Comments on: Against Sohrab Ahmari-ism

By: Mark Landes

Mark Landes — Mon, 24 Jun 2019 14:20:03 +0000

In reply to ken. Amazing considering that Trump is President, Mike Pence is Vice-President, Mitch McConnell is Senate Majority Leader and most of the judges from the Supreme Court on down are all Judicial Watch nominees thanks to those two.

By: Don Bryant

Don Bryant — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 18:34:31 +0000

For one, Ahmari is much more open to using government to push back and push down the aggressive left that no longer plays by the rules of ‘liberal proceduralism.” While Ahmari has been a critic of Trump, he appears to find in him a model (how far I have no idea) for how to use the tools of government in what Ahmari is more than ready to call a war, a word French is distinctly uncomfortable with. French asserts that the rules of proceduralism reflect Christian values and can never be abandoned in any case without being unfaithful to Christ. Ahmari would respond, I think, with “the Constitution is not a suicide pact.” Is Ahmari’s view Trump-centric? What happens after Trump? I guess it is ‘stay tuned.’

By: Don Bryant

Don Bryant — Sun, 09 Jun 2019 07:17:49 +0000

It seems that you are constructing a model of what Ahmari’s vision of conservatism might become. There is no way of knowing. We do know what French’s model has become – the collapse of the moral order of America and an anemic GOP that cannot escape its almost sole preoccupation with international capitalism that has hollowed out the American working class, a class that is essential to democracy, complete with the collapse of the family, drug abuse, powerful identity politics, runaway death solutions to America’s ills in abortion, infanticide and euthanasia fantasies, a tidal wave of loneliness in collapse of community, etc. French is a good man, a great man, who does the things we should be doing. I think Ahmari is simply saying ‘not enough.’ The MO of the aggressive left is that liberal proceduralism is dead. There are no rules. Win at all cost. Ahmari, Patrick Deneen, Rod Dreher, RR Reno, and many others are saying that the conservatives must move to occupy the public square, even as has the aggressive left. From where I stand at age 70, it appears that Ahmari’s analysis is the correct one. In any conflict, there might come that moment where the only answer is to win – the dialogue is over and the compromise is impossible. Ahmari seems to be saying that using government for the common good is ‘game on,’ not as a model of preference but as a response to how the left has stormed the ramparts and is no longer interested in coming off its perch for rational dialogue. What to do? That’s a fair question, and for someone to say we should do what we have always done as America slips into a black hole seems a non-answer. Maybe some don’t want to be in that world and want it to be otherwise. That’s an option that is not on the table.

By: Zoe_Brain

Zoe_Brain — Wed, 05 Jun 2019 10:14:00 +0000

Those who fight monsters must beware they too don’t become monsters thereby.

Giving him the benefit of the doubt.

He’s lost the plot, missed the point. 1 Corinthians 13 applies.

Those who oppose his views must be careful we too don’t fall into the same trap. That we pass the test, and remain Galadriel.

By: Living Liminal

Living Liminal — Tue, 04 Jun 2019 19:11:07 +0000

In reply to Headless Unicorn Guy. Powerful stuff!