Cruising for Conservatives
Johann Hari, a columnist for Great Britain’s Independent newspaper has written a devastatingly frank memoir of his recent trip on one of the National Review’s ocean cruises, intermittently held political-rallies-cum-vacations for readers of the conservative magazine with lots of discretionary income to blow on an overpriced voyage.
What comes across most tellingly in his account is the boorishness of the participants. These people come across as real assholes. These people are unsympathetic, thoughtless messengers who cast doubt on any idea they support, regardless of intrinsic merit. Unlike Mr Hari, I agree with many of the tenets of American conservatism: I think declining birthrates and increased unassimilating immigration are among the greatest long-term problems for the U.S., Canada and European nations; I agree that the problems of the Black community are mostly self-inflicted and affirmative action is counterproductive; I share a disdain for the self-loathing that too often drives liberals’ views of themselves and the rest of the world.
Mr. Hari chronicles the sheer heartless unthinking crassness of these vanguards of conservatives, people who remark “They all look the same! Can you tell them apart?” with regard to the Filipino waiters. The only person who comes across as having some soul is William F. Buckley, the semi-retired founder of the magazine. In voicing doubt about the current debacle in Iraq, he opens himself up to whispered aspersions and suggestions of senility by dissatisfied doctrinaire conservative apparatchiks. Mr. Hari fails to note that Mr. Buckley’s wife had recently passed away, which also may explain Buckley’s mournful tone in his interview.
Politics, it must be noted, is not so much a matter of ideas as it is about people — people joining together for common purpose, identity and effort. As circumstances change, so does the accompanying philosophy. It is who we are united with rather than the reason we are united that is important. Loyalty trumps ideology in any respectable political movement. That is not to say that loyalties do not shift and people change and that divorce must never sully the sanctity of political union. We must be practical. We must also have friends and this is what truly defines us. The definition is an intimate, often secret one, much more meaningful than the party affiliation checked off on our voter registration.