Jay Nordlinger’s “conservatism”

Andrew Sullivan yesterday characterized Jay Nordlinger of National Review as part of the “far right.” Nordlinger defends himself from the charge by reciting at length his liberal political beliefs. He concludes his litany thus:

And what I favor is basically the ADA (Americans for Democratic Action, not the Americans with Disabilities Act!) circa 1965.

Now this is rich. In 1965 Americans for Democratic Action was considered by conservatives to be the very symbol of the liberalism that they were fighting. Indeed, in his seminal 1965 book, Suicide of the West (which, when I read it in the early 1980s, was one of the things that made me a conservative), James Burnham, a long-time editor of National Review, repeatedly cited ADA positions as the authoritative and defining liberal positions as contrasted with conservative positions. Yet in 2008, without the slightest sense of irony, a featured contributor at National Review, America’s leading conservative magazine, proudly describes his own political philosophy as identical to that of the ADA in 1965!

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 13, 2008 10:19 AM | Send