What Is Conservatism?

From Ofir Haivry and Yoram Hazony, at the new journal, American Affairs:

The year 2016 marked a dramatic change of political course for the English-speaking world, with Britain voting for independence from Europe and the United States electing a president promising a revived American nationalism. Critics see both events as representing a dangerous turn toward “illiberalism” and deplore the apparent departure from “liberal principles” or “liberal democracy,” themes that surfaced repeatedly in conservative publications over the past year. Perhaps the most eloquent among the many spokesmen for this view has been William Kristol, who, in a series of essays in the Weekly Standard, has called for a new movement to arise “in defense of liberal democracy.” In his eyes, the historic task of American conservatism is “to preserve and strengthen American liberal democracy,” and what is needed now is “a new conservatism based on old conservative—and liberal—principles.” Meanwhile, the conservative flagship Commentary published a cover story by the Wall Street Journal’s Sohrab Ahmari entitled “Illiberalism: The Worldwide Crisis,” seeking to raise the alarm about the dangers to liberalism posed by Brexit, Trump, and other phenomena.

These and similar examples demonstrate once again that more than a few prominent conservatives in America and Britain today consider themselves to be not only conservatives but also liberals at the same time. Or, to get to the heart of the matter, they see conservatism as a branch or species of liberalism—to their thinking, the “classical” and most authentic form of liberalism. According to this view, the foundations of conservatism are to be found, in significant measure, in the thought of the great liberal icon John Locke and his followers. It is to this tradition, they say, that we must turn for the political institutions—including the separation of powers, checks and balances, and federalism—that secure the freedoms of religion, speech, and the press; the right of private property; and due process under law. In other words, if we want limited government and, ultimately, the American Constitution, then there is only one way to go: Lockean liberalism provides the theoretical basis for the ordered freedom that conservatives strive for, and liberal democracy is the only vehicle for it.

Many of those who have been most outspoken on this point have been our long-time friends. We admire and are grateful for their tireless efforts on behalf of conservative causes, including some in which we have worked together as partners. But we see this confusion of conservatism with liberalism as historically and philosophically misguided. Anglo-American conservatism is a distinct political tradition—one that predates Locke by centuries. Its advocates fought for and successfully established most of the freedoms that are now exclusively associated with Lockean liberalism, although they did so on the basis of tenets very different from Locke’s. Indeed, when Locke published his Two Treatises of Government in 1689, offering the public a sweeping new rationale for the traditional freedoms already known to Englishmen, most defenders of these freedoms were justly appalled. They saw in this new doctrine not a friend to liberty but a product of intellectual folly that would ultimately bring down the entire edifice of freedom. Thus, liberalism and conservatism have been opposed political positions in political theory since the day liberal theorizing first set foot in England.

Today’s confusion of conservative political thought with liberalism is in a way understandable, however. In the great twentieth-century battles against totalitarianism, conservatives and liberals were allies: They fought together, along with the Communists, against Nazism. After 1945, conservatives and liberals remained allies in the war against Communism. Over these many decades of joint struggle, what had for centuries been a distinction of vital importance was treated as if it were not terribly important, and in fact, it was largely forgotten.

But since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, these circumstances have changed. The challenges facing the Anglo-American tradition are now coming from other directions entirely. Radical Islam, to name one such challenge, is a menace that liberals, for reasons internal to their own view of the political world, find difficult to regard as a threat and especially difficult to oppose in an effective manner. But even more important is the challenge arising from liberalism itself. It is now evident that liberal principles contribute little or nothing to those institutions that were for centuries the bedrock of the Anglo-American political order: nationalism, religious tradition, the Bible as a source of political principles and wisdom, and the family. Indeed, as liberalism has emerged victorious from the battles of the last century, the logic of its doctrines has increasingly turned liberals against all of these conservative institutions. On both of these fronts, the conservative and liberal principles of the Anglo-American tradition are now painfully at cross-purposes. The twentieth-century alliance between conservatism and liberalism is proving increasingly difficult to maintain...

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Keeping Campaign Promises: President Trump Presses South Korea on Trade — #MAGA

Making America great again!

At Bloomberg, "President Trump plans to press South Korean President Moon Jae-In on trade imbalances."

Michelle Malkin, Sold Out

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Michelle Malkin, Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires & Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America’s Best & Brightest Workers.

BONUS: Michelle Malkin, Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals & Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores.

Congress Must Pass Health Care Reform to End the Financial Crises of Everyday Americans — BCRA

I've protested the ObamaCare monstrosity since the summer of 2009.

