re: "The United States should breathe new life into the Atlantic community"

Joerg Wolf at the Atlantic Review ("A Press Digest for Transatlantic Affairs") commented on an essay by Prof. Charles Kupchan of Georgetown U.


Money quote(s):


"Europe welcomed the election of President Obama. America is much more popular than before, but European policies have not changed that much. The US is not getting that much more support from Europe. When Obama surged in Afghanistan for instance, Europe has also increased troops, but not at a level to justify the term "surge". I think Democrats had illusions regarding support from Europe before Obama's election, but now they don't have them anymore."


Nothing to add to that.


"I thought the term "progressives" referred to only the very left wing of the Democrats, but this seems to have changed as Kupchan seems to adress the party mainstream."


I laugh every time I read that sentence. The former parts of the Democratic Party which are not "progressives" (i.e., what used to be "the very left wing") are primarily two: the so-called "Reagan Democrats," many of whom are still members of the party, but not comprising many of its party or elected officialdom; and those known as neo-conservatives. That is, once the party moved too far left, they found themselves to be conservatives-by-default.


The "progressives" are like Europe's 68-ers, except that since the Soviet Union was safely and so far away they never had to grow up.


"(I)t seems to me that Kupchan is trying to convince the Democrats that Europe and NATO are important, while acknowledging that conservatives already recognize this."


Just so.



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re: "Vampire Slayer: Buffy the Conservative"

Evan Pokroy at Big Hollywood decrypts the secret Conservative themes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."


Money quote(s):


"The fact is that Buffy the Vampire Slayer is, at its core, an exceptionally conservative show. There are a few episodes that break this general mold but, as a whole, it is everything that Hollywood is not. There is a main theme that runs throughout the entire span of the show and is apparent in every single episode.

Evil exists and you do not negotiate with it; you fight it."

Never forget what Will Rogers had to say about diplomacy.

(I rather like dogs, and never throw rocks at them.)

"You don’t need special powers to confront evil."

That's why there's a Second Amendment, so everyone can have special powers to fight evil.

"Actions have consequences."

So do elections. And economies. And foreign policies. And wars.

"You are the master (or mistress, if we’re going to stay in context) of your own destiny."

We all have choices, every moment of every day. How we respond to them, how we make them, tells ourselves (and others) what kind of a master (or mistress) we are of that destiny.

"Government is suspect."

Again: this is why, in extremity, we have a Second Amendment.

(But let's keep going with elections in the meantime.)

" No one is so irredeemably evil that they cannot, after much hard work and rebuilding of self, find themselves unequivocally on the side of good."

re: "Is the GOP going extinct? And if so, is conservatism to blame?"

Jeff G. at Protein Wisdom ("because not just anybody can summarize the news") remarks upon an entire paragraph of wrong.

Money quote(s):

"(T)hat single paragraph is so densely packed with wrong — from the idea that Bush was a “conservative” to the notion that waterboarding, to conservatives, is a thrill rather than a necessary evil — I won’t bother deconstructing it."

"(I)t reinforces a manufactured narrative that the progressives are hoping to push as consensus opinion; it enables the Big Lie about “what Americans want” (gay marriage? according to what polls? higher taxes? terrorists treated as criminal defendants in a courtroom?); and — and here’s where it’s supposed to really work, as a piece of propaganda — it serves notice to the leadership in the GOP that, should they not move the party more toward what leftists are out to portray as “centrist,” the party is doomed to fail."

&

"Bush’s presidency was a success in that it kept Americans safe and beat back a dangerous enemy — not because he was a “conservative” or classical liberal."