The Dark Night of the Conservative Soul

As the American Conservative movement is increasingly consumed by the genies it let loose, more than a few conservatives are beginning to wonder what happened. David Frum's wife, Danielle Crittenden:

We have both been part of the conservative movement for, as mentioned, the better part of half of our lives. And I can categorically state I've never seen such a hostile environment towards free thought and debate -- once the hallmarks of Reaganism, the politics with which we grew up -- prevail in our movement as it does today. The thuggish demagoguery of the Limbaughs and Becks is a trait we once derided in the old socialist Left. Well boys, take a look in the mirror. It is us now.

An Andrew Sullivan reader looks at and doesn't like how a conservative Catholic site reacts to the latest revelations about the pope's role in the pedophilia coverup:

Something snapped in the Bush years, though. The whole organization (led by Neuhaus) descended deeper and deeper into neocon unreality. Anyway, I was reading something about how the Corner over at National Review, which never stops touting Catholic doctrine when it is convenient to its causes, has been utterly silent on the crushing scandal in Rome. And I thought I would check out First Things' site, which I hadn't been to in a while. It was astonishing.


There are seven blogs there. I scrolled down the first page of all of them. I would estimate that about 80% of the posts were anti-Obama diatribes or links, or anti HCR, or anti Democrats generally. And in those seven blogs' first pages, most of which cover at least two or three days' worth of posts, this is the only mention of the doings in the Vatican -- and you'll never guess who gets the blame.

Andrews's response.

I guess I'm just stupid, because I think someday I won't be surprised at how low these people can go.
I like that phrase: "something snapped in the Bush years." It did. It was the conservative soul.

I think you guys just started noticing the rot during the Bush years. Not that I ever had a whole lot of sympathy for the right, but I think that the current neo-fascist character of the Republican party has more to do with Nixon, Buckley, and McCArthy than it does with Bush and Rove. It was Nixon and friends who saw a bright future in aligning the party with the most racist and rejectionist elements of the South. There is a price to be paid when you make deals with the Devil

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