TBA: The Right Weighs In

Mark Hemingway of The Corner:

I'm deep in enemy territory right now at the Take Back America conference, organized by the Campaign for America's Future. It's basically CPAC for self-styled "progressives" — it's even being held in the same hotel as CPAC was a month ago. Anyway, I just got back from a spectacularly unilluminating and off-topic panel discussion about "The Crackup of Conservatism" wherein we were informed among other things that the progressive electoral strategy of "losing forward" isn't working. With that kind of earned wisdom, progressives will be storming the Bastille any day now.

That said, it was interesting to learn that progressives regard McCain as a real threat. One of the speakers at the panel was Cliff Schecter. Schecter began his speech by announcing "John McCain is a jackass," and closed his remarks by announcing "Conservativism today is theocracy, oligarchy and permanent war," so you know you can look forward to reviewing his other salient and scholarly opinions in his forthcoming book on McCain.

Encouraging words. This was precisely the tone of smug dismissiveness liberals used to strike in the 1960s and '70s, just prior to the era of conservative ascendency.