NOVAE MILITIAE

Steven F. Hayward writes this howler over at the Washington Post, the title of which asks an important question: "Is Conservatism Brain-Dead?"  In a certain respect, one reads the 1,840 words he writes to address the question without even getting an answer to the question.  This is because the object of Hayward's analysis really isn't historic conservatism at all, but the imposter which was given life by William F. Buckley when he Went Leftward.  There is no mention in Hayward's article of the great luminaries of the true conservative tradition: Burke, Jefferson, Calhoun, Burnham, Eliot, Kirk, Bradford, Weaver.  Rather, Hayward mentions the 60s and 70s as conservativsm's heyday, and some of its seminal works as "Friedman's 'Free to Choose,' George Gilder's 'Wealth and Poverty,' Paul Johnson's 'Modern Times,' Allan Bloom's 'The Closing of the American Mind,' Charles Murray's 'Losing Ground' and 'The Bell Curve,' and Francis Fukuyama's 'The End of History and the Last Man.'"   Of course, Hayward being a fellow of the neocon American Enterprise Institute, and neoconservatism having done its best to obliterate the mention and memory of the Old Right, perhaps this is to be expected.

Hayward laments the dearth of such scholarship these days, however.  Conservatism has been reduced to talking heads, sound bytes and heartlandish populism.  Nevertheless, Hayward sees a few hopeful signs:

The blend of entertainment and politics is not unique to the right (exhibit No. 1 on the left: "The Daily Show"). And it is perfectly possible to conduct talk radio at a high level of seriousness, and several talkers do well at matching the quality of their shows to their intellectual pedigree. Consider Hugh Hewitt (Michigan Law School), Michael Medved (Yale Law School), William Bennett (Harvard Law and a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Texas) -- all three of these brainiacs have popular shows on the Salem Radio Network.

And Glenn Beck even "asks (R.J. Pestritto) questions about Hegel", doncha know.

And Jonah Goldberg's book "Liberal Fascism" is an "intellectual text."  Yes, that's right, Jonah Goldberg; "intellectual text."

So there's hope, you see.

Hence my reference to this article as a howler.  So, in another respect, Hayward does provide an answer to the question he asks, for when Hewitt, Medved, Bennett and Beck replace Burke, Calhoun, Bradford and Weaver, then the answer to the question is yes:  "conservatism" is brain-dead.

Steve Benen over at the Washington Monthly, commenting on the Hayward article, puts it succinctly:

Weisberg's pitch is simple but persuasive: Republicans have given up on being the 'party of ideas,' have no plausible alternatives to major policy challenges, and don't take policy matters seriously at all. Conservatives, Weisberg said, have 'devolved' so far, 'ostensibly intelligent people [are] cheering on Sarah Palin.' With the rise of neoconservatives, the right's focus shifted to political power, and away from interest in policy. . . .

Which is not to say Hayward is despondent. He believes Jonah Goldberg's 'Liberal Fascism' is an intellectual text, and he believes Hugh Hewitt, Michael Medved, and William Bennett are 'brainiacs' with 'popular' talk shows. Hayward is also impressed with Glenn Beck's reading habits and choice of authors and guests. Beck, Hayward argued, has demonstrated an 'interest in serious analysis of liberalism's patrimony.'

Where Hayward finds hope, in other words, is with Jonah Goldberg, Hugh Hewitt, and Glenn Beck. Seriously.

If this isn't proof of the right's intellectual collapse, nothing is.