’s. Tylerish-ly, I’m more case by case.
I’m interested in how Andrew Sullivan fits into all of this. Andrew is a very idiosyncratic and quirky thinker, yet I sense that he prefers to have a rooting interest in the political scene.
To be fair, Andrew Sullivan just develops a crush on a chosen candidate and spends the rest of time kvetching at his opponents
— Fifth Columnist · Jul 6, 11:15 PM · #
I love that phrase, politics as the “art of the possible” (Talleyrand). Back when I was working at a think tank (which I was later privileged to run), our Dear Leader wanted to pick as our motto “the art of the unthinkable.” (In English, “unthinkable” has negative connotations — not so in French.) To me, politics definitely is the art of the possible. But sometimes the unthinkable is possible. (In a good way.)
— PEG · Jul 7, 06:42 AM · #
The thing about Obama is that he’ll seize as much power as possible, but appoint judicial nominees inclined to prevent his successors from doing the same thing.
— Consumatopia · Jul 7, 02:41 PM · #
Here’s why Daniel is essential reading:
What would it take for Daniel to become essential linking as well?
— southpaw · Jul 7, 03:23 PM · #
It really does seem hard to square Andrew’s history with anything but an over-developed sense of partisanship. Hence the radical shift from his famous fifth column comment to his current place in the commentariat.
— Justin · Jul 8, 06:45 PM · #