Kristol expounds on his usual "Conservatism is better and more successful than Liberalism" trope. Apparently, we are now at the end of an era of Conservatism, sayeth Kristol, but whether Liberalism will succeed depends on how President Obama performs. Like Reagan to the "new" Conservatism in the '80s...
Two things. I prefer the Libertarian, old Barry Goldwater-style Conservatism that said "you don't have to be straight to be in the Army, you just have to shoot straight!" The one that said keep your Church out of my State. The one that said keep the Government out of the private lives of the citizenry. Not the "Government will decide whether Terry Schiavo lives or dies, whether two consenting adults can have sex, whether two loving adults can be married, whether a woman/girl can have an abortion, whether evolution is a fact"-type Christian Conservatism of Reagan/Bush/Gingrich/Bush and (apparently) Kristol.
Second, Kristol says "Conservative policies have on the whole worked — insofar as any set of policies can be said to “work” in the real world." Well, the last eight years have seen that stubbornly sticking to tax cuts even in the face of two expensive wars doesn't do anybody any good. The recent Wall Street crash - aided by Phil "nation of whiners" Gramm and DLC-er President Clinton, among others - has shown that The Market, unfettered, leads to excess and disaster. And does Kristol really believe l'affaire Terry Schiavo, teaching "intelligent" design in science class, and denying aid to agencies in overpopulated, poor countries which don't have a puritanical streak just because they disseminate information about abortion or provide such services, is Good Government? And I haven't even touched upon the Iraq War, pushed through by Chicken-Hawk Conservatives Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz.
Goodbye, Kristol. You will not be missed. [Actually, sometimes that can also be said for the rest of the Iraq War-cheerleading, Vicki Iseman-touting NYT. Oh well.]
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