The Climax of the Adreno-Cons

What is Adreno-Conservatism? It is conservatism the primary constituent of which is not adherence to truth, American principle, and the Western tradition, but the hormone produced by the adrenal glands, which in turn expresses itself in inordinately intense patriotic fervor, enthusiasm, and cheerleading for one’s own political faction, combined with obsessive emotional hatred for the opposing political faction.

Typically, the Adreno-Cons exhibit passionate personal identification with symbolically conservative but substantively non-conservative figures such as George W. Bush and Sarah Palin. Also, the Adreno-Cons typically interpret every setback for conservatism as a victory for conservatism. Thus when President Bush repeatedly betrayed his conservative commitments and moved to the left, the Adreno-Cons either ignored it, or constructed it as a brilliantly devious maneuver by which Bush was “really” out-foxing the left. Similarly, since last Thursday, June 28, 2012, the Adreno-Cons have been constructing the Obamacare decision by Bush appointee John Roberts, not as a historic catastrophe for the American Constitution and conservatism, but as an ingenious coup for the Constitution and conservatism.

The two main Adreno-Con websites are Lucianne.com and American Thinker (the latter being sometimes referred to in these pages as “Wasillan Enthusiast” and other names more descriptive of its true character than “American Thinker”). The other day I showed how all the Must Reads at Lucianne.com on June 29 were pro-Roberts. Below are the pro-Roberts articles that have been posted at American Thinker from June 29 to today. (American Thinker has also had a few anti-Roberts articles, but, by far, the predominant drift at that site has been pro-Roberts.)

June 29, 2012
SCOTUS Exposes the ObamaCare Tax Lie
Perry Fisher
This interpretation shows the Court remonstrating Democrats, saying, “You passed a tax, by God—now you call it a tax.” More

June 29, 2012
Obamacare: ‘Things are now up for Grabs’
Clarice Feldman
Did you really ever think Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid and Barack Obama could outsmart and outplay Justice Roberts? More

June 29, 2012
The Chief Justice Done Good
Dov Fischer
Chief Justice John Roberts has handed a remarkable victory to American conservatives by threading the judicial needle with perfect precision. This is going to be OK, even fun. Just wait and see. More

June 30, 2012
Turning ObamaCare’s Lemons into Federalist Lemonade
Howard Slugh
Defenders of the health care law are going to continue to spike the football as if the Supreme Court vindicated their ideas and repudiated conservative ones. But that is not what happened. More

June 30, 2012
Still a BFD, Obama Loses
William L. Gensert
The Supreme Court decision on the American Care Act is a loss for Barack Obama, despite how the president and his minions in the mainstream media will attempt to portray it. More

July 1, 2012
The Logic of Justice Roberts
Arnold Cusmariu
Gratitude is owed to Chief Justice Roberts for creating an opportunity to restore fiscal sanity and limit a power that lies at the very foundation of our republic. More

- end of initial entry -

James N. writes:

Adrenal glands produce adrenalin. There are no adrenaline glands.

LA replies:

Thank you! I’ll make the change.

LA continues:

Question: is “adreno” (with an “o” not an “a”) ever used as a prefix in medical terms?

I ask because I’m thinking maybe “Adreno-cons” would be a better name than “Adrena-cons.”

James N. replies:

Prefix: adreno-cortical insufficiency

James N. continues:

I think Adreno-cons sounds and looks better.

Sorry you haven’t warmed to Our Lady of Wasilla, I think her remarks about O-care and the Court have been very good.

People like John Roberts live in fear that their betters will think them soft on Sarah Palin. As a result, much mischief ensues.

LA replies:

Yes, I think you’re right (that “Adreno-cons” is better than “Adrena-cons”). I’ll change it.

Whether Palin’s remarks on a particular issue are good is irrelevant to the point I made in the entry, which concerns the inordinate personal identification that certain conservatives have had with her. I could believe that she made great remarks about Obamacare, and it wouldn’t change the phenomenon I was discussing.

July 2

LA writes:

The pun in this entry’s title is too obscure for probably more than two people in the country to get it, so I should explain it. After I wrote the entry, I was trying to come up with a title using “Adrena-Cons.” The name of a chapter in Atlas Shrugged, “The Climax of the D’Anconias,” came immediately to mind. It fit perfectly, with both the similarity of “Adrena-Cons” and “D’Anconias,” and the idea that the applause for Roberts’s decision was the climax of this mindless conservatism. It’s also ironic, in that the climax of the D’Anconias is Ayn Rand’s hero Francisco D’Anconia, who is an all-round genius and prodigy. So I named the entry, “The Climax of the Adrena-Cons,” (later changed to “Adreno-Cons”).

Posted by Lawrence Auster at July 01, 2012 02:10 PM | Send