The Human Conspiracy Blog-space

DAVID BROOKS on CONSERVATIVE RECOVERY
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Stylistically decontaminating the Brand

In today’s New York Times, the moderate-conservative columnist, David Brooks, writes about the lessons republicans can glean from John Ford’s archetypal Westerns.  The dramatic focus in the classic western was about the lone bravery of the rugged individual, but the more important subtext was the celebration of a conservative civitas:

In “The Long Voyage Home”, (link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/05/opinion/05brooks.html?_r=1&ref=opinion ), he makes several points, but this is the key one:

“The movie, in other words, is really about religion, education, science, culture, etiquette and rule of law — the pillars of community. In Ford’s movie, as in real life, the story of Western settlement is the story of community-building. Instead of celebrating untrammeled freedom and the lone pioneer, Ford’s movies dwell affectionately on the social customs that Americans cherish — the gatherings at the local barbershop and the church social, the gossip with the cop and the bartender and the hotel clerk.

 

Today, if Republicans had learned the right lessons from the Westerns, or at least John Ford Westerns, they would not be the party of untrammeled freedom and maximum individual choice.  They would once again be the party of community and civic order.”

And he concludes, trenchantly, with this prescription;

“If the Republicans are going to rebound, they will have to re-establish themselves as the party of civic order.  First, they will have to stylistically decontaminate their brand.  That means they will have to find a leader who is calm, prudent, reassuring and reasonable.

David Brooks has made an important contribution to a vitally necessary conversation.  Three days ago I posted in this space a long article, abstracted from an even longer piece,

‘The Coming Conservative Renaissance? The Case for Renaissance Conservatism’, now available at this link” http://jaygaskill.com/ConservativeRenaissance09.htm .  It rewards the time and effort to study reflect, adapt & adopt.

No one should be comfortable with the prospect of a long term, unchecked period of governance by the American left.  The most healthy and robust period in American politics was the ‘Dialogic Period’ that I describe in my “Renaissance” piece. 

The most important lacunae in republican thinking and rhetoric right now is what Bush One lamely called, “the vision thing.”  David Brooks is dead on in today’s column, but far more heavy lifting is needed.

Here’s the Deal:

Brooks is quite apt when talking about conservatism using the language that liberals understand, and he has a brilliant grasp of the differences between rural, small town conservatism and the need for a more hip, urban version of the conservative ‘brand’. 

I was particularly struck by the following line partly because it echoes my own concerns:

First, they will have to stylistically decontaminate their brand. That means they will have to find a leader who is calm, prudent, reassuring and reasonable.

I strongly agree with the first part.  But, as I have argued, conservatives need a deeper, more passionate and more ecumenical understanding of the conservative vision.  This will require something almost impossible for the Beltway crowd: actual, wrenchingly deep thinking.  I Know this is hard.  A federal elected official once confided, “Nobody has time to think here!”  

The reconciliation of the demands of reality, the relevance of vision, the exigencies of good policy and the recovery of the ability to communicate on more than one level at a time is a huge undertaking.  The creators of high-end animated blockbusters (think of the movie, Ratatouille here) have solved the communication problem; they can engage adults with sophisticated humor and enchant children at the same time.  Conservatives need to recover the gift of talking to the intelligentsia, the geeks, cops and truck drivers in the same paragraph, while making sense.

But the ‘vision thing’ comes first.

JBG