Michael Stafford NAILS IT:
It’s a good time to be a conservative dissident reformer. Dissidents, long persecuted by the conservative power structure, have been vindicated by the 2012 elections. Their stinging critiques of modern conservatism’s flaws and their urgent calls for reform have been borne out by actual events.
Now, as the GOP regroups from its electoral debacle, public criticisms of conservative dogmas have expanded beyond a small circle of dissidents. Prominent conservatives are saying heretical things that would have gotten them tarred, feathered, and banished a few months ago.
The long night of strict doctrinal conformity- a period when dissidents were condemned for the slightest deviations in the equivalent of media show trials, purged, and then airbrushed out of old CPAC convention pictures- shows signs of ending.
The high priests of the conservative infotainment industry are both discredited and politically vulnerable. Their agenda has been exposed as a bankrupt fraud- a Potemkin village, a path to nowhere.
And with the conservative power structure reeling in disarray, thoughtcrime- on issues as diverse as immigration, same-sex marriage, economic policy, and taxes- is no longer being punished.
A political and intellectual liberalization is occurring- a veritable Conservative Spring.