If we can get the Senate bill passed and legislation approved in conference, we might be well on the way to fixing the system and helping millions of Americans.

Forget the leftist fear-mongering. They're not sharing stories like this with us.

From Tom Price, President Trump's Secretary of Health and Human Services, and an orthopedic physician trained at the University of Michigan Medical School, at the Wall Street Journal, "ObamaCare’s Victims Need Relief Now":

America faces an urgent crisis in its health-care system. Costs are skyrocketing and choices are disappearing on the individual and small-group markets. Many people now confront the real challenge of having no choice in their health coverage.

One of them is Doug Lake, an Iowa radiologist who came to the White House last week to share his story. His daughter, who suffers from a rare cardiac condition, is covered by an insurer that plans to pull out of ObamaCare’s exchange in their state next year. Only one insurer remains in their county, and that company has requested a 43% increase in premiums.

The situation is even worse elsewhere. As of this week, 49 counties across the country do not have a single insurer offering plans on the exchanges next year.

This year more than 1,000 counties had only one insurer in the ObamaCare market, meaning millions of Americans had no meaningful choice. Meanwhile, the insurers that did stay in the market increased premiums for their midlevel plans by an average of 25%. Premiums on the individual market are up about $3,000 since ObamaCare was implemented. Think about what else that money could buy!

It is too early to know how much premiums will rise next year, but reports so far indicate that double-digit increases again will be the norm.

These are not simply numbers on a page: They represent real people with real stories, facing real health-care and financial crises.

Dudley Bostic, a pharmacy owner in Tennessee, can no longer afford to provide health insurance for her employees because of ObamaCare’s mandates. Candace Fowler, a Missouri homemaker who was recently diagnosed with a serious neurological condition, lives in a county where there are slated to be no insurers selling ObamaCare plans next year. Tommie McClain, a student in Clinton, Mo., who suffers from chronic migraines, faces the possibility of zero choices in his county, too.

The good news is that Congress has the chance to help Doug, Dudley, Candace, Tommie and the millions of other Americans suffering under this law by undoing the damage done by ObamaCare and fulfilling the promises President Trump has made.

The bill recently introduced in the Senate would get rid of the individual mandate, which in 2015 alone caused 6.5 million Americans to pay $3 billion in penalties to the IRS because they did not want or could not afford a government-dictated health plan. It would directly repeal some of ObamaCare’s most costly regulations while giving states flexibility to waive others if they develop innovative ways to provide coverage and bring down costs.

The Senate’s plan also would repeal hundreds of billions of dollars in onerous taxes. It would put Medicaid on a sustainable spending path and give states a real chance to reform the program to make it work for the people who rely on it...

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Grim: Libyan Red Crescent Recovered Dead Bodies of at Least 24 Migrants Off the Coast of Tripoli (VIDEO)

I'd say this is unconscionable, but it's par for the course in European politics.

Until the EU leadership, and especially Germany, get the refugee scandal under control, they can't say jack about the U.S., the Trump administration, or "human rights."

Content Warning, at Ruptly, "Libya: 24 migrants found dead off Tajura coast *GRAPHIC*: The Libyan Red Crescent recovered the dead bodies of at least 24 migrants, who lost their lives attempting to cross the Mediterranean in a bid to reach Europe, off the Tajura coast, some 14 kilometres (8,69 miles) east of Tripoli, Tuesday."

Samantha Gradoville and Flavia Lucini 'Like a Boy' Video by David Bellemere

Watch, at Lui Magazine (France), "VIDÉO: COMME UN GARÇON, PAR DAVID BELLEMERE" (Video: Like a Boy, by David Bellemere).

Rita Ora in Sequin Dress for Launch at Annabel Nightclub in London (PHOTOS)

At London's Daily Mail, "There's m-Ora where that came from! Sizzling Rita, 26, is joined by her striking brunette manager sister Elena, 28, who proudly supports her during her new single launch."

And at Taxi Driver, "Rita Ora Braless in Slightly See-Through Sequin Dress."

FLASHBACK: "Rita Ora for 'Lui' Magazine."

The Busted Name in News

This is CNN.

At the New York Post, "CNN faced $100M lawsuit over botched Russia story." (Hat Tip: Instapundit.)

A Better Direction for #BlackLivesMatter

From Jason Riley, at WSJ, "Rather than scapegoat police, why not focus on bad schools and job-killing regulations?":

Will Black Lives Matter soon suffer the fate of other separatist “black power” movements in the 1920s and 1960s, which captured America’s attention for a period but ultimately did little to help advance the black underclass?

