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"Rational" Conservatives: The problem with leftists is that they are too hot headed, too quick to rush to judgment, and not willing to hear someone out.
Also "Rational" Conservatives: OMG, did you see that tweet by Sarah Jeong!?!? She's gonna genocide me!
Also "Rational" Conservatives: OMG, did you see that tweet by Sarah Jeong!?!? She's gonna genocide me!
This tweet was inspired by a conversation between Ezra Klein & Andrew Sullivan. I was astonished that Sullivan mostly agreed with virtually every progressive end Klein mentioned--transgender rights, higher marginal tax rates, climate change, MeToo, BLM. player.fm/series/the-ezr…
Their differences seemed to mostly revolve around how we work toward a more just world. Sullivan is quite wary of the supposedly illiberalism of the activists who are pushing for change, and he wanted change to happen more slowly and "naturally."
As a historian, I can say that I can't think of a single significant change that has happened "naturally" (whatever that means). It has always involved people endorsing things and using tactics that people at the time found horrifying and "dangerous."
Frederick Douglass made this point brilliantly in his famous 4th of July (1854) speech. To paraphrase, he said "you Americans love to celebrate your brave patriot founders, but then you call us Abolitionists crazed radicals. Your founders were the crazed radicals of their day."
Like many "moderate conservatives" of today, Sullivan wants all of the gains of progressivism (racial justice, economic fairness, environmental regulations, women's rights, transgender rights, etc.) without the people and movements who won those gains through their activism.
That's the part I find frustrating. How can you call yourself an advocate for an open, liberal society that treats all equally, while devoting much time to railing against the imperfect humans who in this historical moment are fighting FOR that sort of society?
Sullivan wants us to approach anti-immigrant white people with tenderness, to understand that they are fallen and try to understand them on their own terms. But a random college student says something intemperate and Sullivan is all "HERE COMES THE GUILLOTINE!"
Ultimately, it seems that Sullivan's conservatism consists of a tenderness and generosity toward those on the tops of hierarchies, and a deep fear and suspicion of those at the bottom of those hierarchies.
And the illiberalism he seems to most fear is left illiberalism...meanwhile, illiberalism on the right has basically come to dominate one of the nation's two major parties. And he wants us to think that college students and Sarah Jeong's tweets are the real problem?
Here's a longer thread where I include the actual quotes from Douglass that I paraphrased earlier. If you haven't read that speech of his lately, you really should. America was truly great on that day he delivered it.
FWIW, here's a thread where I tried to sort thru Sullivan's relationship to American liberalism, American conservatism, & HIS variety of conservatism (which seems to bear little resemblance to the American conservative movement as a real historical thing.)
