At borders

At borders today, a book called "Death of Conservatism" caught my attention and due to tiny size of the book, I ended up reading it all up at the table itself ( it was under the "thought-provoking" category). I don't like to be a promoter for any book-store, but I do think that I am more likely to find my book at borders than at Barnes and Nobles. That they have better coffee (Dean&Deluca) than the latter (Starbucks) strengthens this prejudice further. About half-way through reading the book, I realized that the author is one of the editors of New York Review of Books, a fact that was affirmed by the well-researched essays of the book. The writings of McCarthy, Burnham, Schlesinger and Disraeli were recollected in the book and were used to evaluate the movement conservatism. New York Review of books is very left leaning, and sometimes it even bothers me by its extreme support for Obama. But that apart, the writings from the journal or such books, form a very informative read. This book, for example pointed out the contradictions and shallowness of last few years of conservatism - its blind support to failed policies.

One interesting perspective the book presented, and the one that I am increasingly inclined to believe in is that the current conservatism is incapable of being constructive. What it represents today through the likes of Limbaugh and Palin is the destruction of institutions that we have in the society. The way this movement proceeded in the past few years or claims to proceed further, is by vandalizing our democratic establishments and destroying our values that they themselves claim to defend. As the book pointed, a new era always marks the end of a previous one. The end of conservatism and the new "Hope" could be another chapter in American history, a history that is full of self re-invention and re-evaluation. http://www.amazon.com/Death-Conservatism-Sam-Tanenhaus/dp/1400068843