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COMING UP FOR AIR: This bronchial bug has been tearing through Provincetown. I’ve long had asthma so I’m not normally fazed by an inability to breathe right. But this one was like some kind of suffocation. It reminded me of the asthma attacks I used to have as a child. A good deal of the response you need is psychological. You have to calm yourself down, stop yourself hyper-ventilating, or the asthma feeds on itself and you can get in serious trouble. Back in my childhood, they had very little to give you – not even an inhaler that worked – so my dad had to keep rubbing my back, staying up half the night in case I started to turn blue. I used to sit up in bed (if I lay down, I couldn’t breathe at all), training myself not to panic, occasionally breathing in the steam from a bowl of boiled water. I used to time my breaths and try and extend them slowly over the course of an hour or so. Funny how these ancient habits kick back in when you need them. Anyway, the antibiotics and inhalers are now working. I should be blog-ready soon enough.
EMAIL OF THE DAY: “I read with interest your thoughts on writing a book on conservatism. I think it is long overdue.
The old model has in many ways broken down, perhaps because those goals that were achievable have been achieved, and those that were not are becoming apparent. Movements sometimes get lost at about this time and need a time out of office to rethink core principles.
We may need a new word for the new conservatism because it has few similarities to traditional conservatism. The Cold War was won. A stronger military coupled with a skepticism about it’s use (containment with overwhelming military superiority) has been replaced with an aggressive theory of preventive intervention and nation building. A 50 year reliance on building strong alliances around the world has been replaced by coalitions of the willing and weakened alliances. Taxes were lowered over the past couple of decades spurring faster economic growth, but continuing tax cuts seem to jeopardize the nation’s fiscal health. A long held commitment to a strong dollar strategy has been transformed into a weak dollar strategy, eerily reminiscent of old Labor policies in Britain. Welfare was reformed and some entitlements limited, but reform seems to have lost political momentum in the face of an aging population demanding more, not less, government. Some movement toward shifting some responsibilities back to the states has been replaced by a constitutional attempt to radically enlarge the role of the Federal government in personal and social issues at the expense of the states. What seems to remain from traditional conservatism is a commitment to traditional social norms, but this too has changed from verbal support to a much more aggressive attempt to use the power of the Federal government to enforce conservative, Christian conservative, norms legislatively.
We seem to have a new conservatism that by historical standards is not very conservative internationally, economically, or when it comes to the role of government in providing entitlements. On the other hand, we also seem to have a new conservatism committed to enlarging the role of the Federal government in personal and social areas at the expense of the states. Whatever this new conservatism is, it doesn’t much look like traditional conservatism. Let’s give it a new name. And let’s give it the benefit of some free time to rethink core principles.” – more feedback on the Letters Page.
The Dish 