Finally, after a little more than a year, William "The Bloody" Kristol's time is at an end in the pages of the Times. There was a rumor that he would be done soon, but seeing those italicized words at the end of his last rant were soothing to the eye. Of course, he had to go out with a bang, like any misguided conservative such as himself must.
From The NY Times:
All good things must come to an end. Jan. 20, 2009, marked the end of a conservative era.
Since Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980, conservatives of various sorts, and conservatisms of various stripes, have generally been in the ascendancy. And a good thing, too! Conservatives have been right more often than not — and more often than liberals — about most of the important issues of the day: about Communism and jihadism, crime and welfare, education and the family. Conservative policies have on the whole worked — insofar as any set of policies can be said to “work” in the real world. Conservatives of the Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years have a fair amount to be proud of.They also have some regrets. They’ll have time to ponder those as liberals now take their chance to govern.
Oy Bill, where do we start? The end of your conservative era came about precisely because the ideology was a massive failure once all three branches of government were in your hands. All those broad issues you mention were handled terribly by conservatives. Communism in Russia was crumbling on its own, jihadism is more prevalent today than it ever was, crime may be down in big cities, but welfare is our biggest problem ever. We give way too much of it to the rich and not enough to those that truly need it. Children are educated for tests nowadays, they aren't truly educated...and the family, well, those units are still dysfunctional, and not helped by the extra hours men and women have to work to try and make ends meet. That goes double for less money for daycare, health care and screwing families over with predatory lending. All of that is a failure of the greed that exists within your failed ideology. All of that should be your regrets, but really, all you care about is getting back into power. But Bill, it is exactly because conservatism is a failure that you lost power and until you realize that, your time to ponder will become infinite.
|