The Impending Conservative Resurgence

We briefly call attention to the following:

• A majority of independent voters now say, "Maybe he can, but so far he hasn't" concerning President Obama.
• Overtly conservative political tomes now dominate the nonfiction bestseller list, as they have consistently for a couple of decades, with the exception of Dubya's administration, when Bush Hatred drove the left at least to buy books if not read them.
• Serious essays about the impending implosion of the Obama administration, litanizing its extremely unpopular initiatives, are being published and discussed.

Meanwhile, what seems to be getting lots of press is Sam Tanenhaus's book The Death of Conservatism. Not having read the book but having been overwhelmed with reviews, we conclude that this book is the subject of buzz not because it is obviously correct--political conservatism has been around since the Enlightenment and has managed other periods of popular decline without extinction--but because its presaged outcome is so devoutly wished for by many readers.

In fact, our scant attention to his book makes us think that Tanenhaus is not predicting the death of conservatism as such but the short shelf-life of some of its most obvious spokespeople at present. Like most libs, what Tananhuas seems to dislike most passionately is not conservative ideology but conservative rhetoric, specifically people like Sarah Palin (always first on the list presently), Rush Limbaugh, Pat Robertson, Karl Rove and the Evil Dubya himself.

And so we wonder: what would political and religious life be like if people could distinguish between their reasoned disagreement with a position and their visceral, aesthetic dislike of a person?

We doubt that such will ever happen. But we do think voters are getting in touch with their gag reflex once more as they continue to be exposed to leaders of the left. And so we expect changing political outcomes in the next election cycle.