I went to my first RNC-related event yesterday, which was this conservative book panel. I went there to join Judith and Mary. and ran into Oschisms. There were also some more high-profile bloggers in the audience, such as Robert Cox of The National Debate.
There were actually two different panels. The first one was called "The Effects of Conservative Books on Political Culture", and was moderated by Cal Thomas. The panelists were all pretty heavy hitters: Representative Bob Barr, L. Brent Bozell III, David Frum , Hugh Hewitt, Senator Zell Miller, and John Podhoretz.
I got in a bit late. The first thing I heard was J-Pod talking about what it's like for him to live on the Upper West Side. He said that literally every day someone comes up to him on the street and says, "Thank God you're writing your stuff. Without you, I feel like I'm alone in a sea of enemies." Hmmmm. Sound familiar?
Hugh Hewitt said that his book is based on Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals: "Don't preach to the choir. Change their behavior."
You may have noticed that everyone on the panel (except for J-Pod?) was a social conservative. Though the ostensible topic of the panel was conservative book publishing, it quickly became a more general discussion of politics, specifically about tensions between hard-core culture warriors like those on the panel and more socially liberal Republicans.
Podhoretz is of the opinion that W was attempting to "declare a truce in the culture war" after 9/11. After all, Al Qaeda wants to kill all Americans, regardless of their opinion on same-sex marriage. According to Podhoretz, Bush was showing his willingness to declare this truce by signing Teddy Kennedy's education bill among other things, but "liberals refused to assent to the truce." They showed their refusal to respect the truce by trashing Bush for signing their education legislation and with the Massachusetts Supreme Court decision allowing same-sex marriage. According to J-Pod, "The other side keeps the culture war going."
Zell Miller went on and on about social issues such as his opposition to same-sex marriage. I got the idea that these types of issues were the only reason for his political transformation, as opposed to anything having to do with foreign policy/the war on terror.
The first audience question came from a college girl who is a delegate from Georgia. She asked for advice on how to combat the leftist propaganda coming from the professors at her university.
Frum made the point that universities have become institutions for the creation of smart, young conservatives, because the conservatives there have to work harder and be smarter than anyone else as they're constantly swimming upstream.
Hugh Hewitt said simply "Start a blog." He mentioned Yale Diva as an example of a good conservative blog at a left-wing institution.
Podhoretz said he "couldn't agree more" about blogs. He recalled starting the first ever conservative publication at the University of Chicago and the incredible cost and difficulty of doing so compared to starting a blog.
Robert Cox then asked a question which basically consisted of his making a somewhat bizarre-sounding point that leftists are dominating blogs and the internet, because the people who own all the technology companies are lefties. None of the panelists really bought it.
Then Judith asked the $64,000 question:
During the Q&A I described my political space (liberal hawk, Guiliani Republican, Koch Democrat, etc.) and asked the panel what their attitude was toward my constituency. They kind of talked around the question, one panelist advising that I work on specific issues where there is agreement. Well, yeah, that's why I'm voting Republican this year: we agree about being aggressive with terrorists and their supporters. But I could tell they really really really didn't want us helping to redefine the Republican Party.
Podhoretz made a somewhat interesting response, "Whether the Republican Party is a happy home for you depends on whether you feel that you actually need a home." Frum essentially said that there were 275 to 285 million Americans and 2 parties, so whaddayagonnado? So, yes, I agree that they pretty much "talked around the question."
Comments