3. The screenshots in the previous tweet don't come from some liberal professor, rather they were published by a conservative website and were written by a historian at a conservative Catholic college who shares many of Bozell's commitments.http://www.frontporchrepublic.com/2012/03/freedom-or-virtue-revisited/ …
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4. So what do we make of the fact that the ur-text of modern American Conservatism was written by a man who thought Franco's authoritarian regime was an ideal to be emulated?
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5. I'm not trying to go for a simple "guilt by association" argument as in..."Bozell thought Catholic authoritarianism was good, therefore Goldwater and all of his supporters were *really* authoritarians hiding behind a libertarian mask."
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6. Rather, given the recent Sohrab/French debate within the ranks of American conservatism, it's worth remembering that there's long been a more statist and culturally nationalist thread within the American conservative movement.
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7.
@HeerJeet noted the resurgence of a more authoritarian-friendly conservatism in September 2016 and wrote this piece pointing out the sinews which have long tied American conservatives to right wing Europeans.https://newrepublic.com/article/136784/trump-embrace-putin-return-traditional-conservative-values …5 replies 15 retweets 111 likesShow this thread -
8. I'm of a demographic (middle class white American male who came of age in Reagan's America) that was socialized to think that it was grievously hyperbolic to call another American an "authoritarian" or a "fascist."
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9. There were, I think, some good reasons for this. After all, many of Goldwater's admirers were true believing libertarians who spoke out against various forms of illiberalism. Barry himself famously became an advocate of gay rights late in his life. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/may98/goldwater072894.htm …
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10. And there's also this famous quote attributed to Goldwater in which he expressed dismay at the theocratic direction he saw the GOP going in the 1980s and 90s as evangelicals became a stronger force in the party.pic.twitter.com/gUKETTOZhz
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11. The once canonical take on American conservatism was that it fused together the competing traditions of libertarianism and social conservatism in the 1950s and 1960s by finding common ground in anti-communism. This book pioneered that argument.pic.twitter.com/AUWcjc7KH0
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Replying to @SethCotlar @HeerJeet
I have a lengthy contra-Nash historiographical section in the intro of my book. By focusing on intellectual and political elites rather than the broadcasters and promoters (Bozell straddles the groups), Nash wrote out the conspiratorially-minded 'radicals.'
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Lots of problems with Nash. Also by starting with 1945, he downplays considerable links to 1930s anti-New Deal right.
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Replying to @HeerJeet @SethCotlar
I don't know Nash and don't wish to impugn his motives, but the net effect of both decisions was to advance Buckley's own founding myth. Not surprising the book remains in print with the Buckley-founded Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
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And that's not to say that it's not good scholarship. It is, so far as it goes. It's a matter of choosing who to make salient and who to keep silent.
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