The Mouse That Roars
Over at NRO, house ideologist Jonah Goldberg is very angry with bloggers Ross Douthat and Reihan Salam for taking an interest in the American middle class. So he unleashed the harshest criticism he could think of, commenting on their “Strange New Respect for Buchananism” and stating that Sam Francis’s “Middle American Radicalism is getting a fresh coat of paint,” throwing in a hint that Sam Francis is now in Hell.
Leave aside the fact that it unseemly, to say the least, for a confused agnostic like Goldberg to engage in such speculation about Sam, who had more decency and class (not to mention intelligence and talent) than Goldberg ever will. Is there anyone who really thinks that “Buchananism” and “Middle American Radicalism” would have been worse than the six-year reign of the man whom Steve Sailer has memorably termed “Chauncey Gardiner with a mean streak”? Why should anyone pay any attention to those, like Goldberg, who have spent the Bush years serving as apologists for (to quote Sailer again) “the twisted mediocrity” at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue?
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Alas, the 'conservative' magazines have been undone; National Review has not been properly characterized as conservative for well-nigh thirty years or more.
But perhaps I should not lament the demise or heterodoxy of so many once-respectable publications. It is inevitable, given our fallen nature (I suppose), that we run the risk of being contaminated by our surroundings and having fallen in love with the sound of our own erudition. Such is the fate that's befallen NRO, an alarmingly childish and increasingly irrelevant screed put together by people in Manhattan who never had the requisite credentials - philosophically or religiously - to claim a stake in the survival of Western civilization and the 'Permanent Things'. There are more, unfortunately, on the road NRO has already trod. Most unfortunately of, undoubtedly, is that our moribund popular culture still considers NRO a reliable repository of conservative philosophy.
We must be thankful, therefore, for the continued success of Chronicles. Whereas I don't always agree with some of its more ad hominem jabs, I can always rely on Chronicles and its writers to remain faithful to the preservation of all that is good and true in our culture. Thank God for this wonderful publication, and may its future be bright.