The Black Lives Matter movement got its start after George Zimmerman’s 2013 acquittal for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin and found its footing a year later when Michael Brown was shot dead after attacking a police officer in Ferguson, Mo. By 2016, BLM activists were being hosted by President Obama and disrupting campaign events for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Today, major news organizations such at National Public Radio and the Washington Post turn to BLM representatives for comment on race-related stories.

An obituary for a movement that has become so prominent so fast seems premature, but a recent BuzzFeed article that included interviews with dozens of BLM-linked activists was pessimistic about the group’s future. Factions have formed, infighting is common and objectives are unclear. “Black Lives Matter is still here. Its groups are still organizing. But Black Lives Matter is on the verge of losing the traction and momentum that sparked a national shift on criminal justice policy,” wrote reporter Darren Sands. And “activists largely agreed that the identity of the movement, its existential purpose and aim, remains unresolved.”

Some BLM leaders want to integrate political institutions further. Others want the organization to expand its focus to immigrants’ rights. Still others want to create a society “free from pain being inflicted on it by police, racist structures, and capitalism.” Apparently, there are places in the world where blacks living in noncapitalist societies are thriving in comparison with their U.S. brethren...

More.

ICYMI: James F. Brooks, Captives and Cousins

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, James F. Brooks, Captives and Cousins: Slavery, Kinship, and Community in the Southwest Borderlands.

Eugen Joseph Weber, The Hollow Years

*BUMPED.*

At Amazon, Eugen Joseph Weber, The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s.

Shop Deals Today

At Amazon, Today's Deals: New deals. Every day. Shop our Deal of the Day, Lightning Deals and more daily deals and limited-time sales.

And, Mountain House Just In Case...Essential Bucket.

More, AmazonBasics Apple Certified Lightning to USB Cable - 6 Feet (1.8 Meters) - Black.

Still more, KIND Breakfast Bars, Peanut Butter, Gluten Free, 1.8 Ounce, 32 Count.

More here, MTech USA MT-086 Series Fixed Blade Hunting Knife, Straight Edge Blade, Black Handle, 12-1/4-Inch Overall.

Plus, Dirt Devil Vacuum Cleaner Dynamite Plus Corded Bagless Upright Vacuum with Tools M084650 RED.

Also, LG Power Pair Special - LG Turbo Series Ultra-Capacity Laundry System with Steam *PURE WHITE COLOR*.

BONUS: Milton Friedman, Free to Choose: A Personal Statement.

Ayn Rand, Capitalism

At Amazon, Ayn Rand, Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal (Mass Market Paperback).

Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, Machine, Platform, Crowd

Out today, at Amazon, Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson, Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital Future.

America First Policies Pulls Spot Attacking Sen. Dean Heller (VIDEO)

Following-up from the other day, "Senator Dean Heller, Republican of Nevada, Target of America First Policies PAC."

At Politico:

Pro-Trump group pulls ads criticizing Heller over Obamacare https://t.co/LgDvwVcI4A pic.twitter.com/agT4rB3et7

— POLITICO (@politico) June 27, 2017

Sarah Palin Sues New York Times for Defamation

Righteous.

At Instapundit, "ANNALS OF FAKE NEWS: Sarah Palin Suing New York Times for Defamation."

ICYMI: Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican

At Amazon, Henry Olsen, The Working Class Republican: Ronald Reagan and the Return of Blue-Collar Conservatism.

Abigail Ratchford's Hottest Social Media Posts

At Maxim, "Instababe Abigail Ratchford celebrated #NationalSelfieDay by posting her hottest shots ever."

And directly from Ms. Abigail:

Some like it hot 🔥 pic.twitter.com/LVbDEosSxQ

— Abigail Ratchford (@AbiRatchford) June 18, 2017

Splish splashhhhhh 💦💧 pic.twitter.com/c76LsnXTjh

— Abigail Ratchford (@AbiRatchford) June 19, 2017

Sunday views ☀️ pic.twitter.com/rdbFRZoNPI

— Abigail Ratchford (@AbiRatchford) June 26, 2017

BONUS: "Abigail Ratchford Huge Tits."

Lisa Delpit, Other People's Children

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Sabine Jemeljanova Rule 5

Seen on Twitter:

#DailySabine @you_kiki https://t.co/UQAJxzaOLp #SabineJemeljanova #Page3 #Boobs #Busty #Brunette #Beauty #Cleavage #Lingerie #Glamour #Model pic.twitter.com/jgcBD1o1h2

— RosieJonesArchive (@CopperMailman) June 18, 2017