CONSERVATISM SPEAKS OUT AT THE NEW YORK TIMES

Bill Kristol was considered to be the only conservative columnist at the New York Times…until he was fired. Then there were none…until his replacement arrived, a man by the name of Ross Douthat. Here are some excerpts from Mr. Douthat’s Op-Ed piece on the Restoring Honor Rally.

Mr. BECK GOES TO WASHINGTON. New York Times, Published: August 29, 2010

Just as Michael Moore, amid Democratic disarray, became the unlikely face of liberal opposition to George W. Bush, the mercurial, weepy, demagogic Beck has spent the last 18 months filling the void left by the institutional collapse of the Republican Party. And just as Moore’s influence diminished as the Democrats came roaring back, it seemed plausible that Beck would matter less and less as the midterms and then the 2012 election re-empowered actual Republican politicians.

This was a tent revival crossed with a pep rally intertwined with a history lecture married to a U.S.O. telethon — and that was just in the first hour.

There was piety — endless piety, as speaker after speaker demanded that Americans rededicate themselves to God.

[It was possible] to justify almost any interpretation of the event. A Beck admirer could spin “Restoring Honor” as proof that left-wing fears about the Tea Partiers are overblown: But a suspicious liberal could retort that all the God-and-Christ talk and military tributes were proof enough that a sinister Christian nationalism lurked beneath the surface.

Similarly, one could call the rally a gross affront to the memory of King, who presumably wouldn’t have cared much for Beck’s right-wing politics. But one could also call the day a strange, unlooked-for fulfillment of King’s prophecies: 47 years after the “I Have a Dream” speech, here were tens of thousands of white conservatives roaring their approval of its author.

A weepy demagogue. the Michael Moore of the Republican Party, surrounded by white folks roaring their approval. That’s the report from the Conservative desk of the New York Times.