Recent quotes:
Socon Signaling
The Beltway Socon cannot see this obvious reality because he has allowed his shallow personal connections to Left Liberals to blind him to what the nature of what their true relationship should be. Namely one of open and continual personal enmity. His conflict with the Left Liberal is an existential one and one that has to extend to the personal level, as all politics, whether one chooses to admit it or not, are inherently personal.Rise of the alt-right: How mainstream conservatives’ obsession with purity fueled a new right-wing radicalism - Salon.com
The bracing critique of the conservative infotainment complex leveled by the dissident right is something to which most conservative elites simply have no answer. For every conservative leader like National Review’s Goldberg or David French who are willing to admit that the right has been fleecing its grassroots with fake medical cures and wild conspiracy theories, there are at least 10 more who are doing that exact thing or renting out their email lists to companies who do.The case against esoteric Trumpism
But the esoteric case for Trump is only possible because Trump is so obviously a buffoon, a bluffer, a kind of living cartoon. The only way people with a certain kind of dignity or intelligence can convince themselves that he would make a worthy president is through an elaborate form of self-delusion. The esoteric case for Trump is just that, a form of hypnosis.The GOP Won the Spending War While No One Was Looking — Paradox
The GOP's work to block Obama's spending should be cause for major celebration from serious fiscal hawks. Unfortunately, conservatives don't seem to even know that this has happened, much less how to celebrate these wins. The narrative of a feckless "Establishment" betraying the electorate is more potent than the facts on the ground.Of Anti-Vaxxers and 'Crunch-Cons' | The Daily Caller
Even as some prominent conservatives are falling prey to the madness, the proliferation of paranoia feeding it represents some decidedly unconservative developments. Blame social atomism and a declining respect for institutions and the social contract for some of this. People simply no longer believe the so-called “experts.” But this also says something about the triumph of selfishness and radical individualism. A society without a shared purpose or consensus — without a willing submission to the common good – is a society that ultimately gets more mandates. Liberty always requires virtue.
What's occurring is a subtle change to a major American institution. Heritage is not alone. To varying degrees, other think tanks face similar pressures. They will likely do less thinking and more politicking and self-promotion.
What conservatives with cash need to do is support writers, critics, literary magazines and organizations that share these values, whatever their individual political affiliation (though if they also happen to be conservative, great), as a way of reinvigorating literature, not conservatism, and whatever follows from that, follows.