Calling All Conservatives 10/22
from The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

A few days ago Christopher Buckley proposed:

The smart ones in the movement should get together right after the election at the Greenbrier or the Homestead, you know, where they typically have these kinds of get-togethers, and have a long dark night of the soul. And I’ll tell you what the conference should be called: Conservatism–What the F?

Conor Friedersdorf has drafted a conference schedule. I approve. It should have happened in 2003, of course. The talk I gave above [www.cato.org] is from two years ago. Part II is here. The debate with David Brooks here. Oh, and here's the book. I'm struck by how many in the press keep talking as if the conservative rebellion against Bush began three weeks ago. It began five years ago. And some of us stood up to him when it wasn't obvious his legacy would be political oblivion for the reasonable right.

Why Liberals Need A Saner Conservatism Oct 21, 2008 (6 days ago)
from The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

Scott Payne responds to a few of my posts and argues that those on the left have reason to invest in a better conservative party:

The fact of the matter is that while we might be talking about the “future of conservatism,” that does not mean that we are entertaining the notion that conservatism will actually blink out of existence. What we’re really talking about is what kind of future American conservatism will realize, and the future of American liberalism is fundamentally tied to that of American conservatism.

Each ideology is, whether thy choose to acknowledge it or not, one side to a very complicated and intricate coin. this is what I want to see, understand... They don’t really survive without one another because each, left to its own devices, as Sullivan, again, pointed out in his book, will invariably sow the seeds of its own destruction. Each ideology, as vociferously as they denounce one another I'm not even clear on what the simple oppositions are, provides a vital balancing point to the other. It is the back and forth between the two and the ineffable cross-pollination that their waxing and waning enables, that provides the foundations upon which America is able to flourish.

Conor chimes in with his two cents.