Introductory Notes and a Guest Blog

A little while ago I spent a lot of time digging into the meaning of conservatism. My intent was to dissect the intellectual and emotional foundations of conservatism, and in doing so better equip liberals in rebutting it. I believe that, like all successful ideologies, conservatism taps into deeply held human aspirations and cultural beliefs. In the last generation or so the right has been much more skilled in organizing and presenting their position. I think the best way to put our own house in order is to recognize and learn from the successes of conservatism. Having examined the enemy, I am now going to examine my friends.

Liberalism is often characterized as a messy group of out-groups all clamoring to get a share of the pie and motivated by socialists concepts of liberation. As such, liberals have no unifying core, which makes it difficult for them to make a coherent political argument. There is not one liberal voice, but a cacophony of sounds, with each group trying to drown out the others. In practical terms this is a fair characterization - this is in fact how liberals behave. But this behavior is largely a product of poor self-understanding. Liberalism in fact does have a set of unifying convictions. I will describe that unity a little later.

I dealt with the socialist element yesterday, but to summarize I think it is not only damaging politically but is also simply wrong to argue that liberalism is just a American offshoot of Marxism. Liberalism is a home-grown ideology with distinct perspectives contained within it. In the same way that there are many conservatisms (cultural traditionalism, libertarianism, corporatism, neoconservatism), there are several basic forms of liberalism. Liberalism does not contain hundreds of different groups. This is to confuse issue emphasis (what policy area one believes is most important) with ideology. Instead, liberalism can be distilled down to just three basic points of view: populism, progressivism, and pluralism.

Over the next several days, I am going to analyze these three perspectives and talk about the good and bad points about them. I will also trace where they come from, how they evolved, and most importantly what they have in common. Because just as hierarchy and order lay at the heart of the conservative worldview so does liberalism have it own center.

In the meantime, Ben Ross is back for another guest blog. It is a post on some affairs down in D.C., but it certainly shows up the self-interest and elitism of the contemporary political press corps.

THE "LIBERAL MEDIA" AT WORK

The Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC, have been fighting for almost two
decades over a planned light rail line called the Purple Line. In October
2001, Governor Parris Glendening announced plans to move ahead with the
project. But the state elected a Republican governor, Bob Ehrlich, the
next year, and he has put the project on a back burner.

The light rail line is supported by an extraordinarily broad coalition
that includes chambers of commerce, the AFL CIO, the Sierra Club, the
NAACP, Hispanic organizations, and many civic associations. But the transit line would use an old railroad right-of-way that bisects the golf
course of the exclusive Columbia Country Club. The country club, whose
membership includes many prominent Washington lobbyists, and its allies
among nearby homeowners have spent more than $600,000 in their efforts to
block the project (www.innerpurpleline.org/opposition.htm).

This story is obviously local Washington news. Yet the doings of Columbia
Country Club have been covered more prominently in the Baltimore Sun and
the New York Times than in Washington's supposedly liberal hometown
newspaper, the Post. The Sun ran a front-page story on this topic on
December 2, 2002. Pulitzer Prize-winner Gretchen Morgenson's Times column
about Columbia Country Club, Fannie Mae, and the Purple Line appeared on
the front page of the Sunday financial section of Sept. 29, 2002 and was
reprinted in newspapers across the country.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/4167988.htm?1c
While the Post sometimes mentions Columbia Country Club in articles about
the Purple Line, it has never reported in depth about the club's
activities.

Across the top of the Washington Post's front page last Friday
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13410-2004Nov25.html
was an article about a dinner and money given by Columbia Country Club to
wounded Iraq War veterans. These activities are laudable, and if they had
been conducted without media attention would deserve only praise. But
they are neither Friday's biggest news nor the biggest news about Columbia
Country Club. The $20,000 donated to the veterans is a pittance compared
to the money that the country club has spent to block the Metro line.

Post Columnist Tony Kornheiser is a member of Columbia Country Club. In
July 2003, Governor Ehrlich played golf as Kornheiser's guest at Columbia
Country Club. One month after playing golf with the Post columnist, the
Governor told another newspaper that the Purple Line "will not go through
the country club."
http://www.gazette.net/200335/bethesda/news/174791-1.html The Post
disclosed the Kornheiser-Ehrlich golf date in an article about the
governor's golfing habits on August 9, 2003, but has never mentioned it in
connection with the Purple Line.

In its editorials, the Post regularly holds forth about the urgency of
building new highways and condemns neighbors who want to block these
roads. Yet there are two transportation projects the Post has opposed:
the Purple Line route that passes through Columbia Country Club and a
proposed streetcar on K Street in downtown DC. Interestingly, when these
editorials were written most of the Post's editorial board lived in two
ritzy neighborhoods the transit lines would pass through: Chevy Chase and Georgetown. The reasons the Post gave for opposing these projects had, of
course, nothing to do with local neighborhood objections...


If you're interested, you might want to contact the Post's ombudsman Michael Getler (ombudsman@washpost.com) and complain.