1. Nostalgia won't save us from Donald Trump.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
2. The nostalgic impulse is understandable in a time of crisis. We want to turn back to the old certitudes, find solace in the old gods.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
3. One common form of nostalgia is to suddenly praise old right wing politicians (Reagan!) or thinkers (WF Buckley) as better than Trump.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
4. My constant argument: Trump was not born of an immaculate conception but is product of social forces that go far back in history.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
5. If Trump is worse than earlier right-wingers, it's only because they paved way for such an horrible figure to emerge & lead GOP.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
6. In case of Buckley, it's hard understand how someone who supported McCarthyism, pre-emptive nuclear war & Jim Crow was superior to Trump.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
7. Trump-induced nostalgia has caused a resurgence of interest on the right in Buckley's chief ally, James Burnham.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
8. It's weird that Burnham, widely seen as a fringe figure when he died, is now being upheld as a conservative paragon.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
9. I explain the problems with Burnham in my latest TNR piece:https://newrepublic.com/article/138250/nostalgia-flawed-thinkers-wont-solve-crisis-conservative-intellectual …
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Replying to @HeerJeet
10. Wispy waspy nostalgia of elite conservatives no match for Trump's own muscular nostalgia appealing to memories of white male hegemony.
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11. Anyways, my latest piece will be of interest to @DouthatNYT, @continetti @robgreeneII & a other fans of intellectual history.
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