Do "Words" Still Mean Anything?

A delusional jagoff Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at The Heritage Foundation, Lee Edwards, types his little fingers off at the Washington Examiner.

[T]there can be no lasting liberty without virtue, public and private.

"Liberty" & "virtue." Where is there "private" virtue in the Republican assemblage of perverts & deviants? Are religious war & attempted denials of "liberty" "public" virtues? Did any one see any "public virtue" in the "liberty" granted Wall Street con artists these last few yrs.?

These are not just conservative ideas but American ideas that have their roots in the Founding of the Republic and are endorsed by a majority of the American people. Every poll continues to report that a near majority of Americans call themselves conservative while about one-fourth of Americans call themselves liberal—that gives conservatives a 2-1 advantage.

American self-identification as "conservative" (2-1 over the debased verbal currency "liberal," yet!) as anyone who's observed these types knows, is central to the typist's point that indoctrination by teachers' unions, the vast leftist academic conspiracy & the corporate, statist media is all that allowed a terrorist-sympathizing whitey-hater into the White House. (And has turned our children* into socialist Obama-worshiping campfire-singers.)

There are only the usual suspects to mock (leader lust, & a refusal to admit that there was a national election a mere six mos. ago in which voters failed to be conservative, or even pseudo-centrist, to mention but two):

Next, a political movement must have a broad-based, broad-minded national constituency. Yes, conservatives are independent, individualistic. They like to argue about ideas and institutions with friends as well as adversaries. But they come together and stay together when the times require it and under the right leadership

Well qualified there, Lee. Thanks for wasting our time.

Not, however, a complete waste of time. Nosing a bit deeper into the muck, we must wonder if the rightist portion of the think tank industry (of which the Heritage Foundation is the very top of the literal ash heap) is feeling a bit of a pinch in our current economic climate. In a not-un-useful recap of American conservatism, Mr. Edwards refers to  

a remarkable group of philosophers, popularizers, politicians, and philanthropists.

Last & far from least: Philanthropists. Ideas? Principles? Don't mean a thing w/o that kah-ching!

What will Edwards do to get in on some of that fine free money? WARNING: Not safe for sensitive stomachs or those who have actual principles.

But the philosophers would not have been able to write their books and the popularizers would not have been able to publish their magazines and the politicians would not have been able to run their campaigns without the support of conservative philanthropists—men of means and vision—such as Sun Oil Company’s J. Howard Pew, who gave ISI its first $1,000; Colorado beer baron Joseph Coors, whose $250,000 investment enabled the Heritage Foundation to open its doors; and California oilman Henry Salvatori, who put up much of the money for Reagan’s historic TV address for presidential candidate Barry Goldwater.

Eeeep. Class traitor Edwards (Unfair? Perhaps. He might be a trust fund millionaire, but then he wouldn't be lowering himself to the level of wealthy men's asses while cranking out his tongue, would he?)

Here, the serious begging starts:

Third, a political movement must have a sound financial base. Thanks to technical proficiency and political success, the number of conservative donors has grown exponentially, from as few thousand in the 1950s to more than eight million today. The fiscal strength of conservative organizations is impressive. The combined annual budgets of the 16 most influential groups—including Heritage, ISI, Young America’s Foundation, and the Media Research  Center—total $544 million, in 2008 dollars.

Big nut to make there, boys. (How much does a "Distinguished Fellow in Conservative Thought at The Heritage Foundation" get a yr., anyway? No, we don't think you could say that a Distinguished Fellow "earns" anything.) Let's face it, those Randian industrial supermen (well, beer & oil salesmen) of means & vision who make up the donor base, being Randian industrial supermen (at least in their own minds) aren't really psychologically disposed to continue their munificence to what they'll soon come to see as parasitic moochers. Here, an example of the effort these non-producers put into what little they do for their backers: Mr. Conservative Thought can't even rationalize the "paradox" he uncovers here. (Not unless he were to admit that everything he & his little buddies proclaim so loudly & regularly about the media is a contemptible lie.)

Next, a political movement must be media savvy, familiar with and expert in the use of the latest mass communications. Here there is a paradox. Conservatives have displayed mistrust, anger and contempt toward the mass media for decades. Yet, the number one newspaper columnist in America is conservative Cal Thomas. The number one radio talk show host is conservative Rush Limbaugh. The number one cable news network is conservative Fox News.

Yet indeed. No attempt to think through that decades-long mistrust, anger & contempt for whatever it is that so enrages them about the monolithic media. Reality & its left-wing bias, we guess. But we see what passes for distinguished thought on the right-wing.  The final indication that this optimistic over-view of a flailing, failing & (Literally, you old white jesus freaks. Bye-bye!) dying movement is little more than an inside plea for funds to keep Edwards & his fellow distinguished thinkers from competing w/ illegals selling produce & flowers at freeway on- & off-ramps is at the very end. 

The above is a slightly condensed version of a lecture delivered May 14 to a group of the nation’s most prominent conservative leaders in the nation's capital.

Oh, you can just imagine, can't you? A collection of bitter old white men (Well, 95% bitter, old white fucks, the lights bouncing off their bald heads or synthetic toupees, doughy bodies in expensive suits ... We're just being disgusting here. Sorry.) few of whom have done anything useful, productive or creative in their sad, empty, little lives, realizing that the economic policies & moral & philosophical attitudes they've espoused are going to bankrupt them, because their patrons actually believed the crap.   

*Not entirely clear on this: Would these "Millennials" have been our [throat-clutching gasp] grand-children if we (& our fictional spawn) had been breeders & set to breedin' straight outta high school? Are "Ms" the genetic drift that "Gen X" has left the world?