In The New Yorker , a conservative goes a little too far toward the mushy middle. By Ramesh Ponnuru, NR senior editor onservatives have been arguing among themselves over the direction of conservatism from the start. Still, it s a little unusual to see an intra- conservative debate in The New Yorker . But that s the venue Fareed Zakaria, the managing editor of Foreign Affairs , has chosen. And now, Zakaria argues, they are the victims of their own success.
Conservatives still pine for great causes, but there are none left to fight for.
Zakaria is one of the sharpest young conservative intellectuals, and naturally he makes some good points. Conservatives have been too sour about the American condition for some years now. It has been hard for conservatives, and political activists of all stripes, to adapt to placid times. Conservatives need to understand that the revolts of the 60s did not come out of a clear blue sky, and that their results were not uniformly bad. His picture of modern conservatism is in any case overdrawn.