Bill Kristol's Last New York Times Piece: Mind Boggling Nonsense

William Kristol's last piece for the New York Times "Will Obama Save Liberalism" really explores new depths of delusion, a feat only Kristol himself could accomplish (although his recent assertion that 'Democrats are now the party of heredity' came close). It is so silly, I felt obliged to comment on it, as it marks the end of a highly entertaining era. It's a shame Kristol won't be writing in any publication I read, as I have thoroughly enjoyed laughing at his fanciful nonsense. Check out the first two paragraphs of his latest drivel which gets worse and worse as it goes on. Kristol writes:

All good things must come to an end. Jan. 20, 2009, marked the end of a conservative era.

Since Ronald Reagan's election in 1980, conservatives of various sorts, and conservatisms of various stripes, have generally been in the ascendancy. And a good thing, too! Conservatives have been right more often than not -- and more often than liberals -- about most of the important issues of the day: about Communism and jihadism, crime and welfare, education and the family. Conservative policies have on the whole worked -- insofar as any set of policies can be said to "work" in the real world. Conservatives of the Reagan-Bush-Gingrich-Bush years have a fair amount to be proud of.

---

Firstly, how can anyone in their right mind believe that the conservatism over the last year was a 'good thing'? Two failed wars, an economic meltdown, crumbling infrastructure, an increase in global warming, a drowned city, plummeting world opinion - the list is endless. The man is clearly off his rocker.  Secondly, what in Gods name is he talking about when he says that conservatives have been right about the most important issues of the day? What? Really? Like the list above of catastrophic fuck ups all of which happened under a conservative government?

The phrase 'Conservative policies have on the whole worked' must be referring to the conservative agenda of screwing things up beyond imagination. In that sense, Kristol is certainly right. 

The rest of the article babbles on about Conservatives being popular because they were 'strong' while Liberals were 'weak', citing other neo con philosophers to bolster his sloppy argument. He then poses the question as to whether Obama can bring 'strength' back to liberalism, stating:

Can Obama reshape liberalism to be, as it was under F.D.R., a fighting faith, unapologetically patriotic and strong in the defense of liberty? That would be a service to our country.

While we're on the subject of service to ones country, perhaps Kristol could heed his own advice, and swiftly eject himself from public discourse before he does any more damage.

Ben Cohen is the Editor of The Daily Banter.com

Comments

[pdferguson]

"All good things must come to an end."

A far more accurate opening line would be "Everything ends badly, or else it wouldn't end..."

I'm glad the NYTimes finally came to their senses and parted ways with Kristol. From the start it was obvious he was an intellectually shallow, blindly partisan hack, far below the standards we customers of the newspaper expect.

[Senzasord]

The supreme irony of it all is that as far back as the Nixon administration Republicans campaigned on what they called a law and order platform characterizing Democrats and liberals as "Soft on crime" Yet Nixon committed a myriad of crimes not the least of which was obstruction of justice. Reagan came through with the Iran Contra scandal. While Clinton was investigated from end to end, they could never find any evidence of criminal activity save an unfortunate oval office tryst. This brings us to the Bush II junta which started off by stealing the election and then went down hill from there including torture, fraud, treason, and depraved indifference murder, all the while operating like the stereotype organized crime family. Yet Bill Krystol lauds their efforts at crime reduction. No wonder the NYT has suffered a drop in circulation.

[johnie2xs]

A turn for the better, within the MSM, will have happened when TOTALLY discredited mouthpieces such as Kristol, Feith, DeLay, and the like, are no longer given the opportunity to espouse their garbage on a regular basis. Until, and unless, they are marginalized and relegated to the dung heap of bloviated opinion, we will be forced to trip over their vacant ideology on the way to solving our problems.

As a highway to solvency, Conservatism would be best described as a "Cloverleaf, within a Cul de Sac, amidst a "Whites Only"Gated Community, with much movement but no progress. The added benefit to them is that they get to control all the money. (The GOP = Irrelevancy).

[dadw5boys]

Kristol all your ideals lead to one thing enslaving someone to work for crumbs and allow economic slavery to rule.

[Virginia Plain]

As usual - a load of Kristol b@lls!