Barack Obama—the greatest conservative community organizer in history

On March 20, the last full day in the B.O. (Before Obamacare) calendar, Clark Coleman wrote:

I am not sure whether we should want ObamaCare to pass or to fail … [f]or the same reason that many of us thought it would be better in the long run for Obama to be elected instead of McCain …

I just sent this to Mr. Coleman:

Subject: You were right

The passage of Obamacare has instantly done something that decades of traditionalist conservative writing, blogging, activism, organizing, and politicking could not do and probably could not have done: created a vast mainstream conservative population which recognizes that liberalism is really leftism, that liberalism is a relentless force that aims at the extinction of our liberty and our Constitution, and that only the defeat of liberalism (or our removal of ourselves from its power) can save us.

Central to my writing has been the argument that conservatives accept liberalism generally while only opposing liberalism on a few issues, and they call such partial opposition to liberalism “conservatism.” Because such conservatives do not oppose liberalism at its core, they always end up retreating before it. But now conservatives see that at its core liberalism seeks socialist statism and wants to take everything of value away from them. They see that the liberal half of the country has an agenda that they, the conservatives, don’t merely “disagree” with (“I may disagree with my good friend from the state of Illinois on some issues, but we are united in our love of America”), but now see as an existential threat to everything they cherish. This is the polarization of consciousness—namely the recognition that liberalism is the ruling force of our society, and the rejection of liberalism as such—which I have always said is the indispensable condition for a genuine conservatism or traditionalism.

By revealing liberalism in its destructive essence, the Obamacrats have done more for true conservatism than a hundred traditionalist blogs, magazines, and national organizations could have done.

- end of initial entry -

March 24

Clark Coleman writes:

I have never wanted to hope that things get worse so that they can get better, because of the destruction and misery and even death that could be part of that wish. For example, I have never said that we need another 9/11 to wake people up; I have seen that sentiment online. [LA replies: I also have always opposed such statements.]

I think that we can wake people up with the ObamaCare fiasco without actually creating any great misery, because most of the misery is scheduled for 2014 and later. We might have the perfect slap in the face for the American public here, because we can undo the legislation before it takes effect. We could get the benefits of a leftist assault on America, a popular backlash against that assault, and yet not really have to suffer the full consequences of the assault.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at March 23, 2010 05:28 PM | Send