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PARTISAN REVIEW
There is a growing liberal-conservative alliance in general ideological
terms, and no less a growing Democratic-Republican continuum in mat–
ters of fundamental integrity to system survival and political legitimacy.
The rise of Muslim extremism with its reliance upon a worldwide network
of terrorism has made such a broad consensus within American life neces–
sary. The sense of a common enemy can be as strong a bonding device as
a belief in shared values. The task of the coming period will be to deter–
mine the extent to which this systemic consensus can hold, and in so doing
move beyond ideological cliches and conventions that dotted the late-twen–
tieth-century landscape.
If
it can,
The American Conservative
will remain
a useful, but minor irritant in the world of political opinion magazines.
If
the broad consensus that has been tenuously stitched together in the
post-September
11
terror bombing fails to hold, then look for Mr.
Buchanan or a more credible look-alike
to
emerge as a potent force in the
years to come.
It
is a well-known truism, and in this case, a solid truth, that
if and when fascism comes to the United States, it will be wrapped about
in an American flag. Nativism, anti-immigration legislation, fueling rival–
ries between Jews and Gentiles, blacks and whites, will be done with a cer–
tain cleverness. Jewish socialists like Norman Mailer will be celebrated for
their anti-Israeli stance as evidence of an absence of malice or bias. But the
essential ethnic and racial ingredients of such publications will not be too
far from the surface. Under such circumstances, it will take more than
faith, hope, and charity to survive a strange realignment of extreme reac–
tion and marginal radical figures. The high political fallout from frontal
assaults on American institutions and values will probably limit the dam–
age of the resurfaced "paleoconservatives." Perhaps the greater challenge
will be the need of this new democratic majority to continue carrying to
new levels vigorous debates on our institutions and values. For a consen–
sus that hardens into a bleak set of majoritarian platitudes that simply dries
up dissent and disguises basic differences is arguably a greater challenge to
the American system in the long run than anything advanced by Buchanan
and his frontal assault on our civilization and our culture.
POSTSCRIPT: The next four issues of
The American Conservative
con–
tinue the "tradition" of bigotry and bias established in its initial phase.
They include articles on "Bush's War for Oil," anti-Israeli material by
Buchanan himself on "Ariel Sharon's Shakedown," and the anti-immi–
gration theme with articles attacking the Refugee Act of
1980
and "The
'Nation of Immigrants' Myth." Whatever their merits, the themes are
entirely consistent with the first three issues .
