Nathaniel Ward » Conservatism

Friday links: D.C. Council needs to hear conservative policy voices

Nathaniel Ward — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:20:53 +0000

Photo: Flickr/Tony

Lydia DePillis says Washington, D.C. needs a fiscally-conservative alternative to the lefty D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute, the only think tank focused on the city’s local government.
Are participants in marathons and other event-based fundraisers really donors in the same sense as direct-marketing donors? Tom Belford says no.
Pork Barrel Barbecue has released a barbecue-scented fragrance. Really.
It’s not clear why repairing ill-maintained local transit infrastructure ought to be a federal responsibility.
Last but not least, Conan O’Brien spoke last week at Dartmouth’s commencement:

What I’m Reading — November 8th

Nathaniel Ward — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 17:26:41 +0000

Unintended Consequences of Credit Card ‘Reform.’ “‘We basically socialized the bearing of the risk,’ said Ken Clayton, managing director of card policy for the American Bankers Association, a trade group. ‘That’s why good customers sometimes have to bear the cost of the risk that others pose.’”
Ponnuru on Repositioning Conservatism. “The [GOP] problem has instead been that voters have not thought Republicans of any stripe had answers to their most pressing concerns. Addressing those concerns, rather than repositioning itself along the ideological spectrum, is the party’s main challenge.”
Big Ben on Twitter

What I’m Reading — September 13th

Nathaniel Ward — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 05:40:31 +0000

Berkeley’s Center for the Comparative Study of Right-Wing Movements. “[B]eggars can’t be choosers. The unfortunate fact is that American academics have until recently shown little curiosity about conservative ideas, even though those ideas have utterly transformed American (and British) politics over the past 30 years.”
Another Jay Nordlinger Observation. “And isn’t it interesting that, when you read about ‘angry white males,’ they’re always talking about conservatives — never, say, Keith Olbermann?”
Greg Mankiw’s Economics Reading List. What he assigned his Harvard freshman seminar.

What I’m Reading — August 30th

Nathaniel Ward — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 04:50:14 +0000

100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man’s Library.
How Consumer-Based Reforms Can Fix What Ails Health Care. David Goldhill on how the current system fails us and what to do about it. “The most important single step we can take toward truly reforming our system is to move away from comprehensive health insurance as the single model for financing care. And a guiding principle of any reform should be to put the consumer, not the insurer or the government, at the center of the system.”
Is Conservatism Dead? “Like the liberal writers of the 1950s, Tanenhaus wants to see a conservative movement that accommodates rather than opposes liberalism, and thus one that will accept its role as subordinate to the dominant liberal tradition in American life.”
Should the NEA Promote the Obama Agenda? “Do you think it is the place of the NEA to encourage the art community to address issues currently under legislative consideration?”

What I’m Reading — May 22nd

Nathaniel Ward — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:45:33 +0000

Maggie Gallagher on the trouble with social conservatives. “Social conservatives have had bad models for political action. We’ve depended on two basic strategies, and neither of them work very well.”
Tips for non-profit web design.
This is how to write a negative review of a car. “It’s terrible. Biblically terrible. Possibly the worst new car money can buy. It’s the first car I’ve ever considered crashing into a tree, on purpose, so I didn’t have to drive it any more.”

Progressive Temperamental Conservatism

Nathaniel Ward — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 02:40:10 +0000

The recent debate over “temperamental conservatism” and Sam Tanenhaus’ essay in the New Republic, which Ross Douthat rounds up, suggests that nobody has any real idea what the term even means. Damon Linker’s analysis reflects this profound confusion:

Instead of standing athwart history yelling, “Stop!,” Tanenhaus’s ideal conservative would patiently clear his throat before ironically intoning, “Hey, would you mind slowing down a little bit so we can catch up with you before the next round of creative destruction?” That’s temperamental, not ideological, conservatism.

Any political philosophy that anticipates “the next round of creative destruction” and worries about being left behind isn’t conservative at all, temperamental or otherwise. It isn’t a sober, pragmatic recognition that change happens and must be accommodated. Instead, it’s a sort of milder progressivism, a belief in the inexorable march of history towards a preordained end.