tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post6435938135839066602..comments2024-03-29T03:57:26.974-04:00Comments on Grim's Hall: UnconservativeGrimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-27933980439645854042017-05-12T12:58:15.252-04:002017-05-12T12:58:15.252-04:00That is one solution. I doubt it is do-able for t...That is one solution. I doubt it is do-able for the massive loss of power it would entail for the current ruling class. They would fight it to the bitter end. It seems a circuitous route to where I think we will eventually end up - war to determine the nature of our republic.<br /><br />The faster the nation turns to violence, the quicker we get a resolution and begin making progress again. Everything else is just delaying the inevitable, in my opinion.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03153198929073210924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-30704603253856561132017-05-12T12:20:46.993-04:002017-05-12T12:20:46.993-04:00True. I would say that my politics are genuinely ...True. I would say that my politics are genuinely radical, in that at minimum I want the 10th Amendment enforced in a way that would require dissolving almost the entire Federal structure (and send the wealth and power back to the states). That's the <i>least</i> amount of change I would want. <br /><br />More likely, as you say, a constitutional convention and a basic re-ordering of how our political structures work that addresses the difference in basic values that has grown up in America. We might need to reorder the fundamental structure of our nation to accomplish that.<br /><br />This could mean dissolving the Union to allow different states to form new, smaller unions with coherent values. Or it could mean rethinking the idea of states, even: perhaps the new structure should recognize that the real issue is that city and country life impel people to adopt different values in numerous ways, and that it is thus necessary to peace and good order for cities and countrysides to govern themselves independently of each other. Instead of the states we have, with big blue cities inside them, we could have urban regions acting as states (something like William Gibson's BAMA - "Boston-Atlanta Metropolitan Axis"), with the surrounding countryside fully independent of these cities politically speaking. You would still need a Federal government to ensure the defense of the nation and its borders, as well as to deal with issues (like water) that necessarily cross border lines. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-55319041556023437772017-05-12T08:21:44.646-04:002017-05-12T08:21:44.646-04:00This is one of the problems I have with the word &...This is one of the problems I have with the word "conservative." It is thoroughly relativistic and implies conservatives want to conserve some existing state. But that describes the liberals today, who are supposed to be champions of change. It is liberals who want to preserve the centralized welfare state run by elites that we have now, and conservatives who want to make radical changes to it.<br /><br />"Conservatives" today are the radicals and revolutionaries. I don't want to conserve; I want a new constitutional convention to radically alter the way the government works.<br /><br />"Conservative" and "liberal" are really descriptions of vectors or directions of travel, not positions.Tomnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-61823006275693114932017-05-11T09:59:53.431-04:002017-05-11T09:59:53.431-04:00Yeah, I wonder if it isn't the case that our i...Yeah, I wonder if it isn't the case that our institutions aren't in fact "locked into policies that demonstrably don't work." There's some sense in which <i>we</i> aren't, sure. But how many of our institutions are really capable of reform, absent a complete personnel change? People pursued a career at the EPA, say, for a set of reasons. No election is going to change that. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5173950.post-2854520502110377902017-05-11T09:19:01.179-04:002017-05-11T09:19:01.179-04:00RE: "...in its most constructive forms to a d...RE: "...in its most constructive forms to a determination to revive, revitalize, recapture institutions..."<br /><br />I admit to feeling we are beyond that. I am firmly in the "blow it all up and burn it down" camp, but far more literally.<br /><br />I don't think conservatives can recapture institutions as if they are physical objectives, and no matter how "good" things still may be in the US, it is the trajectory change that worries those I speak with. The critical mass of stupidity has been reached - the solution is not capturing that mass but excising it from the body politic.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03153198929073210924noreply@blogger.com